The worst restaurant I've ever been in my life. I went there with my friend few days ago to have dinner and I got sick straight away after that and just recovered completely after two days, which never happened to me before. In addition, food and desert are tasteless. Don't ever go there, it's a waste of time and money.

The best way to describe Cosmo is imagine if the Nazis were slightly nice and they gave the concentration camp prisoners one final last meal before gassing them. The only thing missing is the Nazi uniforms, they could theme it even and the rude Nazi managers wouldn't be out of place! The customers would think its part of the theme. Brilliant.

We were down in Croydon just for the evening staying at a friends place, so she decided to take us out last Friday and booked us a seating. We got there and yes, it was abit boring with the staircase and we were greeted with a queue of people that had already reached the top of the stairway! This gave us an impression that this place must be popular!
We had made a 7:00pm booking and not long after we were called in. Our friend paid for the tickets so we weren't too sure how much it would cost although I did notice the sign about children saying, they will be charged half price if they are measured under a certain white painted line, they had on the door as you walk in. The line was like only 80cm high, which made me wonder does that include infants and toddlers as well? We had our 3 year old son with us too, so he would've been charged that price!
Walked in further to the main restaurant area and was amazed at the amount of people in the restaurant. The staff were everywhere and seemed very busy, I could tell that this place gets a lot of people in everyday!
All in all, we enjoyed the variety of food to choose from and the desserts also. There was food being refilled into the empty trays all the time and we loved the fact that staff were so efficient in clearing our dirty dishes away.
My only downfalls would be that although the toilets were clean and tidy, I felt that they needed like a bigger sign or something, because they were so hard to find with such a small sign because they are like hidden away in a little corner between bars! It would be nice also to have the 'refill your own drinks' machine for sodas only too.
The other thing is the eating time. We just wanted to relax and enjoy our meal. Talk and take our time as we eat and digest. I don't agree with the time limit but nevertheless, it was a good experience being our first time and we will be going again!
Another Cosmo restaurant further up north would be very handy for us northerners t

Went to Cosmo Croydon the first week of December 2011 to celebrate our daughter's 14th birthday. For us it was a mainly positive experience. Only fault is the restricted time 2 hours - need about 2 and a half hours particulary if a first timer as it can be overwhelming and need that time to get your bearings as it were.

I first went to Cosmo Croydon not long after it opened. I was very impressed at the time. The vast choice of dishes was very good, athough a little "Iceland Party Packs" in some instances. However, for the price, which I believe was £9.00 per head at the time, I thought it was very good value for money. I have since returned to Cosmo on approximately 7 occasions. I have been there mid-week and at the weekend, for lunch and dinner services and I have to say, the standard of service has slipped considerably, as has the quality of the food. The restaurant is usually very busy and there have been occasions when there have been empty trays of food. However, my main reason for this review is the sharp increase in cost since Cosmo opened. On the last occasion I went the price was £14.99 per head, to shortly increase to £15.99 per head. I feel that in a year this is a massive increase in cost and one that is not justified. It is blatant greed on the part of the owners to keep increasing the fees. I accept that food prices may have risen but not to the extent that their charges have risen. The last straw for me arose on my last visit. I went with my brother and 11 month old daughter. There had previously been no charge for children under one and when we went to pay I was told there was a charge of £2 for my daughter. When I queried this I was told that the charge was for the hire of a highchair for her. I had never heard anything like it in my life and I told them so! Personally I have been to better eat as much as you like restaurants and I have been to worse. I would, however, prefer to pay more and go somewhere with less choice but a more pleasant atmosphere, without the feeling that you are being shafted at every turn. There's only so much food one person can eat in one sitting and Cosmo are rapidly pricing themselves out of the market. Shame on you Cosmo. You had a good thing going there but blatant greed will, inevitably be your downfall.

Our friends and family were celebrating my husband's 38th Birthday at Cosmo restaurant 2 days ago. The place is massive with lots of food to offer. It looks really nice , but when we start to eat, nothing really taste as it should be. To make it worse, when my brother in law was going to pick up some food , he found a "Mice" running towards the front bar. One of the staff has also seen it, but was just laughing ! My brother in law asked him if that is usual for him to see a mice in this place ? Mice are everywhere here , comes the answer !

