Bang for your buck 

This grill is the most expensive one we’ve purchased for our Grillaways, and honestly, it’s for good reason. People might look at the price tag and think it’s costly for a little grill, but it is worth every penny. When you consider that it can replace 5-6 other appliances in your home, it starts to seem cheap when you realize what you’re getting. 

Packaging 

The box itself has nice branding and design on the outside. It is very clear on what is included in the box so you know what to expect before opening it. I like how the box very clearly states that it's heavy and you need a team lift so no one hurts itself. Because of the disclaimer messaging, I thought it was going to be heavy, but it wasn’t that bad. While the grill itself is very sturdy and high quality, it is easy to move around and manage once outside of the box. 

The grill is packed away in customized Styrofoam protecting all the parts and pieces. It also had a nice protective layer around the grill grate. The Styrofoam was also customized to carefully pack in all the extras that came with this grill. The Ninja we got did come with two starter kits of wood pellets, the scoop for the pellets, the air fryer basket, a built-in thermometer, the drip pan, and a Quick Start guide that supplies you with 15 recipes. All a very nice touch and allows for you to SEE the value in the product from the get-go. 

Set up

This grill comes almost completely assembled for you. Aside from a few handles for the sides and some extras to take advantage of all it’s features and functionalities, it is pretty much ready to be used the minute you slide it out of the box. 

The handles were incredibly easy to put on. They already have the screws inside the holes where they need to be, and it supplies the tool you will need to tighten them into place. It doesn’t get any more simple than that. The handles are made of plastic which is fantastic while you are cooking because you can touch and move the grill without worrying about burning yourself. 

The design is sleek and modernized. From the look of the tech, this thing is not an eyesore. 

Size 

This grill grill space itself is a good size. You could easily fit 4-5 good-sized burgers and 2-3 huge steaks on the grill. While that is typical for a portable size grill, what is impressive about this machine is the height. You can fit some massive pieces of meat in here, and with the functionality to smoke and air fry that is a huge benefit. 

This grill could easily handle a large brisket, chuck roast, or an entire chicken. The air frying basket is also large allowing you to fit at least 15 wings inside if not more. I have an air fryer at home that I thought was a good size until I saw the basket on this baby. 

Most portable grills are good for a few people but this thing could feed an entire family picnic. 

Grilling / Usage 

When I tell you this little grill changed our lives, I mean it! We are now addicted to smoking meat. That BBQ bark is no joke!  

Because we are a steak seasoning company, we stuck to the two functions that we felt mattered the most for our audience - smoking and grilling. This is a multifaceted versatile machine that can do anything from air frying to dehydrating but today our review is going to be very focused on the smoking and grilling elements. 

Because the pellets came with the grill it was a no-brainer that we had to try smoking our meat. We used the robust blend of pellets, and what’s amazing is that you only need one scoop for an entire smoke session. Having used wood fire ovens before I was impressed with how long these wood pellets burned, needing very little to gain big results. It makes those starter packs they give you look even nicer when you realize you’ll get at least 6-8 smokes out of them! 

I am sure most people look at this grill and think “oh those wood pellets don’t compare to the actual wood I use in my MacDaddy smoker”. While I can agree there is nothing that compares to firing up a smoker and making it an all-day activity, I think any pitmaster would be surprised and HATE to admit that these little pellets do some WERK in a very short period. 

We had a 2” ribeye and smoked it for 45 minutes. The smoking couldn't be easier. Once you pour the pellets into the side compartment, you hit the fire button on the front panel and set a timer or pick a preferred temperature. Once you hit start, it’s off to the races. We smoked at 250 deg and it took about 7-10 minutes to “ignite” before we put our ribeye on. 

I used a timer for our first smoke, but the built-in thermometer is clutch, and since I have learned to just leave the thermometer inside the steak the entire time it’s smoking and set the temperature you want it to get to. The grill will automatically turn off and stop smoking once the meat temperature is met. 

Our technique for our ribeye was a reverse sear to get that charcoal flavor to come across. Many people on our team said it looked so good after the smoke they just wanted to eat it as is, but we HAD to try the grilling function too. 

With the smoker off we took our steak out, set the grill setting to high, and let it heat up. This took about 7 minutes so the steak was sitting and resting during that time. I considered that my rest period and did not let it set any longer after the grill. 

The grill itself got very nice and hot, it easily created grill marks on the steak and since it was already at temperature we only left it on the grill for about 1 minute on each side. I was impressed it was able to get grill marks in such a short time. 

The grill function took the steak to the next level, slightly charring the fat that had perfectly rendered from the smoke. Keep in mind, that this is an electric grill! I can promise you that if I gave this final ribeye to any chef in the world and asked them what it was cooked on, not one of them would say it was an electric portable grill! 

When you grill you can also set a timer, and this grill does expect for the lid to be closed to function properly for all settings. There was a lot of engineering that went into this and the lid being closed is just one more controlled element that helps you gain the best possible results. 

The drip pan was huge and secure. It caught everything that dripped, which was very little since the grate captures most of the drippings. 

At first, we were worried that we overcooked the steak, but it melted in our mouths. Because the smoke was low and slow it tenderized the meat more than others we did after that came out medium rare. It was almost more like a brisket than a ribeye in the end and we were not complaining! 

We started smoking inside and obviously, it filled the room with smoke so we moved it outside. The smell is FANTASTIC, but if you are going to use that feature I would recommend doing it outdoors where you can barely tell smoke is coming out. 

The grilling feature we used indoors and there was barely any smoke at all. Great some anyone, but especially someone in a small apartment who isn't allowed gas grills. This grill even advertises that it can be used to cook and stored outdoors year-round…even though it’s electric! 

Move over George Forman, there’s a new grill in town! 

Cleaning 

I bet you’re waiting for me to say something bad about this grill, but I just can’t. 

The cleaning of this grill is amazing too. The grill grate is nonstick and it captures all the drippings. The entire thing is easily removed from the grill and can be cleaned right in your kitchen sink. 

The drip pan does its job and when smoking all the pellets turned to ash so there wasn’t anything to be cleaned up there either. 

Because you cook everything with the grill lid closed there really wasn’t any spatter at all. Often grills will get grease on the sides that needs to be wiped down, but not this one. 

After all was said and done it looked like it had just come out of the box. 

Overall

Run, don’t walk on your way to buy this grill. For those people who think they aren’t chefs and aren’t any good on the grill…this is your magic wand! You can become a pitmaster with your eyes closed and impress even the best chefs with the results that come off of this grill. 

We do a lot of Grillaways, but I think this winner will certainly be the luckiest one yet! 

My husband loved the trial steak so much that we used it for this review we took the grill home that night and made another one because he was that mind blown! Don’t take my word for it, taste the difference yourself.