Tefal OptiGrill Elite GC750
MPN: GC750D60
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Reviews
Quite surprised by how well it works.,
This unit was sent out for me to trial and has surprised me. As someone who's owned both of a George Foreman and a decent sandwich press I wasn't sure how much different this unit would be other than looking more modern and having a digital screen on it.
I haven't had it long enough to try everything but I have done fish, burgers, chicken breast, steak, cheese, sandwiches, had a little bit of veg.
I've cooked food from thawed and I've also done chicken breast on it from Frozen although granted the pieces were quite thin probably around 2 cm.
... Read more The device has managed to cook the meat exactly as you would want it on every occasion even the Frozen pieces were pretty close to what the thawed in terms of taste I was really quite shocked how the machine managed to calculate the thickness and then cook it correctly each time. The warm-up time feels painfully long but at around 5 minutes it's really not that bad once it's warm you put your food in the unit put the lid down and wait for it to calculate the thickness and then it's simply start cooking until completion. If cooking a meat like Beef you have various safe grades of cooked and it will beep during each stage for example rare medium and well done to let you know when to pull it off.
Collected in partnership with Tefal
This will appeal to many but not without drawbacks.
Product Review: Tefal OptiGrill Elite (Model GC750)
Usual Ambassadorial Disclaimer:
This product was sent to me free of charge for me to review. While I do get to keep the Tefal Optigrill after my review, I will tell you both the good, and the bad as I would any other review. So please grab yourself a beverage, perhaps a snack, as I have a tendency to go into quite a bit of detail. If you don’t like that, then I suggest you find a more succinct review.
I would have done more in this review. However, our renovations ran later than planned and
... Read more we didn’t always have power. So I profoundly apologise for that. We also don’t grill much in the way of vegetables, as we prefer baking, steaming, boiling, or just eating them raw when appropriate. So if you’re a vegetarian, this review will have less insight for you. Introducing the OptiGrill….- +5
Ambassador review: a very excellent non-stick surface: $400 grill as a result.
The Tefal Optigrill is touted as a smart grill that measures the thickness of food and other variables to produce ideal cooking results. While I found there were to explicit indications that this was happening during my testing period, the results were great.
My experience with bench top grills is limited. I have an older Breville that must be pushing 10 years old now – so I will make some comparisons here to that. Keep in mind, however, that this older device would have been no more than $150 at purchase, compared to the $400 price tag of the
... Read more Optigrill. I primarily grilled thick sandwich toasties to please my wife, and the device certainly has no issue producing consistent results. I note this isn’t a particularly difficult challenge, however, and I would have liked to attempt some finer cuts of beef. Alas, a vegetarian wife prevented this. The one thing I notice that the old Breville has variable chock that allows you to set a minimum height of the two plates. This can be useful when toasting sandwiches where you don't want the item to be overly crushed. The Tefal not have this feature, so the weight of the top section is always on the food. That said, the weight is not significant, so perhaps this has been factored into the product design. One issue I was uneasy about was the fact that when the upper plate section is open there is nothing preventing it from falling. This is something to keep in mind if this is used in busy kitchen and definitely should not be on an unstable surface. LIKES _____________________________________________________
Not your average grill!! Love it!
Review
Tefal OptiGrill Elite
Introduction
I think just about every home would have a sandwich toaster of some sort. We have one and we go through fits and starts where a toasted sandwich is a standard lunch, and then it doesn’t get used for a while and it goes back in the cupboard. So when I was offered the opportunity to review the Tefal OptiGrill, I was almost going to pass, until I checked it out on their website and thought this could be interesting. It does quite a bit more than just toast sandwiches, and I could see it fitting into what we cook so thought why not!
So what I was keen to know is:
• How effective is the Tefal OptiGrill Elite and does it deliver what it says?
- +4
Collected in partnership with Tefal
Find out how Tefal OptiGrill Elite GC750 compares to other Grills
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Delightful Results Without Any Guesswork
Experience and Use:
The Tefal OptiGrill Elite is a well-made unit, it has a nice solid feel. Enough weight for it to sit firmly on your bench and not budge but not so much that relocation is annoying. Tefal is a well-known household brand associated with convenience, innovation and quality. The OptiGrill Elite is no exception.
