Grill your own Meat at Bar-B-Q

Staying in Puchong is indeed a mini food haven to us. This small town which used to be known only for traffic jams is now getting famous for the huge variety of food outlets it offers. Bar-B-Q Plaza in IOI Mall is another addition to the never-ending food list of Puchong. Even though it has been around for quite a few months, we only managed to give it a try recently, when we were in the mood for BBQ.

BBQ meat sets

Mouth-watering wallpaper

The thing with BBQ that I don’t quite like is the smell of smoke that is inevitable. Most of the time, the ventilation of BBQ restaurants leave much to be desired, and we end up smelling like smoke after having a meal there. Not to mention the continuous perspiration we would experience from the heat of the fire too. But I’m happy to say that the experience at Bar-B-Q Plaza was really comfortable. Sure the heat was there, but the strong air-conditioning made the experience a whole lot more bearable, and I didn’t think I smell like smoke after the meal too.

Comfortable dining area at Bar-B-Q Plaza, IOI Mall

Once we placed our orders, we were served a plate of condiments and a bowl of sauce. It was a plate of chopped garlic, a slice of lime and some bird’s eye chilli.

Trio of condiments

Apparently, the BBQ sauce is actually vegetarian-based, and imported all the way from Bangkok! It tasted a little like oyster sauce, but with more flavour.

Special vegetarian- based sauce imported from Bangkok

According to the guideline, we were supposed to add in all the condiments into the BBQ sauce to give it a twist and to bring forth the finest flavour of the barbecued meat.

Give it a twist!

While waiting for our food to arrive, I took a look at the mini “How to Cook” pamphlet on the table. While most BBQ places use butter to oil the pan, this place uses lard! 2 fat pieces of lard were provided to us, and I initially thought they were fish cakes for appetizers! *LOL* Luckily I read the guideline just in time to know that they were indeed lard. Of course, using lard would definitely make the meat taste a lot more delicious and fragrant!

How to cook

A hot plate was presented to us, with a concave surface, and a narrow sunken area surrounding it filled with soup. I thought the hot plate was nicely designed with such a shape to allow heat to be distributed evenly, but I didn’t find the soup area too convenient. It was too narrow and placing vegetables or noodles in it proved to be quite a chore.

The hot plate

We ordered two sets to be shared, the first being the Economy Beef Set, which had slices of beef, udon, sliced cabbage, baby corn, lettuce and tomato. I can’t help but notice that there was only one measly slice of tomato and one slice of carrot given! What was their point exactly?

Economy Beef Set (RM20.90)

The measly carrot and tomato aside, I could see that the beef slices were fresh, shiny and red. They also had a slightly marbled texture, giving them a nice juicy bite if I just slightly cook them! Given the nature of them being so thinly-sliced, I only needed to grill them for about 5-10 seconds on each side to have a slice of tender beef.