8 Best Indoor Grills for Apartments, Tested (2026)

Two 14-inch plates come in the box, one ridged and one flat, and they swap without tools: a grill for steak night, a griddle for Sunday pancakes. That is not a gimmick we expected to use much. It is the reason this one stays out on the counter instead of going back into a cupboard, because a single-purpose appliance has to be very good to survive a small kitchen.

The 500°F ceiling is the highest in this group alongside the Foodi, and it is the number that decides whether you get a crust or a grey band. The perforated mesh lid is the smoke answer, and we rate it more as a splatter guard than as a sealed hood — with the lid down on a fatty burger some smoke still finds its way out, which is the price of the extra heat. Heat spread well enough across the plate that we stopped shuffling food around looking for the hot spot.

Day to day it is the easiest of the bunch to live with: plates and mesh lid lift off and go in the dishwasher, and at 7.8 pounds it moves from counter to cupboard in one hand. It costs more than the Hamilton Beach and does not beat it on smoke, so the case for buying it is heat and that second plate — which, if you cook pancakes and steaks in the same week, is a case we find convincing.

At 21.5 pounds and 17 inches deep, this is not a grill you put away after dinner. It is the only thing here that also air fries, roasts, bakes, broils and dehydrates, and in an apartment with one free outlet that consolidation is worth more than any single function it performs.

The grill side works on the same principle as the rest of the Foodi line: 500°F air moving hard over a 10-inch grate, which chars the surface without a hot plate pressing on the food. The 4-quart crisper basket and 6-quart pot are what make it a second appliance in the same shell — the basket roasts the vegetables on the nights the grate is not doing the protein, which is the kind of juggling a two-burner kitchen cannot otherwise manage.

Our reservation is size, and it is not a small one. The Foodi wants a dedicated corner and it is the most expensive thing in this group, so it earns its place only if you are genuinely short of appliances rather than short of space. For two or three people it is the most capable machine here; in a studio with a two-foot prep strip, the Sizzle grills in less depth and 14 pounds less weight.

A clamshell is the least glamorous way to cook indoors and the cheapest way to get dinner for four with almost nothing to wash up. The George Foreman presses both sides of the food at once, so a chicken breast that needs turning in a pan does not need turning here, and the plates release and go straight into the dishwasher. For a household that grills on weeknights rather than weekends, that combination is hard to argue with.

Sixty square inches is the stated surface, and four servings is optimistic unless two of them are children; three decent burgers or two chicken breasts is closer to what fits. The 1800 watts get it hot quickly, the coating is PTFE-free, and the plates are built to go through the dishwasher rather than be hand-washed after every meal.

The trade is control. There is no thermostat, so the heat is whatever the element gives you, and a sandwich will brown before the cheese melts if you walk away. Watch the first couple of things you cook, keep a thermometer handy for thick cuts, and the fixed heat stops mattering. What we noticed is how little thought it takes once you know that.

At 2.8 pounds with a 41.71-square-inch surface, this is the one that fits where the others do not: a shelf above the fridge, the gap beside the microwave, the corner of a counter that doubles as a prep station. The footprint is 9.4 by 5.78 inches, narrow enough to stand beside the kettle.

It heats faster than anything else here, mostly because there is less of it to heat, and the plates are shallow enough that a chicken breast stays in contact instead of curling away. Frozen burgers cook through without much fuss. The drip tray is small and the slope does the work, so keep half an eye on it.

There is no temperature dial — it runs hot from the moment the light goes off — so thin cuts and sandwiches need watching, and a thermometer covers anything thick. That is the trade for a grill with one switch and no learning curve, and it is why this one gets used on the nights nobody wants to think.

Chefman’s answer to smoke is a tray of water under the heating element: fat and juices drop past the pyramid plate into the water rather than onto a hot surface, and what comes off them goes into the water instead of into the room. It is a simple idea and the piece of engineering here we keep coming back to.

The cooking surface is 15 by 9 inches, larger than the plate on our top pick, and the whole thing is only 3.3 inches tall — low enough to slide onto a shelf or under a cabinet lip rather than claim permanent counter. Heat adjusts from low to high, and at 5.4 pounds it moves without a grunt.

Twenty-one inches of width is the catch. On a two-foot stretch of counter it leaves no room for a cutting board, and the open plate means splatter goes where it likes because there is no hood to close. If your kitchen has a long run and a window nearby, that trade looks far better than it does in a galley.

Our hesitation is the long run rather than the first month. The coating on a grill this inexpensive is the part that decides whether you still like it in two years, and that is the one thing we cannot yet judge. Buy it for the surface area and the water tray, and treat the hooded models as the safer bet if smoke is your main worry.

The lid closes on a floating hinge that rides up over thick food, so a stuffed chicken breast or a doorstop sandwich gets pressed evenly instead of squashed at one end. Ninety square inches is a real surface, 1200 watts heats it quickly, and the whole thing weighs five pounds.

Then you come to wash it. The plates do not lift off — only the drip tray goes in the dishwasher — so cleanup is a wipe-down while the unit is still warm, and that is the difference between this and the Searing Grill in daily use. We found it fine on a sandwich night and tedious after burgers for six.

The six-burger claim is optimistic unless they are sliders; four quarter-pound patties is closer to the truth. If you clean as you go and mostly cook for two, it is a good grill at a fair price. If the dishwasher is non-negotiable, watch which Hamilton Beach you are clicking on, because the two look alike and behave nothing alike.

This is the grill people buy for Korean barbecue at home, and the design explains why: the cord detaches so the unit can sit at the centre of the table, the handles and base stay cool enough to move it, and the variable knob goes low enough to keep cooked pieces warm while the next batch goes on.

The cooking is even and the grill marks are real — 1300 watts through a nonstick plate that gets properly hot. It comes apart for cleaning, the drip tray is dishwasher-safe, and the whole thing is light enough to carry from counter to table and back again.

Smoke is the honest caveat. This is an open grill with no hood, and it will fill a small room if you sear fatty meat at the top of the dial; a little water in the tray helps and a window or a fan helps more. It is also a small surface at a premium price, so four people will be cooking in relays.

Where it earns its keep is the table itself. Cooking and eating in the same place, with everyone reaching in, is the reason to own this one rather than a bigger countertop unit, and it is a pleasure no hooded grill here can offer. Buy it for that, not for capacity.