Best BBQ tool set [UK]: Pick from the top BBQ accessories

With so many outstanding products available, choosing a BBQ tool set to occupy the top spot on our best’ list wasn’t a quick and easy task, let me tell you. After a fair bit of deliberation with some friends and colleagues, we did finally come to an agreement that the top spot should be taken by the set that offers the right balance of affordability, a good selection of useful tools, nice presentation factor, and of build quality, of course.

Coming in a modern and stylish, aluminium storage case (meaning it is ideal for a portable charcoal bbq or portable gas bbq too), this is a BBQ tool set that will make any wannabe outdoor chef smile from ear to ear. Excellent quality, combined with a great selection of tools, make this one our winner and best bbq tool set for 2021.

With these factors in mind, we were led to our final decision on the matter, and present to you the overall winner: The Romanticist 20-piece barbecue tools set.

This is one of few 20-piece sets by this brand, with each being a slightly different price, and containing a few different tools, and while all of those sets are great in their own right, we selected this particular one as we thought it contained the most practical tools.

This set consists of a spatula, fork, tongs, cleaning brush, basting brush, an extra brush head, 4 kebab skewers, 8 corn holders, and a digital thermometer. All are made from premium stainless steel, with black rubber handle parts, are incredibly strong, and look fantastic. What I like most about this set is the grill cleaner. We’ve hammered ours and it’s superb at getting the grill into some resemblance of a surface worth eating from.

It’s really nice and rigid with a much longer handle than I was previously used to. This is a super upgrade on both counts. Firstly my hand doesn’t get burnt, secondly, I can push as hard as I want to clean off the grill. Sounds trivial but does make a decent difference.

After that, the two most outstanding pieces for me were the spatula and the thermometer. The spatula is not just your regular design for flipping burgers, although you can certainly use it for that, it has a very innovative design that allows it to be used as a cutting tool. On one side you will find a knife edge for cutting, and on the other, a tenderising edge, and if that wasn’t enough, there’s a built-in bottle opener right before the handle, so the chef can have himself a well-earned cold one (or two) without having to leave the grill.

The thermometer is an excellent addition to any BBQ tool set, and one that isn’t all that common. When cooking pork, or chicken, it is really important to go by internal temperature rather than by time or what the meat looks like, if you want to keep it juicy while still being safe to eat, and a good thermometer is the only way to do that.

They do end up looking beaten up but that just adds to how well they’ve stood up and overall I am really pleased with this bbq tool set and I’ve also used it in my fire pit too.

Coming in a close second place is Grilljoy’s 25-piece BBQ grill tool set, which offers good value for money at its current price, but sadly fell short on a few small issues.

First off, this set contains a lot of tools for the money you pay for it, including a multi-purpose spatula, tongs, 40cm fork, kebab skewers, basting and cleaning brushes, corn holders, and more.

It also includes a meat thermometer, meat injector (complete with needle), salt and pepper shakers, and 2 grill matts. The grill matts are an excellent addition, and are very heat retardant, so you can lay them down on the grill and then place smaller items that would normally fall through the bars, like vegetables and prawns, on top.

Like the Romanticist set, these tools are made from stainless steel to stop them rusting prematurely, and feel nice and strong. You can choose to buy this set with either silver or black handles, and personally I think the silver looks better, but both sets will arrive in a silver metal case.

So, so far so good, and you might be asking why we wouldn’t choose a set that contains more tools, for a lower price, as our number one. Well, it’s because there were a few quality control issues that niggled me in the set we got our hands on. They weren’t deal breaking, or anything like that, but I did notice them and that’s why this set is second place instead of the top spot.

For example, inside the case, there were some loose threading in a couple of the holders for the tools, and on close inspection, one side of the tongs was slightly longer than the other. Like I said, small things, but there were enough of them to be noticeable, and if I had the choice, I’d pay the extra ten pounds for the Romanticist BBQ tool set instead. If little things like that don’t bother you though, this is an excellent deal.

If you prefer a BBQ tool set that looks a bit more traditional, or you just don;;t want to spend more than twenty pounds on your cooking accessories, Mosfiata’s product might interest you.

Now, I understand that pure stainless steel tools, or a combination of steel and plastic may be the better bet for maintenance free longevity, but I still have to say that I prefer the classic look, and feel, of the oak handles on these tools. I know they won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but personally, I like them.

The tool heads are all made from 430 food grade stainless steel, and are very solid, especially considering the low price of this set. What’s more, they all have nice, long handles, so you can avoid any accidental burns on your hands or clothes.