The inbuilt cooking guides are the stand out feature and make all the difference. There is no guesswork at all and we were presented with amazing results on all but one occasion. We tried potato, pumpkin, beef burgers, t
... Read moreoasted sandwiches, chevapchichis, bacon, marinated chicken breast and four porterhouse steaks (at once). There is also a manual option if you wish for more control. Everything was done to our liking except the chicken, which was prepared per the included recipe guide. Unfortunately, it was a little overdone and perhaps not as juicy as it could have been, it was still eaten and enjoyed. I believe this was due to the juices ending up in the drip tray and a cooking time that was maybe longer than needed. Either way they turned out better than if I had barbequed them. I always overcook chicken out of fear of under-doneness. Everything else was stellar. Crispy bacon, crunchy and gooey cheese and ham sandwiches, tender potato and the best steak I have cooked at home. You definitely need to have faith in the auto times. I was a little uncertain what my toastie might look like at the “crispy” setting. After several minutes, I thought the bread would have been charcoal, it wasn’t and I ended up enjoying a very nice lunch. The user interface is genius, even if at first I thought a screen in a grill was overkill, however it takes the simplicity of use to another level. After pressing the power button, you are only a few finger taps from getting started and it’s very self-explanatory. The two options available with each program, frozen and/or extra sear truly deliver what they say. We cooked Chevups from frozen and they were nicely seared very juicy and not at all fatty. The sear function had a good workout when we cooked four porterhouse steaks at once. Our steaks used the entire grill surface and proved the Tefal OptiGrill Elite has plenty of power to brown and food doesn’t just steam.
Great Grill, no effort required & easy to clean.
Great little grill for the bench top. *QUALITY PRODUCT*
Cooks a great steak and a mean toasty!! Superb!
Standard size cord, could be a little longer.
Some really good pre-set cooking settings to choose from - that includes a defrost option also.
Digital screen makes selection process easy and straight forward. Shows cooking time-frame and arrow points to how cooked your meat is starting from blue to well-done.
Also has an extra sear option for those that like the flame grilled taste just minus the flame.
Pleasant sound to indicate that you food has finished cooking.
Grill detects size of meat and adjust times to cook perfectly every time.
Steaks to perfection
Edit (Aug 2021):
We’ve had this grill nearly a year now and I can honestly say this is one of the most used items in our home. I won’t edit my original review below so you can see what I thought early on, but I would say that we now feel it is absolutely worth the price tag!! On average we use it at least a few times per week, some weeks it’s used a few times per day. We have recommended it to several of our friends and family to purchase as it has simplified and sped up so many of our meals, and a year on it still cleans as perfectly as it di
- +3
Convenient and quick
I will start out by saying this is a very smart and easy to use grill.
The programs and settings are easy to follow and use. You select the item you are cooking from the menu and it will pre heat and then the screen will prompt you with what to do next. It measures the thickness of the meat once placed on the plate and it will then determine how long it needs to cook based on what it is and how thick it is.
If you don’t want to use a program you can also cook the meat or whatever you are cooking manually.
The grill and drip tray are dishwa
... Read moresher safe which is super convenient. They are easy to attach and remove. We cooked chicken patties on there, they came out better than on the bbq and with much less oil in them. They came out lovely and crispy. The amount of oil that came out shocked me! I know they’re full of oil but heck!!
Convenient for people on the go!
The Tefal Optigrill is a really impressive looking machine. The digital display and chrome finish mean are really nice features. It is a very quick and easy way to cook. I was able to cook for my family while doing other things. There is a count down timer and a chime to let you know when its done. The machine is really easy to clean - I just popped the trays in the dishwasher. The recipe book is a nice edition too.
The first trial was a really nice cut of steak and I was disappointed to find it was over cooked. I did try again a few days la
... Read moreter and it was cooked "medium" perfectly. The steak was flattened a little too much on both occassions - they were good quality cuts and probably flattened to half the thickness. Being able to set how 'well done' to cook the food is a great feature. I've used it to cook chicken breast a few times and i'm a really big fan of the result. It has a crispy outside without drying out the inside. Bacon also cooks great. I had good results when cooking lamb cutlets and pork chops. The defrost function is fantastic and I also love that the meat doesn't cook in its oil. The fats are collected in the drip tray. I actually use this machine alot - particularly while working from home and cooking lunch for my family. It's perfect if you are time poor but it isn't going to compare to spending time cooking your meal slowly...nor would I expect it to.- +2
Find out how Tefal OptiGrill Elite GC750 compares to other Grills
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A much better version of the electric hotplate with very, very good electronic control
Recently we received a Tefal Optigrill Elite as a part of Product Review’s Ambassador Program, so let’s start at the beginning.