I use to live in France where they eat frogs legs , does English people eats Mice hearts ?

Dump the so called cosmo and choose somewhere more cleaner !

Was very disappointed with the food at Cosmos. The food did not taste good and I was sick after. Nothing was labelled which is not good for people with food allergies and the staff don't care about what the customers think. Hygiene was an issue as well. I would not recommend this to anyone.

A place like Cosmo is either going to be food heaven or food hell depending on what you want from your experience. If you like little bistro type restaurants then you will hate this place. If you like every food ever all freshly cooked and the ability to eat as much of it as you like, you'll love it. Let me explain Cosmo for those who have not been. It is located in Valley Park which is the bit of the Croydon Purley Way area past Ikea where the Vue cinema is. The restaurant is upstairs. Whether you have booked or not, you will have to wait to be served. You wait in a boring hallway which looks like it belongs in a college. When you go in, you pay per head and receive your ticket. You then go into the restaurant itself and hand over your ticket. The restaurant is beautiful and it is just vast and stunning. You buy drinks at the bar and take them to your table. You then just go and help yourself to food. There are literally hundreds of dishes to choose from and to even start listing them would be impossible. If you don't like something, leave it. They do clear the plates so the review about the couple who left their plates to get drinks and was cleared does not surprise me. I am not a fast eater but considering you don't have to wait for orders to be taken, I can't understand people complaining that 2 hours is not enough time to eat a meal. There are always loads of Asian people there and to me, that's a good sign that the food is authentic. My 8 year old daughter absolutely loves Cosmo because she is able to go and get what she wants and feels like she's in the Disneyland of food! The toilets are clean and tidy, the food always looks amazing and there are so many staff here - all wearing headsets because the place is so huge - I would say - go and try it, it's an experience unlike any other - we loved it.

Extremely polite and attentive waiters/waitresses and at first glance the range of food is huge! However, going there after 630 at night it becomes over-crowded and getting to the food can be a bit of a jostling competition. After 8pm this becomes standing around, waiting for fresh food to be delivered to the stations as with so many seats, the food goes very quickly. Owing to the sheer size, it can get very, very noisy (my most recent trip we were next to a table of very loud older men who spent the whole time telling jokes and laughing so loudly my friends and I could barely have a conversation!) but overall, if you enjoy nice adequately priced food, a buffet atmosphere and lots of children running about and pushing in, it's ok - recommended if you are in a hurry to eat fast and leave.

Cosmo is a great restaurant when you feel like your really hungry to eat Chinese Japanese Asian food etc. When I bought my wife and my 2 kids to Cosmo the first thing i noticed was the staff were very polite and showed s to our seats which was nice, It was really nice as you can start as soon as you get to your seats (except if you want drinks). The only bad thing about Cosmo is that at the end (the dessert) they sorta rush you a bit eg saying 30 mins left or 15 mins left till leaving time which I can understand but it isn't comfortable as my kids loved the chocolate fountains and sadly only got one turn as we had 10 minutes left.

Definitely a nice restaurant with a huge choice. However, the most off putting aspect of a meal here is the constant reminders about the time you have to leave. This is the worst type of customer service you could have for a new restaurant. This is an area that they will have to address as people are being asked to pay £15.00 per head as adults for a 1.5-2.0 hour meal. I can understand the turnaround being quick if it was michelin star or of a higher calibre and if it was situated in central London but this is Croydon, Valley Park! Maybe they believe that they are bigger and better and that they are only at this site for a short time, hit the public hard, make quick profits and then scarper when they are no longer in vogue!

I have been a few times and the place has always been rammed packed. There is little room between tables which can feel a bit uncomfortable. The variety in the evening far out-ways lunchtime but you can feel rushed as you are sometimes limited to 2hrs.

The food is tasty with excellent choice and the environment and presentation appears very clean. It is excellent value for money and you can't expect much more for what you are paying.

Booking in advance by telephone is a major problem, I spent two days recently trying to get through on their number that just continually rang I gave up in the end. They seem to pay little attention to customer service, they didn't even respond to my emails. When a company takes this attitude there is a risk that things will go down hill!

