The Grand BBQ

Target Centre, 236 Bourke St, Melbourne 3000
Date visited: 8th March 2012

Located in the Target Centre on Bourke St, The Grand BBQ is set up more like a food court hawker store rather than a restaurant.  It serves mainly rice and noodles; this is also where we usually takeaway our Yong Tofu for our homemade steamboat :)

The Grand BBQ is packed with people at lunchtime - finding a seat is no easy feat, so I had to secure us a table while MerlinFan bought our food.  There is a small self-service area at the back where you can get sauces, chopsticks, serviette and the best of all, a free flow of tea.

I have never actually eaten here, so I decided to try the wonton noodle soup.  The soup was nice with just enough seasoning and saltiness.  The wonton skin was too thick, a bit hard and doughy, which was a pity, because the filling was very flavoursome - it had large pieces of prawn, meat and slices of mushroom, and tasted very similar to siew mai.  I didn't particularly like the noodles - it was a bit al dente (which I don't find desirable in Asian noodles) and tasteless without the broth.  This dish was to me, just mediocre. 

Wonton noodle soup

MerlinFan had the Yong Tofu.  At the Grand BBQ, you can pick any 6 ingredients, choice of noodle and choice of soup for $10.50.  

Yong tofu with curry soup

MerlinFan gave this dish a glowing review.  She picked the curry soup, which she described as exactly the kind that she liked, very "lemak" (creamy from generous amount of coconut milk) and perfect for curry laksa.  She commented that it had just the right amount of salt and spiciness and was not overly oily.  Her egg noodles were nice and salty and didn't stick together like egg noodles sometimes can (ew), with no flour-ish yuck taste.

The tofu was silky smooth, and the fishcake was delicious - freshly made, huge and thick with the perfect amount of saltiness and flavour without the gross fishiness fishcakes sometimes can have.  MerlinFan said the fish ball was ok, just an ordinary fish ball and could have been saltier.  

Overall, MerlinFan says this is definitely the place to come for curry noodles with yong tofu!  And thumbs up for free flow self-serve of chinese tea :D

Addendum: 
Date visited: 4th May 2013
Below is also a picture of the usual yong tofu in clear soup that I had on my most recent visit.  Ditto to all MerlinFan said about the yong tofu - the only thing I had different was the deep fried prawn and meat dumpling which was my favourite out of all the toppings.  Lovely for a cold, windy day.

Yong tofu with clear soup

P.S. The tea was hot and strong, not cheapo and watered down because it's free, so when you do come, have a cup :)





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