- Packaging and Documentation
It arrived in a sturdy cardboard box with the unit well supported in polystyrene packing so you can be highly confident of receiving your purchase in good, undamaged condition. The package includes the assembled grill, a drip tray, a user manual, warranty card and a recipe book.
The manual is in eight languages, such is the global world of today, but at least that means we only had to re
A great way to grill food.
The Tefal OptiGrill Elite is a very clever machine using modern technology to measure the thickness of selected food and adjust the cooking accordingly, letting you know with an audio signal and electronic display that the food is ready. It comes well packed in an attractive carton, unfortunately the main packing inside is polystyrene which is not recyclable.
The instructions are clear and easy to follow. The controls are easy to use and understand. The cooking plates come away easily for cleaning, and are dishwasher safe. The overall const
... Read moreruction appears to be good quality and the electronic display is very easy to read and understand. The first thing I cooked on the grill was bacon, I let it go to crispy, it turned out very nice. It does smoke, so I would only cook bacon with adequate ventilation or an exhaust fan. The second thing I cooked was thick English style pork sausages straight out of the freezer. I set the menu on the grill to sausages and hit the frozen button, I was pleasantly surprised, they were properly cooked. The big test for any type of grill is a steak and my favourite is a good quality porterhouse, and I had one at room temperature. I selected beef on the grill with searing and waited for the grill to warm up, when it indicated to add the food I placed the seasoned and oiled steak in the grill and when it indicated rare, I let it continue on halfway to medium then I removed the steak and let it rest, the steak was cooked to perfection. Same results with lamb loin chops, yummy! I cooked a couple of Tasmanian Atlantic Salmon fillets and let the grill indicate when they were cooked, for my liking they were a little over cooked, that is a very easy thing to overcome in the future by removing the fillets a little earlier, the count down timer makes that very easy. Jamie Oliver fish fingers cooked nicely on the grill. They are the only fish fingers I can buy that aren't made from mince.
Potentially the King of the Benchtop Grills.
The Tefal Opti-Grill Elite arrives in the kitchen proffering a pretty bold promise; to cook meat to perfection and individual preferences. It’s a bit of a challenge in our household. I like my meat very well done (if there’s any sign of blood I’m not eating it!) and my partner prefers medium rare. Whether it be the BBQ, pan or our older grill appliance it’s rare for both of us to get meat the way we want for any given meal.
The Tefal is loaded with tech and different settings; maybe too much or too many for a grill in my opinion but if it work
... Read mores them I’m a convert. Steak was the obvious challenge to throw at it and we have done so now several times. As always, one programmed for medium rare, the other for well-done via the digital display which is actually really easy to use. Heat it up, load the settings, place the meat when told and off it goes. Low and behold the medium rare consistently emerges as promised and, a few minutes later, the well done. Good searing and bona-fide grill marks get top marks. Trying the cook from frozen claim we felt chicken would be the test beast as there’s nothing less doable than poorly cooked chicken. The defrost setting worked as promised and then the sensor cook took over from there; the chicken emerged perfectly done. Nice and juicy: not dry. The reality with this machine in our household is that its meaty marvel credentials will only ever be called on in winter; we BBQ in summer and no benchtop appliance can match BBQ taste in my opinion. If we didn’t have a BBQ then this would be the perfect year round meat grilling option. Where it will get year round use is as a sandwich maker and vegetable grill and in this regard it does a really good job. We used a range of different breads from focaccia through to traditional slices and it delivers a wonderfully crunchy result with a nice even melt. Whilst it has programmes galore it is important to note that you can still go old school and cook manually. Perhaps my favourite aspect of the grill is the cleaning up. The grill plates detach and (once cool) can go in the dishwasher. If there’s one thing I dislike with our older grill is the fact that the plates can’t detach. It drives me nuts. With the Optigrill Elite they click off (easy) and click