Wolverhampton all-you-can-eat restaurant with variety, colour and character makes for a good meal

You can get an image in your head of tubs filled with greasy piles of chicken, beef and pork, all being dumped in large amounts onto plates and consumed in a soulless, colourless restaurant.

Take a trip down to Bentley Bridge Leisure Park on the edge of Wolverhampton, however, and you’ll find a place which does not conform to the stereotypes and provides a nice, comfortable and varied dining experience.

Set on the edge of the Leisure Park near Sainsbury’s, COSMO All-You-Can-Eat World Buffet Restaurant looks quiet and unassuming on the outside, with tinted windows, and the distinctive signs are the main indication of where it is, as well as a steady stream of people walking in and out of the front doors.

Walking in, you’re met with a sensory overload as the interior is a mixture of bright and dark colours, with a signed Wolves shirt present at the busy reception desk, while the seating areas on the left- and right-hand sides are a mixture of wood-panelled windows and dark stone effect.

The showpiece, of course, is the part where all the food is, with three big areas in the middle filled with different types of food, as well as separate cooking areas along the wall and near to the Teppanyaki cooking area.

You’re met with a mixture of smells as you look over the glistening piles in each area, all filed with hot and varied meal options.

The beauty with COSMO is that it doesn’t style itself as just one type of all-you-can-eat (AYCE) cuisine, so you don’t go there expecting just Chinese food or Indian food or Italian food, but you instead get a mixture, with up to 150 dishes available across Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Thai, Italian, Mediterranean and American styles of cuisine.

Arriving on a Thursday evening, I found the place to be very busy, with a mix of families out on a big evening, friends having a catch-up and dates enjoying a meal together.

I took my seat and looked over the extensive drinks menu, which includes several beers and lagers on tap, a range of cocktails and unlimited soft drinks from the drinks dispensers. Being on driving duties, I stuck to a bottle of sparking water and then stepped up to find a plate and see what was good.

As mentioned, it’s a sensory treat as you pass the Japanese food, with at least four types of sushi, and find the starters counter, full of garlic mushrooms, onion bhajis, chips, chicken satay, fish fingers and crab claws, so something for even the most finicky eater.

My instincts were for some Chinese and Indian food, so I walked up to the Indian area, full of pots of curries, dhal, aloo and naan breads and took stock on my options.

I can take or leave chicken tikka masala, so went for something a bit spicier and found the lamb vindaloo, worth a look and a gamble on the level of spice.

Add to that a bit of pilau rice and I was happy to cross the metaphorical border from India to China and pick up some sweet and sour chicken, some Szechuan chicken and some beef in black bean sauce, then a piece of chicken sushi to complete the full Asian effect, as well as a grilled red chilli.

One mistake I have made in the past at AYCE places is stocking up too much, too early and not being able to fully enjoy my meal, so I got small amounts of each and made sure to take my time eating my first plate.

While the vindaloo was nowhere near as spicy as I thought it would be, it was still nice, with tender lamb and the right amount of sauce, and the Chinese dishes all provided nice tastes of tangy sauce and well-cooked meat and the naan and pilau rice were good accompaniments to the meal.

Even the grilled chilli was nice, spicy and with a kick, but not taking away from the meal, and I like a piece of sushi, although I wish I’d picked up some wasabi to go with it.

Everywhere you look, people were tucking into their plates, enjoying the dishes they’d chosen, full of noodles, rice, different types of meat and vegetables and with a range of flavours to match tastes.

On my first visit, I’d seen the Teppanyaki area, with the chefs cooking all types of meat on the hot plate with oil and chilli, and thought it was worth a look, so joined the queue and watched the skilled chef cut up chunks of squid, steak and chicken and give them the full treatment.

The squid I had was excellent and went very well with a second order of sweet and sour chicken, some deep fried chicken balls and some chicken tikka and kebab meat from the tandoori counter, plus some seaweed sushi.

Plate number three was another mixture of things I hadn’t had before, including pork floss, Singapore vermicelli, Thai sticky rice and aromatic pork, plus a green grilled chilli which had a bit more of a kick to it and left me needing a few seconds.

