COSMO restaurant. Eastbourne

During my resent visit in Eastbourne, I stumbled on this Pan-Asian buffet restaurant; COSMO.  Cosmo is a chain of restaurants and it is really popular amongst buffet crawlers. The chain boasts about having dishes from 10 Asian countries, a whopping 120 dishes on their menu every single day! (I doubt it). Their publicity says that more than 20000 customers visit Cosmo overall every week, I am not surprised… food is good there if Eastbourne buffet is anything to go by. See promo video from the restaurant chain below.

Apparently, in some branches they cook the meals in front of customers as they order their choices. That sounds great as this serves also as entertainment to the dinners.

I had heard about the live cooking but this in Eastbourne branch did not offer any… For the branch located in Croydon which offers live cooking, I am told that,  each group of customers can only stay and dine for 1 hour tops… because the branch has such a high turn over… I had never been interested in places like theses as, high turn around of customer’s means, careless cooking and possible indigestion for having eaten so quickly… it also means that you do not get enough time to taste their “120 dishes”.

Inside Eastboune COSMO

My teams table

On entering the restaurant, I was agreeably surprise to find that the branch in Eastbourne was much smaller and the atmosphere very mellow. Diners were quietly, milling around and making their choice on the dishes already on display on the buffet. There was no brouhaha from guests applauding the chefs at the “live cooking station”… There was no live cooking section. This branch in Eastbourne was so small there is no space to swing a cat. Having read the brochure I was excited to finally have the Cosmo’ experience just so I can be completely disappointed and very critical.

Despite not having a live cooking station, the buffet was quite good. I am not sure the food selection has 120 dishes from 10 countries… in fact I am sure there were not 50 dishes on display. I tasted most of the savoury dishes and particularly enjoyed the prawns and broccoli. The company was a great distraction from everything that was missing.

The deco was really quite modern compared to everything else in Eastbourne. The clientele, younger that expected and the staff at the restaurant were really pleasant.

My plate

Buffet area

We spent a total of 2 hours in the restaurant and all 5 of us had a great time with the boys trying to pack in as much as they could from the buffet.

At £12.99 per person this is really cheap for Eastbourne. I would have happily paid £16.99 as is the price in Croydon. I will definitely visit the restaurant again if I visit Eastbourne.

I will give 2 stars for this Branch of COSMO, just because I didn’t see the 120 dishes, the countries were not labelled on the dishes displayed and there was no live cooking station; 3 points on which the restaurant didn’t deliver in my opinion.

COSMO Eastbourne is situated 113-115 Seaside road, Eastbourne BN21 3PH. Don’t all go there at once alright?!

The Reviewer

 



Dim T Restaurant – Victoria. London

The exterior of the restaurant

Last Monday, few friends and I were trying to break up what I call the “strict Monday code”. The “strict Monday code” means you do not go out on Monday evening as it is the first day of the week and usually the busiest. This outing was completely unplanned and I really need de some convincing to join the group for dinner.

Inside the restaurant

The girls wanted to go to Nandos… Who goes OUT TO NANDOS?… I can cook chicken at home thank you! If I am going to enjoy an evening out it has to be in a place where I cannot cook any of the meals thank you…

As we walked towards Victoria in search of something different, we stumbled across Dim T. I had seen this place before, it didn’t look very inspiring. Funny how some places look good in the sun.

THE taepot, sticks & basket

We decided to go in. The inside looked very Japanese inspired… all darkish and wooden…

I almost expected to be served by Japanese or at least Oriental waiters. Nope, it didn’t happen. Our waitress and the other staff seemed to be of Eastern European descent. I asked our waitress what the influences of the restaurant were, she wasn’t too sure… and I wasn’t impressed.



Steamed dumpling & soy sauce



‘I was able to order white wine here as there was nothing original on the drinks list. Check it out at http://www.dimt.co.uk/

For starters we all had some kind of steamed dumpling with fried pork… very stodgy and dry. I didn’t like it and will not order it again. One thing I did like was the fact that the dumplings came in some kind of wicker covered basket.  My friend’s Jasmine tea was presented it one of the cutest heavy duty teapots I have seen so far… I was slightly disappointed that the eating sticks came out of the paper wrappers as you would at a common Chinese restaurant… not that I visit them often.  



Salmon Salad



For my main meal, I ordered a wasabi and salmon salad… which I rally enjoyed. The portion was really generous and I was given extra greens at no cost at all. The salad was very filling and generous in fried salmon. I really enjoyed it. If I was to visit this restaurant again, I will definitely order the same salad, which at £9 is a good value for money.

My friends ordered some coconut noodles with green beans and chicken and Nasigoreng (what’s that!) chicken prawn with chilly.

Can you see the prawns?

Since we all ordered very different dishes we did as you do, taste each other’s, meals.  The coconut noodle really tasted coconutty…  if I liked noodles, I would definitely order this dish. As for the prawn dish, there was a LOT of prawns in it. What I‘d say for this restaurant is that the portions are very generous. I am not sure whether I should appreciate their generosity or be suspecting of the source of their ingredients.

The restaurant seem busy enough for a Monday night, this tells me that they might be consistent in the quality of their meals and service. So, I should give it another try before letting my suspicious mind run riot.

The service was great and we didn’t wait too long for the main meals to be delivered at our table.

By the time we finished our mains, there was no REAL space for dessert. Besides, the desserts list wasn’t inspiring nor original. Otherwise, I am sure that I would have found some space in my stomach for some.

For now, I will give Dim T 3 stars minus 1 for the non-authentic staff. I didn’t have time to check out the loos as we spent way too much time yapping. Well, the loos visit will be for another time.

Dim T is situated at 56 - 62 Wilton Road, London Victoria; Opposite Nando’s and the big Sainsbury’s and next to patisserie Valery.

Do post your thoughts after your visit would you?!

C ya!

The Reviewer