REVIEW – If there’s one thing that goes along with summer, it’s grilling outside. But what if you want to grill on the go—at a park, a beach, or while tailgating? You want to cook for a short period, but you don’t want to have to wait around all day for the grill to heat up or cool down. The Nature Grill has all that covered, with a short grilling time and fast cool down that makes it truly portable.
What is it?
The Nature Grill is an eco-friendly grill with adjustable heat control that is truly portable.
What’s included?
- Carrying bag
- Outer bowl
- Stainless steel inner bowl
- Ignition plate
- Charcoal container
- Grill grid (anodized aluminum)
- Grill grid lifter
- Instruction booklet
Design and features
My Nature Grill came with all of the “what’s included” items plus their fuel gel, a bag of charcoal, batteries and a lighter, so I was good to go right away. The instructions are very clear. The fuel gel goes on the ignition plate, and then you light it. We had trouble seeing the flame coming off the gel at first, and then we had to add more gel. But once we got past that issue, we put the little charcoal container on top and cranked up the built-in fan that allows you to control the heat. The coals were ready in about 5 minutes, but again, due to our inexperience, we didn’t know for sure if it was hot enough, and we lost some grill time because of it.
For our first Nature Grill experience, we planned asparagus in bacon and chicken kebabs. It wouldn’t all fit on the grill at once, so we decided to sort of do the meal in two sessions. The asparagus wrapped in bacon was first, and it grilled up quite quickly. The instructions say the grill surface will season over time, so we just brushed some canola oil on it to prep it and we really didn’t have a huge sticking problem. The Nature Grill doesn’t get as hot as my full-sized propane grill, but it sizzled up that bacon and asparagus in fairly short order. (If you are used to cooking on a propane grill, you’ll want to adjust your cooking times for this grill).
Next, we put some kebabs on. We struggled a bit with this, because I think we waited a bit too long to put the food on the grill and we had to finish the kebabs on my propane grill. The charcoal container is very small, so if you are planning on cooking multiple courses on the grill, keep in mind that you have about 40 minutes of cooking time before you have to start over with new charcoal. Probably, you would have more time if you cooked at a lower temperature, but in our case, we cooked everything with the dial on a medium setting. Everything was delicious, though, despite our dual-grill situation with the kebabs.
For my next Nature Grill experience, I had friends over, and I’d picked up some steak tips at the store, so I made kebabs again, only this time with sirloin. I paid close attention and got my food on early and was easily able to do two rounds of grilling for the four of us. They were great and we could all sit outside and enjoy ourselves around the grill as our food cooked because the Nature Grill doesn’t make very much smoke. I’m not sure why that is, whether it’s the design of the grill or the fan or the fact that it uses very little charcoal, but I did check the website and it just said that the Nature Grill makes “minimal smoke (safe for every balcony).” So do what you will with that information.
I could easily see bringing the grill to the beach or for a picnic because you could pre-pack the charcoal and fuel and pop the whole thing in the included carrying bag. Since the grill runs out of fuel in less than an hour (and I think if you were done cooking, you could crank the grill up to high and make it finish quicker), you can pack it up as soon as it’s reasonably cool.
I grilled some pesto chicken thighs for my third try with the Nature Grill. These were so delicious and flavorful and were done in no time. However, this batch did stick quite a bit to the anodized aluminum grill grid. I think this happened because it was pesto and there is cheese in there, plus the olive oil in the pesto has a low flash point. The Nature Grill got pretty messed up and had some chunks of things stuck to it that my wire grill brush didn’t budge. I wound up giving it a soak with some dishwasher pods and did some scrubbing. The seasoning is starting to form, and I’m hopeful that it will continue and help keep things from sticking in the future. The inner bowl was starting to collect oil, so I took that out and wiped it and popped it in the dishwasher per the directions.
The grill made some nice grill marks and if you flip over the grill grid you can use the other side like a griddle. I did some bacon and onions on it just to test it and it worked great. I would hesitate before I did any batters on the griddle side because of the holes.
There are a few reasons why I’m quite fond of the Nature Grill. First, it uses very little charcoal so it’s very efficient. I also like that you can adjust the heat with the fan function as opposed to trying to adjust the height of a hot grill surface. The fan allows you to get cooking faster since it helps the charcoal get going in a hurry. It’s also quite light to carry (under 7 lbs) since there are no cast iron parts. The only real complaint I have is that the grill grid can be difficult to clean, but perhaps with seasoning that will change. I also find the price point high at $299. It’s a quality product but I would look for a sale if you want to invest in one of these!
What I like about the Nature Grill
- Portable
- Adjustable heat due to fan
- Efficient
What needs to be improved?
- Grill grid can be challenging to clean
- Pricey
Final thoughts
Overall, I quite like the Nature Grill. It’s a great way to enjoy a charcoal grill when you are tailgating, picnicking, or just out and about on an adventure.
Price: $299.00
Where to buy: Nature Grill
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Nature Grill. Nature Grill did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
