Grilla Kong Review: The Kamado That Undercuts Big Green Egg

Upfront: affiliate links appear in this article and a purchase through one earns us a commission. The part about the accessory you'll have to buy separately survived the edit anyway.

Kamado grills have a pricing problem, and everybody in the category knows it.

You buy the ceramic cooker, and then you discover the shelves cost extra. And the cart. And the ash tool. The sticker price turns out to be a deposit. Grilla built the Kong specifically to attack that, which is why any useful Grilla Kong review has to spend less time on the ceramic and more time on the box it arrives in.

The Specs

1. $799 direct from Grilla, down from a $1,499 MSRP, and around $999.99 through retailers
2. 643 square inches total, split 329 on the main grate and 314 up top
3. Ceramic 1.25 inches thick throughout
4. 304 stainless steel grates
5. Runs to 700°F and beyond
6. 213 lbs for the grill, closer to 276 once the all-terrain cart is on it
7. Four-year warranty

That ceramic figure is the one to hold onto. An inch and a quarter is genuinely thick, and thickness is what a kamado converts into heat retention. Thin ceramic swings when the wind picks up. Thick ceramic sits there and ignores it.

What Actually Comes With It

Here's where Grilla's pitch lives, and the pitch is largely honest.

Two shelves, a stand, casters, an ash tool and a temperature gauge, all included. On a Big Green Egg those are line items you add at checkout, and they add up fast enough to change which cooker you can afford.

The Gap in the Value Story

Now the honest bit.

The heat diffuser is sold separately, and the diffuser is what turns a kamado from a very hot grill into a smoker. Without it you're doing direct high-heat cooking. With it you're doing brisket.

The Barbecue Lab's reviewer, who rated the Kong highly overall, called the diffuser essential and flagged its absence directly. That's a fair criticism. If the whole argument for this grill is that Grilla includes what rivals charge for, leaving out the one accessory serious barbecue actually requires is an odd place to draw the line.

Budget for it. Don't discover it on the morning you planned to smoke a pork shoulder.

Buy Now

How It Cooks

Well. By the accounts of people who have run real cooks on it, better than the price suggests, which is the sentence every Grilla Kong review eventually arrives at.

Hands-on testing found the Kong held a steady temperature for the entire length of an indirect cook, which is the single thing you buy a thick-walled kamado to do. At the other end it clears 700°F for searing, and it takes a pizza stone if you want to push it further.

Two build details deserve credit here. Spring-assisted hinges make a heavy ceramic dome manageable one-handed. And a shock-absorber plunger stops the lid slamming, which matters because a dropped kamado dome is how ceramic cracks.

The Weight Problem

Two hundred and thirteen pounds. Closer to two hundred and seventy-six with the cart.

That arrives by freight, and assembly ran about 68 minutes for one tester with the all-terrain cart fitted. It needs two or three people. Not because the instructions are hard, which reviewers described as straightforward, but because ceramic that heavy is not a solo lift.

Pick where it lives before it arrives. Those glide casters help you nudge it across a patio, not move it across a garden.

Against Big Green Egg and Kamado Joe

On raw ceramic performance all three sit in the same conversation. Thick walls hold heat. Physics doesn't check the badge.

Where the Kong wins is entry price plus what's bundled with it. Where the established names win is dealer networks, deeper accessory ecosystems and resale value, and that last one matters more than people expect, because a used Big Green Egg holds its money in a way most grills simply don't.

First kamado? The maths favours Grilla comfortably. Lifelong obsession you'll accessorise for a decade? The bigger ecosystems have a case.

Final Verdict

The Kong does what it set out to do. Thick ceramic, steady temperatures, genuine 700°F searing, and a box that includes the things rivals nickel-and-dime you for. It loses points only for leaving the heat diffuser out of that box, and for a delivery-and-assembly reality that catches people off guard. Add the diffuser to your order and this is one of the strongest value plays in kamado cooking.

If flat-top cooking is more your thing than ceramic, Grilla's griddle sits at the other end of the range. We covered it separately in our Grilla Grills Primate review.

FAQs

What is the Grilla Kong price?

$799 direct from Grilla against a $1,499 MSRP, and roughly $999.99 through third-party retailers.

How big is the cooking area?

643 square inches across two grates, 329 on the main and 314 on the upper.

Does the Kong come with a heat diffuser?

No, and you'll want one. Smoking on a kamado needs indirect heat, and the diffuser is what provides it.

How hot does it get?

Past 700°F, which is plenty for searing steaks or running it as a pizza oven with a stone.

Is assembly difficult?

Not complicated, just heavy. Around 68 minutes with the cart, and two or three people for the lifting.

Grilla Kong vs Big Green Egg, which is better value?

The Kong, at entry level, because shelves, stand, casters and ash tool are included rather than extra. Big Green Egg counters with a deeper accessory ecosystem and stronger resale.

Pricing was accurate at the time of writing. Grilla discounts this line continuously, so check the current direct price before ordering.