A five-star review: the Campingaz Party Grill 400 CV

One of Campingaz's largest camping stoves, the Party Grill 400 CV is designed for feeding large groups of people and features a variety of cooking options, including a grill plate and plancha, as well as the lid inverting to form a wok. Campingaz is an industry-leading manufacturer of camping gas stoves, gas cylinders and camping accessories, with many of its products available to be bought on the Out & About Shop.

What a brilliant piece of kit. After a summer of use separately by myself and a colleague, we couldn’t fault this new Party Grill from Campingaz.

In fact, this Party Grill – the name is a bit of a misnomer as it is more than just a grill and it will be used far more often than just the occasional garden party – does more than we expected from it.

Rather than lumping around a twin-burner grill and hob as we normally do, we opted to only take this on our summer of camping trips and festivals. We’re a family of four so it was quite a risk to head off with this as our only cooking system.

However, it not only coped with simple tasks like boiling the kettle, cooking a pasta dish, grilling sausages, bacon, eggs, etc, for breakfast, but also for larger meals like a stir fry (by using the lid as a wok). It can even cook a pizza although we didn’t attempt that this summer. Get it out of the box and pack it, the legs and a gas cannister or two into the included carry bag and you’re ready to go.

It’s not the lightest at just shy of 5kg without the gas cannisters but it is reasonably compact when its legs have been removed – they just twist off.

On site, just screw back in the three legs, find a level surface – it will function perfectly well on grass and, if it is windy, pour some water into the base pan to stabilise it.

Then just select which surface you prefer to cook on, use the piezo gas lighter and get cooking. The six-minute boil time on full flame is impressive but what impressed us more was how quick the griddle surface heated up and how even that heat was. Two eggs, six veggie sausages and four vegan bacon rashers were all on there at once and all cooked to perfection at the same time.

If you want to stir fry, just flip the lid and use that, while, if it is a pot of boiling water or kettle to boil, just use the grill top.

The fact all the cooking waste drips into the same base as the water that is used to stabilise it, means when it comes to cleaning up, it is a cinch. Better still that non-stick griddle requires minimal cleaning – brilliant when you’re at a festival.

The CampinGaz Party Grill 400 CV is a brilliant piece of camping kit. It has already won its place as the only camping cooking system we need and comes with us on every trip. It is so simple to use and set up and packs away easily in its bag. The griddle really is easy to clean and heats up remarkably quickly.

Rating: 10/10

Our favourite feature: the griddle is easy to clean and heats up quickly

Our least favourite feature: this stove is heavier than expected