Great if you are fan of mass catering at its worst - it is not really a restaurant, more a so-so canteen with a limited choice of sub-standard food.
Nothing I tried tasted the way it should taste and quite a few items did not really have any flavour whatsoever.
I was there lunchtime, place was very busy, so food was not "sitting" being re-re-re-heated for too long.
It may be marginally better idea to take children there for lunch than to McDonald's or similar , although the main benefit might be to your wallet, not taste buds.
Quite a disappointment!

This place is truly awful, the food was nice, I found the atmosphere great however after 40 minutes of eating quite contently with my family, a waiter came up to me to remind me that I had 20 minutes left. This really left a sour taste in my mouth to say the least, I found myself rushing my food and feeling very uncomfortable, with the constant glares of the very intimidating and quite rude Chinese staff. If they had some education in hospitality, the restaurant would do so well however it felt very much 'conveyor-belt' style eating. I did joke with my family that even in Nando's they give you enough time to eat and digest your food. I would not go back because the food quality was mediocre but service was absolutely horrendous. Definitely not worth £13.99 of my money.

Its a buffet. So I cannot slate the quality or range of food, both equally brilliant, but as a dining experience ... forget it. I was reminded of Godstone Farm. Enough said.

I was glad I went for the experience, however would definitely not recommend this restaurant. I would recommend that you only attend this restaurant if you do not value good customer service and you do not mind trying to communicate with non-English speaking staff and okay food.On my one and only visit with my Mother, my Mother was violently sick and vomited in the foyer of the Purley way establishment, (bearing in mind my Mother has not vomited in years - this is very telling).My husband once in the establishment Queued up for 20-30 Min's for the made to order grilled lamb and prawns, when he finally got it he placed his plate on the table and went to the bar to buy some drinks whilst the food cooled down. At this point a staff member approached our table and asked if he could throw away my husband's plate of food, I advised him "No" and told the staff member he had just popped to the bar and hadn't actually tasted the food as yet, the staff member advised me that we would have to leave in the next 10 Min's, I said" OK". He then turned to a colleague had a 2 min conversation in a foreign language , walked over to another table picked up a plate with left over food and walked straight back over to my table with the one plate and emptied the contents of the plate into my husband'plate - I was absolutely speechless and asked him why in Gods name he had done that and advised him I would now have to que for another half an hour to replace the food and would be making a formal complaint. He then suddenly was no longer able to understand English and walked off. Finally I went to the Roast meat stand and a member of staff standing there asked me if I would like some roast meat I said "yes please" he then turned round walked out the door behind him,( I assumed to get a knife), however to this day I never saw the man again, and had to flag down and alternative member of staff after waiting there with other customers and realising he was not coming back.

I have just returned home from a fantastic buffet dinner at Cosmo's in Croydon. I must say the food isn't Michelin star, but for a buffet it was delicious, it was much better than other Asian buffets (hence I'm Chinese and don't usually go to the common China Town buffets). There was a huge choice of food, and was shocked that I saw a fellow diner put chips on his plate! What was that about? There's yummy chicken curry, dim sum, seafood and you go for chips?! More to the point, I believe the staff are there to: send you to the table, tell you how to get your seafood (nice idea, clips into a bowl and then seafood will be sent to your table, once you have your clip back you can go for more!), serve your seafood and clear your table. The thing I don't understand from fellow diners is how they have slated Cosmo, it is A buffet! You go up to the food counters and serve yourself food, there is no science to it. It is as simple as going up for school dinners, the difference is it's thousand times better! I don't understand why reviewers are saying "the staff didn't explain to me what to do" It's not rocket science! It is A buffet. Yes, and the emphasis on the word 'buffet'. Overall, if you usually go to the rubbish Chinese buffets for 6quid, please try Cosmo, you won't be going back to places like Mr Wu again. And please it is A buffet, don't expect the staff to pull out your seat for you to sit down and take your coat or wash your feet for you, it's not the Ritz.

I totally agree with some of the other reviews here, go for the food and don't expect the staff to make you feel welcome, to them you are merely cattle bringing in cash. An example; on my second visit with my partner I was treated to incredulous, rude staff for not booking. Trying to explain that I had tried to book via email and phone, both without reply, was not a position I should have been placed in. As a consequence they wrote on my receipt that we only had 1 hour 30 mins, and when I asked why we were given 30 mins less than everyone else? The answer? Because we didn't book... I spoke with a manager who realised how unfair this was even though he still held the 'your fault for not booking' attitude. We were then walked to our table and preceded to eat surrounded by 100 or so empty seats... Food is good though for a buffet.

