Beefeater Bugg Is it the best camping BBQ in Australia?

Say you're planning camping trips with your friends and family and want to look for a portable gas BBQ to add to your camping gear.

Or maybe you just want an outdoor BBQ for your patio to grill some yummy steaks.

Then you might be interested in the Beefeater Bugg Portable BBQ.

In this Beefeater Bugg review, we will go through the features of these BBQ grills, and the value it offers, ultimately helping you decide whether you should get them for your upcoming camping adventure.

What better way to spend time than spending it with friends and family?

The Beefeater brand has some nice BBQs in its repertoire, and the Beefeater Bugg BBQ is their entry-level product line-up for the portable BBQ market.

Even though we say "entry-level", it is still one of the best BBQs you can get in terms of product value and what it can offer.

Starting from an affordable $599 price tag, the Bugg BBQ is a popular choice amongst BBQ lovers all across Australia.

It's easy to put together, so you can get this bad boy up and running on your next camping BBQ trip with no worries.

Spend less time setting up the grill and more time enjoying your camping trip.

There are 2 models available, the Bugg and the Bigg Bugg BBQ - which, if you can tell from their names, differentiate in size.

You can also choose between 2 colors, namely Amber (or orange) if you prefer a more bright and chirpy look or the classier Black.

Psst... get the amber version for more personality!

The Bigg Bugg is, well, a bigger Bugg - with some improved features.

These portable BBQs have Beefeater's "Reliable Quartz Ignition Start" technology which means that it will ignite the first time, every time - without needing you to push any buttons or change batteries.

The Bugg BBQs come with removable shelves and you can opt to buy one with the optional trolley for the extra mobility and the spacious storage racks, or also the various optional accessories Beefeater offers.

The Bugg trolley stand makes moving the Bugg BBQ around so much easier...

Beefeater's "Quartz Ignition Start" technology guarantees an ignition the first time - every time.

The Bugg portable BBQ feels sturdy and has a compact size for easy storage and portability.

The Bugg and the Bigg Bugg BBQs are both made from similar materials, the only difference being the size - get the Bigg Bugg if you need the extra-large cooking surface.

Lifting the cast aluminium frame roasting hood feels nice, as they've somehow made it feel super easy to open and close but still have some weight to it.

The Bugg offers decent cooking space considering it being a portable BBQ.

Cooking surface split in half by the grated and char grill for flexible cooking.

Inside, the cooking surface is split in half by the split grill and flat griddle hot plate made of porcelain enamel coated cast iron.

The porcelain enamel-coated cast iron grills are rust and scratch-resistant.

Unless you don't mind carrying 20 to 40kg of the Bugg's weight yourself, you would want to get the optional trolley with durable wheels to easily move the Bugg anywhere you want it to go.

There's a slight difference in design between the Bugg's and the Bigg Bugg's wheels, though they both serve their purpose pretty well.

At the back of the unit, there's an LPG regulator at the back which perfectly coincides with where you would want to place the LPG - hidden away behind the BBQ stand cover at the back.

The wheels are made from heavy-duty materials and feel stable.

It's easy to find a replacement part for the Bugg BBQs.

At Joe's BBQs, we supply spare parts for the Beefeater Buggs, meaning you don't need to replace the whole unit but just the parts that need replacing.

This is rarely the case though, as those who do come in to get spare parts for the Bugg only require it 5-10 years after their initial purchase.

There's a regulator for you to attach to an LPG at the back of the BBQ unit.

The Bugg portable BBQ offers various features for an enjoyable outdoor BBQ grilling experience.

The hood comes with an integrated thermometer so that you can easily monitor the ambient temperature inside without you requiring to do any guesswork.

With this, you can avoid overcooking and instead start having delicious & juicy medium rare steaks - or well done if you're one of "those people"...

The hood has an integrated temperature gauge to monitor the cooking temperature inside the grill.

All you need to do to start up the BBQ is turn the rear knob anti-clockwise from high until you hear a click - generated from the quartz creating a spark, thus igniting the burner.

Beefeater's proprietary "Quartz Ignition Start" technology is symbolized by the lightning symbol - available across Beefeater products.

The "Quartz Ignition Start" symbol, on the knob at the back of the Bugg BBQ.

The Bugg portable BBQ comes with detachable side tables that you can use to place your plates and seasonings whilst grilling meat.

If you're not using it and would like to store your BBQ unit, you can detach the side shelves for more compact storage.

