The Best Camping Kitchens for a Better Campfire Cookout

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the camping kitchen!

Anyone who’s spent a weekend in the great outdoors understands the pure bliss of enjoying a campfire meal. There’s nothing better than slicing up veggies on a messy picnic table, roasting meat over an open flame, and chowing down by the fire pit. Humanity has been cooking this way for thousands of years, but it never goes out of style.

Whipping up a feast at camp doesn’t come without its stressors, though. You can’t easily control the temperature of a roaring fire (especially with inclement weather), serving utensils can be tough to find in the bottom of your overloaded gear tote, and you only have as much table space as you can carry.

Portable camping kitchens give you an area for meal prep, cooking, and cleanup. With a dedicated space for your food, camping stove, knives, pots, and pans, you have everything you need to work your magic, even if the nearest actual kitchen is hundreds of miles away.

What to Consider When Buying Kitchen Gear for Camping

Camping kitchens come in many shapes and sizes. A basic model will give you a simple, flat surface for chopping and mixing, but more expensive kitchens offer multi-tiered prep stations with space for storing food and a stove between uses, hooks for kitchen utensils or a lantern, spice racks, and built-in windscreens for a more consistent flame. If you’re thinking about picking up a camping kitchen, I’d recommend keeping the following factors in mind.

COOKING SURFACE

A camping kitchen is, above all else, a place to prepare and cook your food. What that means may vary from kitchen to kitchen, though. Some may give you just enough room to chop ingredients before bringing it over to the campfire. The best of them give you plenty of space to prep multiple dishes, a place to set up a camping stove, and some storage space for gear and supplies.

If you’re going to make room in your pack for a camping kitchen, I think you should always bring one with at least two surfaces — one for food prep and one for the stove.

PORTABILITY

Of course, there’s always a push and pull between bringing the best possible gear and packing light enough to avoid overloading your car. I love the idea of using a large, three-tier camping kitchen, but it isn’t always possible to bring one when you have to get four people (and all their stuff) into one vehicle.

Always keep an eye on a camping kitchen’s dimensions, both when assembled and when packed. Most kitchens can either collapse or break down into parts to make them easier to carry around. I specifically look for kitchens with roll-top surfaces, which are made from connected slats that you can roll up like mat, saving you a lot of space in a tightly packed trunk.

No camping kitchen is especially small or light, so you should only bring one along if you plan to set up camp pretty close to your car. That said, it still pays to look for a relatively lightweight model when your vehicle is overstuffed and the campsite is 75 feet away. There’s a give and take between portability and durability. A stainless steel kitchen will be able to endure bad weather, but it’s also heavier than plastic. An aluminum camp kitchen often provides a happy medium that’s light, but able to stick out through a windy, rainy trip.

STORAGE

You can never get enough prep space at a campsite cook station, so I love anything that frees up your prep and cooking surface, like shelves for cookware organization, racks for drying dishes, cubbies for food storage, and hooks for important utensils. Having designated spaces for necessities like utensils, cookware, and ingredients makes it easy to find what you need and keep your prep area clear so you can whip up a masterpiece.

How We Picked The Best Camping Kitchens

Relying on years of experience cooking stovetop and wood-fired meals at campsites across Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Washington, I scoured the web to find camping kitchens from reputable brands, and selected the most practical, packable, and durable options around. I cross-checked my selections with user reviews on REI, Bass Pro Shops, Amazon, and Walmart to make sure we only recommended kitchens that actually made campsite cooking easier.

When the cooler is full of trout from a long day of fly fishing, you’ll be stoked to filet your catch and fire up dinner with Cabela’s camping kitchen. Its large center surface (39- by x 20-inches), left side table, and right camping stove rack provide plenty of space to prepare dinner for an RV full of moochers. and the adjustable legs are clutch for uneven surfaces. At 83-inches long unpacked, it’s the largest kitchen on our list.

Cabela’s calls this a “deluxe” camping kitchen because it’s loaded with extra features and accessories, including as a swing-out windscreen that separates the cooking and prep surfaces, a post to hang your lantern, a spice rack, a zippered fabric food pantry, a side-mounted towel rack, and a removable dishwashing bin.

Despite the size and extra frills, it’s surprisingly compact: Everything folds into the middle prep table and slides into the included zip carry bag with a handle for storage. Plus, its adjustable legs are clutch for uneven surfaces and short or tall chefs. With a portable kitchen like this, I could cook outside every day.

Key Specs

Material	Aluminum
Weight	36 lb
Packed Dimensions (LxWxH)	41.5 x 6.7 x 21.9 in.

Some camping kitchens are bulky and difficult to set up, but Mountain Summit Gear makes a compact roll top kitchen that’s incredibly easy to put together and stow away. Simply slide this 47- by 32-inch table out of the carrying case, set up the legs and side table, unroll the other two surfaces, snap everything together, and voilà — you’ve got a sturdy, but lightweight camping kitchen with two work surfaces and a storage shelf.

I’ve noticed that you have to be careful about spills with this kitchen: If you accidentally knock over a drink sitting on the top shelf, liquid will drip between the slats down and onto whatever you’re storing on the bottom shelf. Even with that little caveat, it’s an excellent, lightweight prep station.

Key Specs

Material	Aluminum
Weight	10 lb, 3 oz
Packed Dimensions (LxWxH)	19.7 x 4.3 x 31.5 in.

Simple, affordable, and lightweight at just under 19 pounds, this cook station is perfect for any outdoor event where you need a little extra serving or cooking space. GCI’s “Slim-Fold” collapsing design allows the table to break down to the size of a large beach chair between uses, which makes it easy to carry and store.

This camping kitchen boasts a powder-coated steel frame for rigidity, an aluminum countertop that’s strong enough for a heavy camp stove (up to 48-pounds), and a lower rack that’s the ideal spot for your dish bin or cooler. Plus the table edges are littered with extra holding features for cups, wine glasses, utensils, a garbage bag, and a roll of paper towels.

Key Specs

Material	Steel, aluminum, plastic
Weight	18.9 lb
Packed Dimensions (LxWxH)	34.6 x 21 x 3.7 in.

Not enough cargo room for a huge, multi-level camping kitchen? Camp Chef’s Sherpa table saves space by doubling as luggage. The cooler-size table comes with four zippable storage tote bags that you can store in the space underneath the cooking surface.

Pack food, cookware, cleaning supplies, and other gear in the four colored bags, stack them inside the Sherpa, and toss the whole kit in your vehicle. When you get to camp, pull the Sherpa out, extend the legs, roll out the single 27- by 17-inch tabletop, and your storage box transforms into a prep station for drink-mixing and meal-prepping.

Key Specs

Material	Aluminum, canvas
Weight	13 lb
Packed Dimensions (LxWxH)	15.8 x 27 x 18.3 in.