My husband had been raving about Cosmo since it opened in December last year, so on a trip to Swindon, he treated me and our daughter so we could see what the fuss was all about.
Cosmo is a pan-Asian chain of restaurants with an "eat as much as you like" buffet, with dishes from China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, Singapore, Mongolia, India and Vietnam.
The restaurant is bright, modern and stylish but seats about 250 people and is somewhat reminiscent of a noisy cafeteria, albeit an upmarket one.
Our mixed starters included chicken satay, lemon chicken, crispy seaweed, spare ribs, sesame prawn toast, Cantonese style king prawns, tempura vegetables, aromatic pork with pancakes, deep fried wontons and prawn crackers, which were all delicious.
For the main course, we selected Thai green curry, beef with green peppers in black bean sauce, Shanghai spicy chicken balls, Mongolian lamb, braised celery with peanuts, broccoli in chilli sauce, pineapple fried rice and Singapore noodles.
Cosmo, Linden Court, Holbrook Way, Swindon
(01793) 495666
The puddings on offer were fresh fruit, toffee apples and bananas, Chinese jelly (not sure how it differs to normal jelly) and various gateaux. I selected a slice of raspberry gateaux, which was nice, but not very oriental and Jason had melon chunks.
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Three-year old Pippa had a rather odd selection of sausages, chips, broccoli in chilli sauce (which surprisingly she particularly enjoyed), boiled rice, sesame prawn toasts, chicken balls, cucumber sticks, noodles and the spicy prawn crackers. For pudding, Pippa chose a bowl of grapes and a handful of icing-covered cashew nuts.
Cosmo is ideal for a big family meal. I was amazed by the choice and quality of food - there were 40 dishes at lunchtime and twice as many in the evening. The bill was just £22.35 for the three of us, including drinks.
I've tried Cosmo - you basically get what you pay for which in the evenings is about £13 per head. When I went there all was shining and new and the food was appearin hot and steaming where appropriate at regular intervals. Can't say its the place to go for a meal to linger over and indulge in chat and conversation - it is noisy as your reporter says -and how much is " all you can eat ? depends if you're Kate Moss or Jo Brand to use two body shape comparisons. Throughput is the name of the game - "get em in, get em fed( you are not encouraged to linger and wait for the refill fresh food to appear)& get em out! So if noisy, quick, and thank you very much goodbye is your eating style then Cosmo is for you. Finally why is it it seems to me in all restaurants these days do the staff persist in asking "every 5 mins" - is everything alright - would you like more wine (when they've only just bought the first bottle to the table!
I've tried Cosmo - you basically get what you pay for which in the evenings is about £13 per head. When I went there all was shining and new and the food was appearin hot and steaming where appropriate at regular intervals. Can't say its the place to go for a meal to linger over and indulge in chat and conversation - it is noisy as your reporter says -and how much is " all you can eat ? depends if you're Kate Moss or Jo Brand to use two body shape comparisons. Throughput is the name of the game - "get em in, get em fed( you are not encouraged to linger and wait for the refill fresh food to appear)& get em out! So if noisy, quick, and thank you very much goodbye is your eating style then Cosmo is for you. Finally why is it it seems to me in all restaurants these days do the staff persist in asking "every 5 mins" - is everything alright - would you like more wine (when they've only just bought the first bottle to the table!
Posted by: cmb1960, swindon on 12:33am Sun 9 Mar 08
Cosmo is brilliant! As much as you can eat of the superb quality and range for a low price. Clean, efficient, friendly too. We also noticed that loads of oriental people eat there - surely that's a recommendation in itself! We had loads of food + 2 pints of Coke for less than £17 (for two people) - not much more than a burger meal but far, far superior. Try it!
Cosmo is brilliant! As much as you can eat of the superb quality and range for a low price. Clean, efficient, friendly too. We also noticed that loads of oriental people eat there - surely that's a recommendation in itself! We had loads of food + 2 pints of Coke for less than £17 (for two people) - not much more than a burger meal but far, far superior. Try it!
Myself and my partner went to cosmo in the evening and thought it was brilliant value for money.We paid £32.oo for all you can eat and five drinks!!We paid the same in new world and only had 2 drinks and very limited food.You can eat steak,chips and onion rings if you want in cosmo!There is so much choice for hot food and a wide variety of puddings.We also went for lunch and for three of us at lunchtime including two **** each it was still only £27.00,there are a few main meals and puddings not available but what was there was quite sufficient.We will be going again soon,we couldn't fault it.Nice and friendly waiters/waitresses,v
ery clean and wonderful food cheap drinks what more could you want!!
Myself and my partner went to cosmo in the evening and thought it was brilliant value for money.We paid £32.oo for all you can eat and five drinks!!We paid the same in new world and only had 2 drinks and very limited food.You can eat steak,chips and onion rings if you want in cosmo!There is so much choice for hot food and a wide variety of puddings.We also went for lunch and for three of us at lunchtime including two **** each it was still only £27.00,there are a few main meals and puddings not available but what was there was quite sufficient.We will be going again soon,we couldn't fault it.Nice and friendly waiters/waitresses,v
ery clean and wonderful food cheap drinks what more could you want!!
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