Tefal Optigrill Elite XL GC760D40 Health Grill review: A spacious, feature-rich grill

The Optigrill Elite XL GC760D40 is Tefal’s largest and most advanced grill design to date. It has enough space on its extra-large cooking surface for around eight portions of protein, such as chicken breast but this of course depends on what you’re cooking .

Rather than your standard single dial health grill, this OptiGrill comes with a rather expansive line up of programmes – 16 to be exact. This is designed to make it a little more user-friendly, allowing you to select the right settings for fish, red meat, chicken, vegetables and more.

Below, I’ve put the OptiGrill’s design, performance and functionality to the test, to determine if it’s worth its high price tag and the space it will take up on your countertop.

Tefal Optigrill Elite XL GC760D40 Health Grill review: What do you get for the money?

As Tefal’s most advanced health grill, the Optigrill Elite XL is also the brand’s most expensive and will set you back a not-insignificant £270. In the box you get a large hinged grill measuring 44.4 x 34.3 x 18cm (WDH), as well as a start-up guide and recipe booklet. This is one of the bulkier grills I’ve tried and the most expensive to date, but the design-quality is top-notch and looks good on the worktop, which I think helps to justify the extra spend.

There are two removable non-stick plates on each side of the grill and a drip tray that sits at the front of the device. The grill also has a digital interface with arrows that allow you to scroll through all the various settings. There are 16 pre-set cooking modes to make it easy to quickly cook food such as steak, seafood, tomatoes, burgers and potatoes. However, if you prefer to do things your own way, there’s also a manual mode that lets you choose the cooking temperature, which ranges from 120°C to a scorching 240°C.

On the digital control panel you can also make use of the ‘Sear Boost’ button, to intensify the searing on your meat. I found this worked well for thicker meat that I wanted a little more well done. I also liked the Frozen button, which is designed to thaw food before preheating and is particularly good if you’re someone who often forgets to defrost their food in time for dinner.

Tefal Optigrill Elite XL GC760D40 Health Grill review: What is good about it?

This is a powerful 2,200W grill that cooks food very quickly. I found its interactive display on the handle a little daunting to use at first, but once I’d worked out how to navigate through the various pre-sets and manual temperature controls, it became straightforward to operate. Interestingly, you can set it to work in different languages too, which is a thoughtful touch you won’t find on many other grills.

I thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with the various food settings. Sausages were evenly cooked in under 10 minutes on the dedicated sausage mode. The cooking plates are at an angle, so all the juices and cooking fat dripped neatly into the generously sized drip tray that sits neatly at the front of the grill. The extra large cooking space is designed to feed up to eight people and I found it large enough to comfortably fit eight sausages or six burgers – eight might be a squeeze here if you want your food to cook properly .

The best feature of this health grill is how it measures the thickness of the food placed inside it and adjusts the cooking time to suit. It does this using a sensor under the top grill. I was very impressed with how easy it was to cook a steak to just the right texture and nicely seared. Once I’d placed the raw steak inside the grill and selected the steak icon from the digital control panel, it counted through from rare, medium and up to well done. Asparagus and flat cut vegetables, such as courgettes, are easy to cook on the plates too, as the ridges of the griddle plates help to keep the food neatly in place and leave them with a nice seared finish.

Tefal Optigrill Elite XL GC760D40 Health Grill review: How easy is it to clean?

The cooking plates on this health grill are made from non-stick, PTFE coated die-cast aluminium. They’re both removable via buttons positioned to the sides of each plate. They can also be placed in the dishwasher, as can the drip tray, though I found it easy to wash them by hand as soon as they had cooled. I was impressed with how smoothly both plates clipped into place after cleaning, as there’s nothing worse than trying to put parts back together if they don’t easily fit.

The main frame of the health grill is a little harder to clean. The digital control panel shows fingerprints easily and needs regular wiping with a cloth to keep it sparkling. The hinges of the grill also need regular cleaning by hand to keep them grease-free, as they don’t escape oil splashes entirely.

Tefal Optigrill Elite XL GC760D40 Health Grill review: What could be better?

While the OptiGrill Elite does well to accommodate up to eight portions in one go, I found the overall design bulky. The handle sticks out from the main body of the grill quite prominently, so unless you have particularly deep kitchen drawers, I don’t think it’s the kind of appliance you can easily store away. That said, I found the handle of the grill very comfortable to hold. At 80cm the power cable is slightly longer than average but, due to its size, I think it would benefit from being longer to improve flexibility on the worktop.

Tefal Optigrill Elite XL GC760D40 Health Grill review: Should you buy it?

There’s a lot to admire about the design of this grill. While its extra-large cooking plates make it quite bulky, I think the overall design feels super premium and well built. There are lots of useful features too, which help justify its high price tag. The drip tray is well positioned so it catches all the oil that runs down the grill, while the handle is smooth and comfortable to use.

The digital control panel is helpful and even beeps and nudges you throughout the cooking process, so you know when it’s time to insert your food or when it’s ready to eat. Most impressive, though, is the intelligent cooking feature, which cooks food at the optimum time and temperature, taking a lot of the guesswork out.

I think if you’re looking for a grill to suit a large household and you’re willing to spend above average for a design with dishwasher-safe parts and an intuitive control panel, this is a great option to consider.