Stomach full of different flavours, I fancied something sweet to finish and COSMO provide a fine selection of dessert options, from Eton Mess to Coffee Trifle, from jelly cubes to a selection of fruits, from crème brulee to Panna Cotta and an indulgent chocolate fountain with marshmallows on the side.

A few jelly cubes, a coffee trifle and a crème brulee were just the ticket for me and were a nice way to end a meal full of flavour.

As I said, you can look at AYCE restaurants as a place full of grease and lacking soul, but COSMO is a place full of flavour, variety and quality.

Just make sure to loosen your belt on the way home. 9/10

Prices:

Lunch:

Monday to Thursday – 12.30pm to 3pm – £16.99, Children £8.99

Friday – 12pm to 3pm – £16.99, Children £8.99

Saturday – 12pm to 10pm (costs apply all day) – £23.99, Children £11.99

Sunday and Bank Holidays – 12pm to 9.30pm (costs apply all day) – £22.99, Children £11.99

Dinner:

Monday to Thursday – 4.30pm to 9pm – £20.99, Children £10.99

Friday – 4.30pm to 10pm – £21.99, Children £10.99

Saturday – 12pm to 10pm (costs apply all day) – £23.99, Children £11.99

Sunday and Bank Holidays – 12pm to 9.30pm (costs apply all day) – £22.99, Children £11.99

Food on offer:

Starters:

Chicken Satay, Chips, Fish Fingers, Crab Claws, Hash Browns, Spring Rolls, Chilli Chicken Wings, Spring Rolls, Chicken Nuggets, Squid Rings, Cajun Chicken Wings

Main Courses:

Indian:

Chicken Tikka Massala, Karai Chicken with bones, Vietnamese Prawn Crackers, Poppadoms, Lamb Vindaloo, Paneer Mushroom Mutter, Bombay Aloo, Chana Masala, Pilau Rice,

Chinese, Thai, Japanese and Asian Fusion:

Green Beans, Plum Chicken, Prawns with Courgettes, Steam Pork, Singapore Rice Noodles, Thai Rice, Aromatic Pork, Hong Kong Noodles, Stir Fried Noodles, Beijing Ribs, Beef in Black Bean Sauce, Braised Tofu and Cabbage, Stir Fried Mushroom, Sweet and Sour Chicken, COSMO Chicken, Shanghai Style, Curry Chicken, Shredded Kingdom Pork, Sweet Chilli Chicken Ball, Fu Yong Egg, Stir Fried Broccoli, Cottage Pie, Egg Fried Rice, Red Bean Buns, Custard Buns, Chu Shao Bao, Shiu Mai Pork, Pickled Ginger, Wasabi, Kimchi, Crab Maki, Soyabean Sushi, Seaweed Wakame, Vegetable Spring Roll, Tuna Sushi, Chicken Sushi

Teppanyaki:

Salmon, Scallops, Steak, Squid, Prawns

Mediterranean:

Seafood Paella, Macaroni Cheese, Garlic Bread, Beef Pasta, Corn on Cob, Margherita Pizza, Pepperoni Pizza

Tandoori:

Sheek Kebab, Chicken Tikka, Tandoori Mushroom

Tasting Corner:

Mushroom, Vermicelli, Steamed Fish in Soy Sauce, Pork Floss, Peking Duck, Gammon, Carrot, Pigs in Blankets, Roasted Potatoes, Cauliflower Cheese, Yorkshire Puddings, Gravy

Desserts:

Strawberry Gateau, Fruit Trifle, Banana Caramel Cake, Eton Mess, Passion Fruit Coconut, Coffee Trifle, Pineapple, Peach Slices in Syrup, Melon, Orange, Grape, Pear, Mango Mousse, Panna Cotta, Irish Cake, Strawberry Cream Cake, Jelly, Chocolate Fountain, Ice Cream

COSMO All You Can Eat World Buffet Restaurant, Unit B8, Bentley Bridge Retail Park, Wednesfield, Wolverhampton, WV11 1BP