back on after cleaning. Theoretically it could mean that the plates can be replaced when worn but I guess that would come down to the replacement cost vs. buying a new product. So what brings it down from 5 stars? Well, price to be honest. At $399.00 the Optigrill Elite is firmly pushing the envelope. Yes. It has a whole lot of technology and is terribly clever. Yes. It genuinely nails grilling meat. But. $399.00 is a lot for a benchtop grilling appliance given that many of the lesser brethren go for $100-200.00. I guess for potential purchasers it comes down to how often you grill vs. your preferred method for doing so as to whether this is a wise investment. It does carry a ten year warranty though which is a stark contrast to the majority of the competitors that only offer one year so I guess if you are spending this much then you should be covered for the long haul.Find out how Tefal OptiGrill Elite GC750 compares to other Grills
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Rare, Medium or Dry? A Meat and Plant-Based Road Test
At first glance, the Tefal OptiGrill Elite looks like a big, sleek, high-tech sandwich maker. But with a $399 price tag, you would hope it does more than cook a perfect cheese and ham toastie... so we took it on a food variety road test to see if it appeases meat-lovers and vegans alike.
I say “we” because Hubby eats virtually everything except coriander, while I sit on the sliding scale from plant-based to the occasional fish and seafood. At least this makes it interesting to test the OGE’s grilling range.
For red meat, the OGE promises perf
... Read moreect grilling results from rare to well-done. This is undoubtedly, the major drawcard for potential buyers. But the OGE also grills chicken, fish, seafood and vegetables, and with automatic cooking programs and a thickness measurement, it should take your grilling prowess from novice to pro in a press (or two) of an arrow-button. First though, the functions and specs of the OptiGrill Elite: - Searing boost: while there will be grill marks on your food without this function, you can select the Searing boost to create intense, restaurant-like searing.* - Can cook from Frozen*: a convenient feature if you’ve forgotten to defrost meat earlier in the day, or if your food is cook-from-frozen only.- +15
Nifty grilling machine
The Tefal Optigrill Elite is a rather nifty machine, unlike anything else I have ever owned. Once I got over the daunting literature in several languages that came with it and eventually found how to select ‘English’ so I could follow instructions, I found the digital directions quite easy to follow.
What I particularly liked was the option to have roasting/grilling facilities with minimum heat output, something very valuable when you live in the tropics. The machine is well designed, the heating Tefal plates are easy to remove and any debris
... Read more easily soaks away in water. I decided to avoid cleaning the heating plates in the dishwasher to ensure longer life for the Tefal coating—my choice! The automatic thickness sensor is great and so are the pre-programmed selections of cooking results (rare, medium-rare, etc.) If you like your steak, the machine will cook it to perfection just as promised, but it will not improve its taste so meat quality is paramount. I suggest placing steak in foil for a couple of minutes though, once done. Cooking a full meal of sausages and vegetables took far too long when compared to combined use of frying pans and fan-oven…however the Optigrill came into its own when preparing batches of vegetables for later re-heating. I especially liked the grilled capsicums and eggplants. Capsicum slices tends to skid down and the ridges at the bottom of the sloped heating plate are no match to their slipperiness. Next time I’ll try skipping the oil suggested in the recipe. This machine can be a real bonus for vegetarians who might like to find novel ways to experiment with vegetables. Thumbs up for me!
WOW! Convenience, great results & easy to clean
I love the taste and aroma of grilled foods. But we don’t own a BBQ as I hate the inconvenience of firing up the BBQ and the clean up after. So I was thrilled to receive the Tefal Optigrill Elite to test. And test it we did, thoroughly, from a simple cheese toastie, to steaks, hamburger patties, marinated chicken thighs, chicken satay sticks, vegetables, salmon fillets etc etc. It is superb.
The executive summary:
1. Quick to fire up with average pre-heating taking about 5 minutes.
2. Very, very intuitive to operate, plus you get on-screen ins
- +4
Questions & Answers
Frequently Asked Questions about Tefal OptiGrill Elite GC750
Where to find the how-to videos?