I like that instead of a carry case, you get a free BBQ apron with this set. It has holders in the front of it for all your main tools, and is made of waterproof 10A oxford cloth, designed to be highly durable and hard wearing.

There is a BBQ grill mat thrown in for good measure too, and if you’ve never used one, you are missing out. These mats allow you to cook much smaller things on the grill without anything getting burned, so the inclusion of one in a cheap set like this comes as a nice surprise.

Without some maintenance, wood will eventually start to rot, weaken, break, etc. so if you are not the best at that kind of thing, you will probably be better off with another product. On the other hand, with a little TLC, these could last you a while and prove to be a very good value.

Home Complete’s BBQ tool set is another fantastic looking product, with shiny stainless-steel tools, complete with the brand’s name emblazoned on them, albeit in a very classy and tasteful way.

These are very well-built BBQ tools, and every single piece feels as sturdy and durable as you can get, I couldn’t even bend the tongs very much at all, and I was purposefully trying to do so with all my strength.

Like most of these sets these days, everything comes in an aluminium case, a material chosen, no doubt, for the fact that it provides strength while remaining lightweight, and also highly resistant to rust.

I really don’t have anything bad to say about the quality of this set at all, but I do think it is overpriced. At twice the price of the Grilljoy set, you would expect a little more. Yes, the tools are better quality, but not that much better, and the fact the set contains far less tools, just doesn’t justify the extra you pay. I would accept paying an extra 10 pounds or so, but not double.

It’s a shame too, as other than the high price, these BBQ tools are great. As already mentioned, they are excellent quality, strong and no doubt very durable. There are no quality control issues like with the cheaper Grilljoy product either. I just wish Home Complete would have just included a few more items, and made it a 20+ piece set, and then I might have placed it higher on our list.

If you’ve got around 30 quid to spare, you could do a lot worse than this 23-piece BBQ tool set from Poligo that offers some handy cooking accessories for a great price.

The Poligo set includes a 4-in-1 spatula, 40cm grill fork, 38cm tongs, 4 twisted kebab skewers, grill cleaning brush and spare head, silicone basting brush, 8 corn holders, and a salt and pepper shaker duo. Just like with other sets, they are made from stainless steel, and you have the choice of having the plain metal handles, or pay a pound more and get the rubber handled variety. I have to say the steel didn’t feel as strong as our number one pick, but for the cheaper price, that’s to be expected.

As an extra bonus, Poligo have thrown in a couple of their premium BBQ grill mats too. These mats are made from PTFE fiberglass and contain no PFOA, a chemical that is known to damage your health in a variety of ways, so the absence of it is always a good thing.

Again, everything comes in an aluminium storage case, unfortunately with the model we looked at, the locking mechanism wasn’t the most secure and would pop open sometimes. It wasn’t the end of the world, and if you’ve got an ounce of DIY skill, you can easily sort it out, but it is still a negative point. After speaking to many customers of ours, it seems that this isn’t a common problem, though not completely unheard of either, so it does seem like there is a quality control problem at the factory in this regard.

Other than that, I had no grumbles about the Poligo set, and I think it offers good value for money overall.

You may only get 14 pieces in Homemaxs’ BBQ tools set, and with that in mind it certainly isn’t the most cost-effective product in our list, but unlike a lot of the other sets which are virtual clones of each other, this has a few differences.

First of all, the stainless steel used for the tools is of a very high quality, they are thicker than a lot of other brands’ tools, and feel a bit more substantial in general. Although, I only spent a little time with the set myself, I do have customers who have had it for a while and are pleased with the durability.

Instead of a hard, aluminium case, these tools come in a soft, canvas carry bag, and although it isn’t as pleasing to the eye as the aforementioned metallic ones, it is not too shabby looking, and you don’t have to worry about accidentally denting it; a common problem with the aluminium cases.

The grill cleaning brush on this set is excellent, and has a curved brush combined with a nice sharp scraper that helps to get rid of those stubborn pieces of food. This brush was far superior to all the others that we tested out, and was definitely the star of the show when it comes to this set.

As for the negatives, the main one I would point out, and it is quite a big one I would say, is that the tongs are just really hard to use. The spring back on them is so strong that you’d better have forearms like Popeye, or you’re going to be aching the next day. They might loosen up over time, but at first, they are hard work.

The second thing is that despite being called a 14-piece set, four of those pieces are simple hanging hooks, and the carry case is counted as a piece too. So, in actuality, you are paying 30 pounds for five main tools, and four corn holders, and I just think that’s a bit steep for me. On the other hand, they are good quality, and at least not the same generic type you find in most BBQ tool sets these days.