Is it just me or are the first two reviews of Cosmo exactly the same? Very strange. I came to Cosmo in a large group of about 20 in Feb & my review is mixed! The atmosphere is a bit like a farm. There were loads of people queuing to enter, luckily we'd booked in advance, but from the outside its really difficult to know which queue you should be in and it just looked really disorganized. The staff hang around the queuing/paying area looking like bouncers but not actually organizing the queues or helping people, just making sure they've paid. Some of our group was late but they wouldn't allow us to pay for who was there and let the rest join us later; we had to wait outside with the rest of the cattle, and they made sure they let us know that our time slot was being eaten into while we weren't eating. In short the service is less then poor, I don't know how they get by on being so rude to their customers, but intrigue and column inches wont get them bookings forever! Inside, they're not much better, 85% of the are incredibly rude, the rest are blank faced and don't acknowledge anyone. The restaurant itself is vast but for such a massive place the tables are very close together, but it looks nice, & seems to be clean. The signs they blu-tacked up, reminding everyone how many servings are permitted at the cooking stations, are so tacky its unreal. The food is varied & good, but there are better restaurants close by. Most of its hot, some of the labels were wrong, some were handwritten on cardboard, tacky, but most actually read what you were eating. The sushi was a little warm, individual servings of ginger soy and wasabi would be nice, they could serve them on pieces of card. The cooking stations are incredible, the food at Cosmo is the best, but be prepared to queue, again. Also note that you cannot get food for someone else at the cooking stations unless they can have a look at the person first! Extra * for the choc fountain!

I went to the cosmos in croydon and I was blown away by the value and the live cooking stations by far one of the best Chinese restaurants I've ever been to wow!! I made a mistake on my birthday I tried to book croydon cosomos but they were fully booked so I thought I'll see where the nearest one was as I've been talking about the croydon branch to friends and family and everyone was really excited to go so we made the mistake of booking in chatham (thinking it would be the same) well it wasn't it was awful no live cooking stations and no where near the 300 dishes advertised more like 30 it was like a dirty cheap Chinese restaurant no where near the standard of croydon all the food was gross and the desserts were frozen and most empty with no more food being replaced just awful I felt so embarrassed as I'd been telling everyone how amazing it was!! Don't even no how it can have the same name disgusting! So please don't make the mistake by assuming there all the same!! Can't wait to get everyone to the croydon branch so they can see what the fuss was all about!! Sarah

I would just like to say, having read the recent reviews I have to agree with a couple of the reviewers. I myelf have been there 2 to 3 times with friends of mine and have to say on the food side of things, you have a variety of choices to choose from. The food is generally hot and also good. The customer service is rather disappointing - the staff are almost robotic like with no expression!!!! The manager of this branch is rude and does not take on board any issues or complaints that we had raised throughout the evening. Such a shame because apart from that, the place could be a nice place to go and socialise with friends for the evening. And one last piece of advice........ be prepared for the prices....... they seem to increase on each visit!!!!!!

I think anyone who gives Cosmo more than one star is from the other planet! I tried to book on-line after a recommendation from a "friend" that this was an experience but never received a reply. I then called and booked a table - give my name and telephone number to reserve the table but guess what! My name wasn't on the list! However, the young man on the entrance was very kind (hence the 1 star) and said he would speak to the manager and we were eventually let in. The place is vast and we were taken to our table and left without any indication as to what to do not even a simple - the instructions are on the table! After buying drinks from the bar we went in search of food. The best you can say about the food is there is a lot and there seems to be plenty of choice but the chicken I had from the Indian section was uncooked - raw and most unpleasant - the majority of the food is tepid not hot and the queues on the cooking stations too long (especially given the limited time slots). The final straw was when we left the table to look at the desserts and the waiters cleared the table of our drinks. Apparently as we hadn't left bags or coats they assumed we had left! It took 5 - 6 attempts to get the drinks replaced - it became a point of principle. One "waiter" brought back a single coke with a straw because in his view one bottle was 3/4s full and the other nearly empty - no mention was made of the sparkling mineral water or the glass of coke. Eventually one waiter used his brain and brought the 3 drinks to the table but by then the damage was done. I won't be going back and I would not recommend Cosmo to my worst enemy!

