Best Portable Camping Kitchens

Review

The GCI Outdoor Master camp kitchen was obviously designed by people who go camping a lot.  It is the camp kitchen which has the most amount of usable workspace, plus is designed with nice features which make it practical to bring on camping trips.

The main thing to like about the GCI Outdoor Master is that it is portable considering how much counter space it has.  Folded, it is only 35 x 22 inches and nearly flat at 6 inches thick.  It’s easy to fit this into any car trunk.

To use the camp kitchen, just unfold and attach the lantern hook: it takes all of 2 minutes to set up. The countertop is 56 inches long with the sink closed.  With the sink open, the countertop is 42 inches, which is still big enough for your stove and to prep food.  There is also a side table at top which brings the total space to 70 inches – though the side table isn’t quite sturdy enough for chopping food on.

The frame is made out of steel and the countertop is heat-resistant aluminum, so the whole kitchen is quite sturdy.  There are a few hooks on the side tables for paper towels and other supplies.

As for downsides, there are only a few complaints with this camp kitchen: it would be nice to have some more hooks, though you could add your own utensil organizer under the table.  I also wish the sink was removable since it can get gross and sometimes the small drain might clog.

Review

The Coleman Pack-Away Portable Kitchen has a different design than most camp kitchens.  It consists of two parts: the first part is a folding tabletop.  It actually turns into a carrying case for everything, which is pretty cool.

The second part is a frame meant to hold your stove.  Instead of a tabletop, it has metal sliders on top.  The sliders can be moved closer or further apart to fit your stove.  This table-less design makes the kitchen station lighter and more compact.  It clips onto the main counter, so you could use the main counter by itself.

As for storage, there’s a mesh shelf underneath the main table as well as a lantern hook and utensil hooks.  They aren’t the sturdiest but will get the job done.

While the overall design of the Coleman Pack-Away Kitchen is cool, there are some issues. The biggest one is that the legs aren’t adjustable so it doesn’t always sit well on uneven ground.  Also note that the Amazon picture is from the old model: The newer model has four legs which don’t cross.

Review

The SylvanSport Over Easy is one of the coolest and most functional camping kitchens available.  It has almost every feature you could possible need to do serious cooking while at camp.

Setting up the camp kitchen is actually pretty easy: just open the case, unfold the kitchen, snap the legs in place, and unfold the second counter and sink.  The legs are adjustable for uneven ground.

Once open, you have two bamboo-topped countertops: one for your stove (32 x 18 inches) and another for food prep (38 x 18 inches).  This gives you a total of 70 inches of countertop space.  There’s a zip cabinet underneath with two shelves.  These shelves are actually sturdy enough to hold food without sagging.

There’s also awesome extras like a collapsible sink station, built-in windscreen, trash bag holder, paper towel holder, and tons of utensil storage. They really thought of everything down to the Velcro straps to hold the cabinet doors open. The only thing that’s lacking is a lantern hook.

Review:

Here’s another great camping kitchen station by GCI Outdoor.  Like their Master Kitchen, the Slim-Fold is very sturdy.  It can hold over 300lbs worth of supplies, which means you can use it to hold larger grills and not just gas camping stoves.  It’s very durable and tough, so expect it to last you through many camping trips.

There are also a lot of nice design features on the camp kitchen, like how it quickly folds out and takes all of 1 minute to set up. There are hooks on the fold-out shelves for paper towels, tongs, and other camp supplies.

The reason that the GCI Master Kitchen gets the #1 pick is because this one only has one countertop. Yes, the side tables do mean you have a lot of space – but they aren’t really meant for chopping food on.  You’ll have to do your food prep somewhere else and carry items to the side tables until you are ready to use them.   There’s also no lantern hook.  Other than that, this camp kitchen is near perfect and one of the top picks all-around.

Review:

If you are more concerned with organizing your camp kitchen than having countertop space, this is the best camp kitchen for you.  It is designed to be like a chuck box in that it holds everything you might need for cooking.

To set up the camp kitchen, all you need to do extend the telescoping legs and click the roll-top tabletop onto the box.  You then get a camp table which is 27×17 inches and 28 inches tall.  Unzip the front area and you’ll see there are 4 zippered compartments for holding your items.  One of the bags (the blue one) is insulated and works as a cooler bags.  It could also work as a sink.  The bags are actually pretty big and will hold around 14 cans of beer each.

The obvious downside is that the setup doesn’t have enough space for food prep and a stove.  However, if you already have another folding camp table, this station provides a surface for your stove plus tons of storage.

Review:

This exact same camp kitchen is sold by a lot of generic Chinese brands. For example, in addition to Vevor, Giantex and CampLand also sell it.

Since it's a generic brand, it's not surprising that the camp kitchen is flimsy.  However, for a cheap camp kitchen, it’s actually a pretty good solution.

The camp kitchen comes with multiple parts, so it takes a bit longer to set up than the other camping kitchens reviewed here – but it’s still very simple and easy.  Once set up, you get a nice amount of countertop space.  The main table (for your stove) is about 26 x 13 inches.  A fold-out second countertop is about 24 x 13 inches.  I love that the legs are adjustable so you can actually use this kitchen on uneven ground.

There’s a water-resistant “cabinet” that hangs underneath the side table.  It gives you two shelving units for storing food.  I personally find it annoying to zip and unzip the unit, but it’s good for keeping items when you leave camp.  There’s also a sturdier shelf plus a side table and lantern hooks.

One big downside which needs to be mentioned is that the second countertop isn’t very sturdy.  It should be fine for chopping soft foods like tomatoes but I wouldn’t want to put too much pressure on it. Maybe it’s best to chop up food on a sturdier table… There’s a built-in windscreen for the stove area but it’s pretty flimsy and I wouldn’t trust it in bad weather.

Review:

This roll-top kitchen by Alpine Mountain Gear (also called Mountain Summit Gear over at REI) is a simple but effective solution for cooking while camping.  I love that it has two separate countertop surfaces: one for your stove and another for food prep.  The first counter is approximately 26 x 14 inches and the other is just under 23 x 16 inches.  This gives you a total working space of 49 inches.

You can set up the tables in under two minutes.  A nice feature is that the legs on the fold-out counter are adjustable so it actually works well on uneven ground. The shelf underneath the main table provides some sturdiness as well as storage.  There isn’t anything else for storage though, so you’ll have to bring your own organizers.

The big downside of this camp kitchen is how flimsy it is.  You especially need to be careful with the latches on the legs.  It’s not too surprising that the materials are so weak considering that the kitchen station only weighs about 10lbs.