Kublai BBQ, Croydon

I would never have thought our local area would be one to have a Mongolian BBQ restaurant. My suburb would not be one you would categorise as a hip place. Residents were used to their meat and 3 vege meals, not mandus, bibimbaps, yak butter tea, chicken feet in black bean sauce and so on. I was therefore somewhat surprised that there is a Mongolian restaurant called Kublai in the area.

Our first impression of the restaurant was that for a BBQ restaurant there sure weren't any smoke or overwhelming smell that usually accompanies such restaurants. The reason for this is the person who will be BBQing our meat in enclosed in a glass paned room in a huge, hot girdle with 4 clawed feet and a powerful industrial rangehood which sucked the smell and smoke away. For the meal, I had even tied up my hair and worn some pre-worn clothes which needed to be washed so that when I got home I can throw them into the wash straightaway and not smell too much. I didn't have to.

We had the freedom to select from 4 meats - chicken, pork, lamb and beef, and 6 veges - capsicum, celery, carrots, onions, cabbage and spring onions, then add the sauces which included sugar water, sesame oil, wine, soy sauce, fish sauce (pretty sure fish sauce came from Thailand, not Mongolia), garlic, ginger, black vinegar. Kublai had received some nasty reviews online from patrons who had no idea what sauce to mix in with their meat and veges therefore produced equally nasty tasting food which had sauces that clashed or not in right proportions. So, the owner had pinned several sauce combos for their patrons which I followed religiously.

Despite conscientiously following the sauce recipes, the food failed to impress. What was interesting was the experience - so you select the meat, vege and sauces after which you hand it to the cook in the room via a small opening in the glass window - he takes the bowl, cooks it on the girdle and hands it back to you in a clean bowl at another glass window.

The manager was very attentive, seeing we were looking a bit lost on our first visit to the restaurant, he rescued us from starvation. He had a well rehearsed spill about how things worked in the restaurant which I thought contained some funny jokes, all delivered very well. He has a good way with his customers, and I can see it's highly appreciated by them, many of whom are repeat customers. The place was busy even for a Thursday night.

Overall it was a good experience. We paid $26 each for the buffet and $3 per head for steamed rice.