I have eaten at this restaurant and all I can say is that I am surprised that there are not water troughs at the side of each table because that is how you are treated, like cattle and pigs going in to feed..

The manager at the reception was extremely rude and even decided to keep his black wooly hat on whilst supposed to be greeting customers. It was like trying to gain entrance to a bar or club.

There is zero in the way of service you have to get your own drinks from the bar and you are lucky if you are given a glass to drink with a beer, this is difficult as one can be wedged firmly in at the table because there is very little room for people to move freely.

The restaurant looks nice from the outside but once in and once paid before you buy! you set foot in an overcrowded very noisy canteen without any service.

1st February 2011

Just read through all the comments...
(I think the very 1st one must be from another restaurant owner!)

The choice of food is amazing (how can anyone complain about ONLY getting to hours to stuff your face)? It's more than enough time...

Service was great... As I already said, the food is amazing... How they keep it all rolling is surely one of the Wonders Of The World!

I recommend it to all my friends and family without reservation xXx

We went last Monday and tried to book again for the weekend but they were fully booked! So we've booked it again for tomorrow night (Tuesday).

Keep up the good work guys xXx

I agree to the above reviewers, the reception manager is really exceptionally rude, he has no manners at all whatsoever.
He was so big-headed and treated us so badly when we were there to pay, he has no respect for any of his customers.
Also, the max seating time is 2hrs, they started chucking us out 10mins before by clearing the table, did even let us finish our afters.
No enjoyment at all at Cosmo....there are so much more I can say about it but I am afraid there simply won't be enough space here.

We had the pleasure of eating at Cosmos restaurant in Croydon (Valley Park) on Sunday 16th January; there was a total of 14 in a party.

This was our first visit to Cosmo and we were looking forward to it.

Booking is essential as we'd tried to go on the Saturday but they were fully booked.

On the Sunday there was a short queue on entry. Paying was uncommon but in hindsight was a good thing.

We were escorted to our table and our waiter briefly described what we had to do and where the food stations were.

The restaurant was well designed and really clean. Plates were tidied away very quickly.

The food is outstanding with a huge choice. The children in our party enjoyed the prawns and the teppanyaki grill; they also enjoyed the desserts and loved the chocolate fountain!

The staff are polite and aim to please.

We would wholeheartedly recommend it and will be going back again. A word of advice is to go with a hungry tummy and enjoy.

I had the pleasure of eating at Cosmos restaurant on Saturday 15th January (a total of 22 of us). There was no queue times and paying upfront was so much easier. The restaurant is really clean, plates etc tidied away very quickly. The food was outstanding with such a fantastic choice. The children in our party especially loved the chocolate fountain! The staff are nothing but polite and aim to please. I would wholeheartedly recommend it and wish we had one nearer to where I lived.

I disagree with the rude comments made about Cosmo as we all know it is a busy restaurant and it is clear that they try their best to make sure everybody gets in and is seated appropriately! The food was amazing and I enjoyed myself. The customer service was great. Thanks Cosmo!

I have visited cosmo many times and i love this place, their was great customer service and the employees were very polite i have recommended cosmo to many friends and family, cosmo is running an amazing business and it is a pleasure to have been able to eat there.

I also have to disagree with many of the poster here. Yes, the restaurant is big, yes it is noisy, but it's advertised as a huge restaurant, so what do you expect? I booked in advance, had to wait about 5 minutes to be checked off the list, didn't have to wait to pay in advance (much easier than paying afterwards, what possibly could you complain about paying in advance). Had to wait about 3 minutes to get a table, was escorted there easily.

Never saw any of the rude bouncers, or staff the other posters mentioned. There were a few people complaining they didn't have a booking, but they were sorted out easily it seemed. One comment would be the person taking us to the table didn't explain anything about how the restaurant worked, but on each table was a diagram of where all the food stations were.

