All you can eat at Cosmo Reading

Buffet-style restaurants can be a hit or miss. Still, I was excited to try the all-you-can-eat option at Cosmo Reading, as I had truly enjoyed my previous experience at the Cosmo Oxford branch many years ago. As a foodie, I am always excited when I am invited to either (1) try out a new restaurant (to me) or (2) sample a new menu at a restaurant I am familiar with. Walking into the Cosmo Reading branch, I got a sense of déjà vu, and I loved it for us because everything felt familiar, yet also a little different at the same time.

Cosmo Restaurants is a buffet chain operating family-oriented venues throughout the United Kingdom. Established in 2003 with its inaugural location in Eastbourne, the brand now encompasses 18 buffet-style restaurants. Cosmo Restaurants positions itself as an authentic world kitchen, catering to a broad clientele including couples, families, and groups. Drawing inspiration from premier five-star hotels worldwide, the company is committed to delivering fresh, high-quality cuisine.

*Disclosure – We were guests of Cosmo, the opinions shared are my own based on my experience visiting the Cosmo Reading Branch.

All you can eat at Cosmo Reading {Review}

Whenever I visit a restaurant, whether I have been invited or not, I make a point of taking in (1) the atmosphere of the establishment, (2) how many staff are working and (3) how they are treating the patrons. For me, it’s important that everyone is being treated equally, as we’ve been to restaurants where groups are given the most attention and couples, as well as individuals, are rarely considered. When we arrived at Cosmo Reading a few minutes before our allocated slot of 13:00, we found the restaurant was slightly buzzing with families and a few couples present.

There was no one at reception however this location does have a robot which you can use by inserting your booking reference into it and it will assign you a table and (big and) escort you there. We, however, waited a couple of minutes for a human as we weren’t sure if we could use the PR’s reference for the booking. Our attendance was lovely, she confirmed our booking and handed us over to her colleague. Unfortunately, the colleague wasn’t too friendly and left us without an explanation on how things work (every restaurant operates differently, but this is a basic requirement).

Shortly after, the restaurant started to get busy with groups of people arriving, specifically families celebrating birthdays, which was lovely to see. After a few minutes of waiting, the waiter came to take our drinks order and again no explanation of how it worked. We flagged a different waiter who explained the process, and we went about our business. Cosmo’s all-you-can-eat option is priced at £24 for adults and £12 for kids and doesn’t include drinks. Our drinks (cider – £5.95, double G&T – £6.95) were market value, but we thought the price was reasonable for both food and drinks. The all-you-can-eat has a timeslot limit of about an hour, but we were informed this could be shortened if the place is too busy (which it did at 14:00).

Our thoughts on the Food

One thing we truly loved from the minute we walked in was the variety of foods and options available; it truly did cover the world’s cuisines, and each station had chefs working to replenish the dishes. My plus 1 and I made a strategic eating plan of (1) proteins, (2) veggies and (3) carbs because we are people who often eat with our eyes. I loved this plan because it allowed us to sample practically all the protein available, and as for the veggies, we stuck to two salads (watermelon salad and swede salad). When it came to the carbs, which mine were consumed in the dessert section, which I must say was disappointing. Let me elaborate further my experience for this three areas:

• Protein – meats and seafood

I am a sucker for seafood, and I consume more than is probably necessary, but for a buffet-style eating place, I try to minimise my consumption so I can try other proteins. When it comes to the meats, I tried everything they had on offer: chicken, ribs, pork, beef in different cooking styles and apart from the chewy breaded chicken and Sunday roast beef, everything else was cooked to perfection and well seasoned. I found the Sunday roast beef slices dry and not seasoned. As for the seafood, I loved every single item I tried, even went for seconds, except for the shelled prawns; these too were not seasoned and once peeled were not as tasty as the de-veined prawns. Overall, I would give the protein section 4.5/5. I think for me, some dishes needed to be seasoned, but I understand the British palate.

• Veggies – Salads

I don’t know what they put in them salads, but they were delicious and I had more than two servings. When it comes to salads, options are boring to me, so to see a watermelon salad, I was intrigued and glad my intrigue won over, and I tried the salad, ‘best thing since buttered toast‘. Whilst we also tried Caesar salad (my default salad), I fell in love with the watermelon salad and would highly recommend people try it. Overall, I give them 5/5 for the watermelon salad; they truly hit the mark.

• Carbs – only dessert

As I mentioned above, the dessert section was slightly disappointing, the cakes were really good, and I loved the ice cream, but I wanted to try churros (not had them for a while) and was disappointed to find they were hard as stone. I literally couldn’t bite into them, I was shocked, and my plus 1 also tried them and same experience, so we left them alone. Overall, I would give this 3/5 purely because of the churros.

Overall, we had an amazing time at the all-you-can-eat option at the Cosmo Reading branch and recommend people checking out the Cosmo branches across the UK.