Cosmo Authentic World Kitchen – Bournemouth

Cosmo Authentic World Kitchen originally opened their doors in 2003 and has since expanded across the UK and Ireland. Their website says they are inspired by the best 5 star hotels in the world and elevate the buffet concept to new levels.

I was invited to review their Bournemouth restaurant and from their marketing it looks like they have reached those new levels, so we were looking forward to trying it out.

The Venue

The restaurant seating area was clean and laid out to accommodate a large number of diners. There is a staggering number of different stations serving everything from Asian dishes to a Sunday carvery and from pizza to puddings. They were right, I would be spoilt for choice!

We ordered drinks which arrived quickly. You also pay for them before they are brought to your table, which is fair enough, as the whole set up without this, would unfortunately offer the potential for people to walk out without paying, so it does solve that problem.

I was amazed by the amount of people piling their plates high. I though the idea of the buffet is you could go up as many times as you like. I still can’t get my head around piling sushi rolls on top of curry, but each to their own.

The Food

I though I would start with the Asian section, purely because it was the closest to our table. The Shredded Duck and Char Sui (Chinese roast pork) pancakes that you assemble yourself were very tasty, the duck was a bit dry, but the pork was nice and succulent and full of flavour.

Other very good dishes included their Chilli Chicken… and also some more unusually dishes such as Fish Flavour Aubergine?!

Sticking with the Asian theme, I decided to try the Teppanyaki, a style of Japanese cooking made popular in the United States. Teppan meaning iron plate and yaki meaning grilled. There was a choice of either salmon, prawns or squid and served with some noodles made a rather tasty plate of food.

Other good dishes were the Chana Marsala, the Steamed Dumplings which were very moreish and the Sushi was also good. One observation was that the sushi was all vegetarian and it would have been nice to have seen some with raw fish.

There was plenty of other savoury food available. To name just a few, a selection of roast meats on the carvery, pizza, burgers, spring rolls, mussels, onion bhajis, selections of vegetable dishes and there was even a salad bar.

Dessert

There was also a selection of cakes and other sweet items including an ice cream machine, popcorn machine and a chocolate fountain. They had the usual marshmallows to accompany the chocolate fountain and you would normally expect to see strawberries. Instead they had gummy cola bottles and gummy eggs, not something I would think of covering in chocolate.

There also was a cake display, but it was disappointingly sparse at the time we were visiting. What was on offer was a bit hit and miss. The tiramisu was dry and needed the flavour of coffee, as it was more like a sponge with chocolate powder sprinkled on it. However, the Peach Melba Torte shown above was a real treat. You could also create your own fruit salad and enjoy a tub of ice cream.

Summary

Looking at it from an adult’s point of view overall the food was good. Some dishes were great. I’m not sure the Bournemouth restaurant hit the 5-star level they market themselves at. There needed to be much more wiping and tidying up around each station as a lot of them were splattered with sauce which is unavoidable when people help themselves.

Looking at it from a child’s point of view, you would be in heaven. More food than you could ever imagine…. pizza, burgers, pasta and noodles all followed by ice cream, cake, chocolate, popcorn and then more chocolate, finished off with a gummy cola bottle. Absolutely amazing. It would be the perfect venue to host a kid’s birthday party, there is even a robot to deliver the birthday cake!

You can find out more and also make a booking by following this link. https://www.cosmo-restaurants.co.uk/restaurants/bournemouth

We dined as guests of Cosmo, but all content is my own.

Cosmo, 3 St Peter’s Quarter, St Peter’s Road, Bournemouth BH1 2AD. Tel: 01202 318888