For mass produced food, it was delicious. Everything tasted great. Make sure you don't eat before you get there! There was so much choice - yes some of the dishes were empty, but I saw everything being replaced. There was even pizza and roast dinner.

My only criticism was the Japanese food - the sushi didn't look great, and had to wait a while for the tempura. There were no little dishes for the soy sauce, ginger, wasabi, etc.

If you are looking for a peaceful dinner, then this place is probably not for you. But for the chance to eat as much as you want, then please try it and make your own mind up before letting these negative reviews make your mind up for you.

I have to disagree with the majority of comments on here.

Booking:
The restaurant is massive & always very busy so booking is a MUST.. Do not turn up without a reservation or you will be turned away or have to queue for a long time. We booked at least a week in advance and arrived around 7.30pm on a Sunday evening. There was no queue to get in and no queue to wait for our table.

Food:
Myself and my family have eaten at many Asian restaurants and buffets both in London and around the country and Cosmo is one of the best we have been to. The food is very good (mainly Chinese, Indian, Thai, Western) and there is such a huge variety it is impossible to try even a quarter of the food in one sitting. Big variety of desserts too including fresh fruit, ice cream, cakes, pastries and a chocolate fountain!

Venue and price:
The restaurant is on top of a gymnasium so the stairwell leading up to the restaurant isn't so nice. However once inside, there is impressive modern Asian themed decor throughout. Customers pay before you eat rather then at the end (£13).. I am guessing that as the venue is so big it is simply more practical this way.. People do the same at other restaurants, including for example Nando's, and this is never a problem. Drinks are averagely priced at around £1-3 for soft drinks and more for alcohol.

I know couples, families, friends and larger groups (a sports team of 46!) who have been and were all equally impressed! :)

Cosmo is the biggest S*** in the Uk, they treat people like cattle sheep, they tried feed 800 people at once(within 2 hours slot) with no service everything have to be done by yourself, not even taken the dirty plates away only when they want you to go rushing you out of the table. When we arrived we have to queue up to get in then to queue up to pay then to queue up to get a table with the worst ever bad manners that ever i have in my life in a restaurant, they treat people like S*** especially the manager at the door and at the till, then you go to the bar to order the drinks and they are so rude, they don't know how to treat people with respect.

If you like a place to treat you like sh*t, then this is the place to go.
We arrived at this restaurant(?) to a large queue(!) where we were met by a couple of 'drover's'. It turned out that the queue was for the till to pay for the food before we had even sighted it. The 'drovers' then shuffled us inside to yet another queue to wait for our table. The sight was that of a canteen/school dinner hall.
The man at the till was extremely rude to us and managed to get our backs up before we were even seated.
Some of our party arrived just after we seated and were accosted by the rude man at the till who made a scene about payment of these people and would not give us a minute to sort this out between ourselves. Very embarrassing and totally unnecessary.
Nothing was mentioned to us about leaving the building for a minute to go to the car. When we tried to come back in, that rude idiot at the till tried to charge us all over again even though he admitted to recognising us! Disgusting attitude!
No self respecting person would want a second experience of this, but if they do, its just a matter of time until they realise that they are being treated like animals.
This place is just a fad, and definitely wont survive with their ridiculous 'policies', insulting rudeness and non existant service.
I would rather pay £5.00 more and sit in a more intimate setting, where service and customer satisfaction is guaranteed to be on the menu.
In all reality, this place is a big rip off. But I guess its down to the individual as to whether they can put up with 'cattle market theme' and the abusive staff.
Most definitely never again.

Have to agree with other reviews on here. It is a very nice place with lots of food options however this is the only restaurant I have ever had to queue up as if I going into a nightclub. There is a Bouncer on the door who gets you to queue and lets you in when they are ready and once you are past the first queue you queue again to pay (i have never ever been to an actual restaurant that charges before your meal). Both the bouncer outside and the guy behind the counter were both very rude and did not seem to have any customer service skills whatsoever. My party of three were behind a group of four and he called us forward. We said "but they were first" and the bouncer/doorman replied "it doesn't matter as you will all get a seat" and so we ended up getting in before them which was not nice. We were also told by the doorman at 5:50pm that we could only come in if we left by 7pm meaning only just an hour by the time we were seated! We rushed our meal and could not relax and at 6:55pm on the dot a waiter came and said we only have 5 minutes left and again at 7pm they came to tell us our time was up. So if you want to be treated like crap but have some good food choices then this is the place to go. Personally won't be going back for quite a few months and hope to see some positive changes!

