Weber Slate 22-Inch Griddle Review: A Rust-Resistant Tabletop Griddle With Precise Heat Control

Flat top griddles are great for cooking all kinds of foods, including those you’d never throw on a standard grill, which is why they’re such great sidekicks for tailgating and camping trips. These smaller flat-top griddles are also ideal for those who want one but don’t have enough deck or patio space for a full-sized outdoor griddle. 

I recently tested a new entrant in the portable griddle market: Weber’s 22-inch Slate griddle. While the Slate offers the rock-solid build quality and refined temperature controls we at Bob Vila have come to expect from Weber, it comes at a price, both in terms of cost and weight. The Slate is one of the most expensive and heaviest portable griddles we’ve tested. I’ve spent several months using the Weber Slate 22-inch griddle to cook a variety of foods and found it worth the weight and price thanks to impressive cooking performance and rock-solid build quality. 

Large 2-Zone Cooking Surface

The Weber Slate 22-inch griddle is one of the largest portable tabletop griddles I’ve seen. With its 352 square inches of cooking surface, you can fit a lot of food on the griddle at once. And since it has two burners, you can create two large cooking zones. This came in handy when cooking meals that require two different temperatures, such as beef and peppers for fajitas or bacon and pancakes for breakfast.  

How well does the Weber Slate cook?

While size and weight obviously matter a great deal when it comes to portable griddles, performance is also crucial. The Weber Slate heats the carbon steel cooking surface with two burners totaling 16,000 BTUs. That isn’t particularly impressive—for comparison, Blackstone’s 22-inch tabletop griddle puts out a whopping 24,000 BTUs—but Weber makes up for it with its smart design. The Slate’s burners sit very close to the cooking surface, so more heat is directly transferred to the carbon steel plate. It also has built-in wind guards that prevent heat loss, so the heat generated by the burners can build up under the cooking surface. And once the griddle gets going, the carbon steel plate retains heat exceptionally well. 

During testing, it took about 10 minutes to reach 500 degrees Fahrenheit with the lid closed. While this isn’t as hot as other portable tabletop griddles I’ve tested, the Weber also offered great low-temperature control. I was able to keep it at under 300 degrees Fahrenheit, which is among the lowest consistent temperatures I’ve been able to maintain on any griddle. How did that translate while cooking? The Weber packed enough heat to sear restaurant-worthy smashburgers but still offered enough low-temperature control to fry eggs and cook pancakes without burning them. 

Rust-Resistant Build Quality

We’ve come to expect top-notch materials and build quality with Weber’s grills, and the Weber Slate 22-inch griddle didn’t disappoint. Anyone who’s used a griddle knows how hard it is to keep the surface from accruing rust, even when stored in a dry shed or garage. Weber case-hardens the Slate’s cooktop, which makes its cooking surface rust-resistant. Most griddles I’ve tested developed rust on the cooking surface even when cleaned, oiled, and sitting in my garage. The Weber remained rust-free, even when I neglected to clean it after cooking for several weeks.

Is the Weber Slate worth the weight and price?

That said, there are a few trade-offs for that expansive cooking surface, multi-burner design, and solid build quality. One is its weight. At 53.5 pounds, it’s far heavier than other top tabletop flat top griddles. In fact, it’s about 20 pounds heavier than the Blackstone 22, which has a similar cooking surface, and more than twice as heavy as the Pit Boss two-burner griddle. While I was able to carry the griddle over short distances without help, I found myself having to lighten the load by removing the cooktop, which meant I had to make two trips when moving it. 

The Weber Slate also comes with a steeper price tag. At $379, it’s far more expensive than other similarly sized portable griddles, including the Cuisinart 22-inch tabletop griddle ($290) and the Blackstone 22-inch tabletop griddle ($219). The price difference is significant, but its build quality, rust-resistant top, and exceptional performance make it worth the additional cost.