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.