I thought I would take my parents to this restuarant this evening - but
I wish I did'nt. I tried to book ahead but the phone was constantly engaged. Before today I quite liked this restaurant, but this evening when we got there, the moron zero people skills manager at the tills said because we didn't book, he asked us to eat in an hour. When I said that I tried to book but the phones were engaged, he asked me to step to one side. I felt like a criminal instead of a customer. Eventually he gave us 1.5 hours and since I was raving before to my parents about this place, I accepted. The moron manager made a point of putting the time on the ticket.

The whole evening was rushed trying to eat and it really ruined the whole experience.

It was busy but by the time our table was up, there was a lot of empty tables but still someone came up and said that our table was only valid for another 10 minutes. I could understand if there was no tables left and someone needed the table, but there was no flexibility just some idiot rule that was being enforced for the hell of it.

If you want to feel like a criminal in a jail with a time limit to eat, come here. If you want a relaxing enjoyable experience don't. I would really recommend Cosmo get rid of that moron manager at the front of the desks.

Went here on a Thursday night at 8pm. The decor is quite modern and impressive looking, nicely lite, and the food was all displayed very nicely. It was super busy - unfortunately with the typical loud & obnoxious Croydon crowd. We had heard that this was the largest restaurant in the UK, and there was over 300 menu options available - which there was (I've read that a lot of these may not be available during lunch) Knowing that Cosmo is an all you can eat buffet for £13 we knew the food wasn't going to be great, but we thought we'd check it out anyway. Most of the food was deep fried & all tasted the same. There was a lot of fried batter and little meat in it. I tried a stuffed "crab claw" which was basically a ball of fried doughy batter with a teensy tiny crab claw sticking out of it - you couldn't get any meat out of the claw. They have a fresh seafood bar, so we ordered the lobster which was brought to our table -absoloutly pointless! The lobster consisted of 3 thin tiny little legs attached to a bit of shell which had some peppers & other veggies & then covered in cheese. The legs were so tiny there wasn't any meat in them & even if there was we weren't given any scissors to cut the legs open with so how were we supposed to eat them? I wasn't expecting a full tail or anything, but given the nice fresh seafood display I assumed we might get a few small pieces of lobster meat in some butter. We tried most of the foods, and liked the Indian food the best. The naan bread & tandori chicken were both very nice, as were the curries but they were a bit watery.

Over all I wouldn't rush back to Cosmo again, but may go back in 6 months just for something to do. The food quality isn't great - it's what I'd assume you might get from a cheap chinese takeaway or an American food court (possibly even Iceland for the deep fried things). The desserts are also very cheap quality, but there are lots to choose from. Basically don't expect too much, but it's ok for the £

Visited on a Wednesday lunch time and it was very busy! I visited with a friend who is vegetarian and we found it difficult to work out whether some of the dishes were vegetarian or not a some were marked with a V and others were not and most of the waiting staff did not speak very good English! Having said that huge variety of food on offer, and everything well stocked and beautifully presented. My only other gripe would be that the plates were very cold and by the time you got the food back to the table it was not very hot. Overall for a new place was enjoyable and would go back again, maybe in the evening when more of the serving stations are open.

Concept fantastic. Customer Service zero! If your face doesn't fit, you are treated like a second class citizen

I have heard nothing but 'COSMO' around the office since it opened a few weeks ago! I went in to see what all the fuss was about and am now COSMO's biggest fan! I am a big food fan so visiting COSMO was like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. I felt sublimely lost amongst the fresh Asian aromas :) !! It was really fantastic, other than me getting so full I could barely make it back up to the food stations! I'll be back - sooner than later hopefully!

Went for lunch there and although food was good, I feel I was misled into thinking it would be more than it was. I was disapointed that there was a limited choice of food and dessert cnsisted only of ice cream and grapes, apples and melon. What happened to the chocolate fountains, gateuxs, live cooking stations, roasts etc I had been promised in the advertising? It appears this only happens in the evenings,