Latest Consumer Questions
Hi. I have just bought an OptiGrill Elite and have used it twice, both times to cook chicken breasts. The first time it cooked for 16 minutes which I thought was too long and it came out hard and dry. The second time the cooking time came up as 26 minutes! I took it out with 19 minutes to go with an internal temperature of 185 degrees F! Please help!
A chicken breast is a pretty terrible piece of meat to cook at the best of times it really needs to be pounded out with a hammer so it's consistently thin to get a consistent temperature throughout. Because it's so lean if you try to cook it with full thickness it will almost certainly be dry and rock hard the only real solution is to cook it using a very slow methods such as smoking or other slow cook techniques.
If you do want to cook it in this grill you really need to slice it into much smaller manageable pieces.
As Danny said, the shape and thickness of a typical chicken breast will cause significant problems for the "smart" cook, which is running off the thickest part of the breast to calculate cook times. I've found that breast meat that's consistently 9-14mm (3/8" to 5/8") thick seem to have the best chance of having browned surface, while still moist in the middle on my Optigrill. So Danny's suggestion of slicing, or hammering should work.
There are so many Optigrill model, can someone please tell me which is the most recent and latest model?
Hi Karl,
It's understandable to be confused. Tefal's site was completely haphazard... and not a little bit... incomplete when I was looking at it. Also, several (newer) versions of the grill are actually unavailable in Australia.
From what I've found in my online searches....
If you're happy with a smallish grill (20cm x 30cm) capable of doing a couple of sandwiches, or food for a couple of people, the Optigrill Elite GC750 is the latest model with all the bells and whistles. Which I reviewed for ieatwords. This has been the only "elite" model I've found in Australia. Despite what Tefal claims on their web site.
The "Optigrill Smart" GC730 (notice the older generation model number) is more advanced than the Elite in some ways, (smart phone/app controlled) but has been around for a bit longer. Haven't found that in Australia though.
As you go up in size, it seems the older generations of grill (usually the Optigrill+ XL) like the GC722 is "30% larger" but the technology is definitely somewhat older. Interestingly, they come in at the same $399 price tag at Big W, Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, Myer, Spotlight, Harris Scarfe, Kitchen Warehouse, Appliances Online and several others.
So really, in Australia it comes down to three models:
Optigrill Elite (small, but more advanced) model GC750.
Optigrill + XL (larger, but slightly older tech) model GC722.
Both of these have a retail price of $399.
However, if you want to save a few dollars you can get the third model (a GC712), which is the same size as the Elite, but runs the older tech of the Optigrill + series. Or to put it another way, it's a low-tech Elite, or a smaller Optigrill +
I hope this helps your decision making.
Hamish.
Hi Hamish,
Thank you for taking the effort and time to reply back to my query.
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Details
Features:
- A compact and affordable option if you don’t have the budget or space in your home for a larger, more traditional BBQ grill
- Removable non-stick grilling plates, so you don’t have to scrape your food off the grills once you’ve finished cooking your meal
- The body of the grill is made of durable thermoplastic, so no harm is done if the grill is knocked around slightly
- The website provides recipes that you can use your grill to make including hamburgers, potatoes, and steaks
- Cooking plates and juice tray are dishwasher safe, to prevent a build-up of mystery stains
What reviewers loved about Tefal OptiGrill Elite:
- Reviewers noted that the non-stick grilling plates were remarkably effective and didn’t leave food stuck behind
- Reviewers were pleasantly surprised by how easy this grill was to use – minimal effort was required to cook juicy and tender meat. Several reviewers proclaimed that they wouldn’t touch their traditional BBQs again.
- The Tefal OptiGrill Elite Grill was ideal for cooking a variety of meals, such as toasted sandwiches, fish, and steaks
- The detachable grilling plates made cleaning quick and easy. Reviewers were able to simply take out the plates and pop them into the dishwasher, allowing them to move onto other tasks.
The Tefal OptiGrill Elite GC750 has achieved the 2021 Award for the Grills category. Tefal’s success can be attributed to reviewers giving plenty of praise for the high-quality design of the product, which resulted in plenty of tasty and convenient meals.
| Category | Grills |
|---|---|
| Manual | Download manual and manual 2 |
- MPN: GC750D60
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