COSMO BOURNEMOUTH RESTAURANT REVIEW

Saturday

Disclaimer: This visit was a PR invite but all opinions are my own.

I was recently invited to Cosmo, an all-you-can-eat buffet with cuisines from around the world, along with my friend Kitty. There are a few Cosmo restaurants across the country but I went to the Bournemouth one which I think is pretty new, another one near me is in Southampton.


Depending on which day you go and what time, the price for the all you can eat experience ranges from £19-£21 which in my opinion, is a pretty good price for what you get. They also add a 3% service charge which again is not bad.


The restaurant


restaurant with pink flower decorations

My first impressions of the restaurant were good as the walkway from the front door to the front desk was stunning with lots of pretty pink flowers. It was also very busy which is a sign of a good restaurant. Although it was busy, the food was plentifully stocked at all times and it was all still hot.


I get a little apprehensive of buffets when thinking about food that has been sitting there but I could tell that their standards were high when it came to looking after the food that was out.


Another thing that I found really cool was they had robots! It was the first time I'd ever seen them in a restaurant before. These robot device things (whatever they are called) took plates away and they can also sing happy birthday. I am not very good at describing it but it was so cool and you should go and see for yourself!


The food


There was such a large range of food from all over the world. We started on the left-hand side with all the Asian dishes, then got to the European dishes. After that, there were burgers, etc and a carvery.


I mainly had Asian and Italian food. In true buffet style - I piled my plate(s) with a random mix of food. My favourite food was probably the Chinese food and the mac and cheese.


buffet food

buffet food


I would say this restaurant is very family-friendly and would be great to go to for kids' celebrations. There is a lot of picky-eater-friendly food, which was good for me too.


For dessert, there was a chocolate fountain, along with many other cakes and an ice cream machine - the chocolate fountain alone is enough to impress me.


chocolate fountain

chocolate dessert

chocolate dessert


I believe the soft drinks like Coke, Fanta, and so on are refillable, but with cocktails and alcoholic drinks, you have to pay per drink.

Related: Best pizza in Salisbury

The service


I couldn't fault the service at all it was brilliant. Even though you are left to your own devices a lot while going up and getting your own food, the staff were still really attentive and asked us how our food was. They were also super speedy at clearing plates away (this is needed when you are going up to get multiple plates).


Overall, I really enjoyed my meal at Cosmo in Bournemouth. The restaurant had a really nice interior, good food, fab service, and robots! It was a great experience and I'd definitely recommend going. All you can eat for around £20? Bargain.

Related: Blacklock Covent Garden review

Would you try Cosmo all you can eat buffet?

BLACKLOCK COVENT GARDEN REVIEW

One of my favourite accounts to follow on Tiktok and Instagram is @foodguidelondon. It's run by a woman and sometimes her daughter and basically, if they have been to a restaurant in London and have enjoyed it, you will want to go!


One of her favourite restaurants in London is Blacklock, so I had to give this a try, especially because I recently went to London on a Monday and they do special deals on a Monday!


Blacklock is a steak restaurant that does sharing steaks so it's great to go with a group or for date night with just the two of you. I think they have a few restaurants across central London, and we went to the Covent Garden branch.


Blacklock covent garden porterhouse steak


On Mondays, their steaks are at butcher's prices so the Porterhouse steak that we had would have been £9 per 100g but we got it for £6 per 100g. Our steak was 700g which for two people is about 12oz each.


The steak


If you are vegan, you should probably stop reading now.


We had the Portherhouse steak which is effectively a T-bone steak with mainly a sirloin cut, with a little bit of fillet down the other side of the bone.


They cut the steak for you which is great and the fat down the side was really easy to see and cut off.


For a starter, we tried the Cull Yaw crumpet, I only had a bit because I have a bit of a weird thing about crumpets, but the meat on it was amazing! It was slow-cooked mutton, I wasn't expecting much but it was really tasty.


Cull yaw crumpet blacklock covent garden


With our steak as the main, we got the chips, the kale and parmesan salad (tried to get some greens on there) and the garlic and marrow rub for the steak, along with the gravy - which by the way, was the best gravy I've ever had.

Related: Flesh and Buns London review

We had the steak cooked rare as I was sharing and didn't mind as much, I would normally have mine cooked medium-rare but I still really enjoyed it - especially with the accompaniments.


I feel like Blacklock is quite an indulgent restaurant and would be perfect for a celebration, especially if you pay full price on any other day that isn't a Monday.


There were 2 of us and we paid around £50 each for a bottle of prosecco to share, a starter to share, the steak, 3 sides between us, and 2 steak sauces. There was also a 12.5% service charge added too so overall, I didn't think this was too bad. And I love getting money off so I'd definitely try to go on a Monday if you can, but it would be worth going any other day too because the food is 10/10!


The service


The service was also as good as the food. Our waitress was lovely and very knowledgeable. She explained the menu to us very well as we hadn't been before and she filled up our glasses of water and prosecco so often that we barely had to touch them ourselves.


I definitely want to go back on a Sunday to try their roast dinners now!

Related: Gordon Ramsay Bottomless Street Pizza review

Will you be adding Blacklock to your list?