It's always nice to have extra room while you're cooking.

If you choose to buy the optional Bugg portable BBQ stand, it has a spacious storage area that you can use to store and wheels to move your BBQ grilling necessities.

The stand itself is not too heavy, about 10kgs - perfect for putting it in a car for a camping trip!

Storage space is always a nice to have, especially when you're out on a camping BBQ.

One of the many good things about the Bugg BBQ - it doesn't take much effort to clean it.

The outer side of the unit's roasting hood is coated in a material that makes it easy to clean with just a quick wipe.

Wipe with a wet cloth and you're good to go!

Camp Chef's Cast Iron Cleaner is a safe-to-use cleaning agent with a special blend of all-natural oils that break down sugars and food particles and will not damage the seasoned or enamel finish of your cast iron cookware.

For best results, follow up with some Camp Chef Cast Iron Conditioner to protect your iron with a fresh layer of seasoning.

If you're feeling lazy, however, you could also just turn the grills over while grilling your next piece of steak while the debris underneath burns off and scrub it off later with a steel scrubber.

Proper BBQ maintenance is the key to having long-lasting BBQ.

Both the Bugg BBQ models have a removable oil drip tray for easy cleaning, albeit with a different design.

The standard Bugg has an oil drip tray that's harder to access and remove - requires you to first remove the handle from behind which locks the tray and BBQ in place.

Bugg's oil tray is locked in place by a handle which you can pull from the back.

The Bigg Bugg apart from the size is an improved version of the original Bugg with several design differences.

The knobs of the Bigg Bugg are now located relatively to the side instead of the back of the grill for easier access.

Bigg Bugg's knobs are placed conveniently in a place where it's easy to reach - in contrast to the original Bugg's knobs placed at the back.

The drip tray is also more easily removable as it can be accessed from the front of the grill instead of the sides, and doesn't require you to unlock anything to remove it.

If you opted for the Bigg Bugg trolley, it also has an improved wheel design for easier movability and a useful condiment rack on the front of the BBQ.

The Bigg Bugg has an improved wheel design.

For the compact size it has, the Bugg portable BBQ feels like it has plenty of cooking area.

But if you want to cook food for a large group of friends, you can choose to get the Bigg Bugg for its extra-large cooking surface.

A unique feature that not a lot of portable grills can do is that you can cook on the Bugg with its hood up or down.

Grilling and searing a steak is also easy as the Bugg offers a total of 20MJs of heat and 33 MJs if you have the Bigg Bugg.

You can choose to use the grill for searing grill marks on a piece of meat, or the hot plate for teppanyaki-style cooking.

The side trays are handy whenever you need the space whilst cooking.

There's also the little hook attachments that you could use to hang your cooking utensils.

The Bugg BBQs have stainless steel burners which you can individually control - you can choose to cook on only one side of the BBQ!

This is useful if you want to cook a piece of meat but do not want to have it seared directly over the flame and instead do a low and slow roast, away from the heat.

The Bugg burners bring in 10MJ of heat each, individually controlled for more cooking flexibility.

You wouldn't want any grease fires in your BBQ, would you?

The burner design is shaped so that you have evenly distributed heat across the BBQ and prevent any flare-ups - eliminating the risk of a grease fire.

The Bugg BBQs use bottled gas (LPG) by default but you could also choose to convert it into a natural gas unit.

The Bigg Bugg burner brings up 16MJs of heat - a force to be reckoned with.

The Beefeater Bugg series is a great BBQ to have on your camping trips or on your outdoor patio.

It comes at a great price with a lot of things to offer.

Certainly is the best BBQ in the entry-level space, hence why it's so popular.

You can choose to get the normal-sized Bugg if you're just hanging out with a small group of friends or the Bigg Bugg if you need to cook for a large family depending on your needs and circumstances.

By choosing to cook with the lid up or down, it allows you to have BBQ the way you want, sear or roast - up to you!

It is super easy to use, has a great size to price ratio, has capable stainless steel burners, rust and scratch-resistant cast iron grill plate and griddle, an option to switch to natural gas, and overall a great cooking experience.

One of the best portable BBQs in Australia and we highly recommend the Beefeater Bugg BBQs for your camping trip.

The Beefeater Bugg series is a great BBQ to have on your camping trips or on your outdoor patio.

If you'd like to ask in more detail regarding the Beefeater Buggs, you can visit us in-store or call the helpful and friendly staff at Joe's Barbecues at (02) 9737 9799.