By Gaby Soutar

Copyright scotsman

I am not a buffet restaurant fan. However, my family loves this genre. Sometimes, I have to submit, as I am outnumbered, by two nieces and a nephew, all of whom almost always want every birthday to take place at one of Edinburgh’s all-you-can-eat extravaganzas, from Fazenda to China Red. So, when I heard that franchise Cosmo Edinburgh had been awarded Buffet Restaurant of the Year at the 11th annual Food Awards Scotland 2025, which is voted for by the public, I thought I should take the Soutar juniors along. My six-year-old nephew was especially stoked by the invitation. “The good thing about this sort of restaurant is that you can take a little of everything, then go back for more of what you like,” he baby-splained explained to me. Indeed. Also, this place is certainly the swishest-looking world buffet joint that I’ve seen. The interior is so shiny, low-lit and futuristic looking. It’s like we’re in Vegas, baby. The price for Saturday lunch or dinner is a reasonable £23.99 for adults, or £11.99 for kids, who are categorised, according to the website, as being under 155cm. That’s three centimetres shorter than Ronnie Corbett and Kylie Minogue, for scale. Nobody bothered to measure my nieces. Their eyes were on saucers, when they saw what was on offer. Hot-dogs, on a canny machine that rolled them and heated them at the same time. The teppanyaki station, with little scallops, beef and slabs of salmon, plus teriyaki sauce or minced garlic to slop on top. Ramen, Hong Kong noodles, garlic bread, sushi, Indian food, a nacho cheese fountain with tortilla chips, Chinese food, pizza, and even a roast turkey, complete with Yorkshire puddings, among many other things. This is the Willy Wonka’s factory of buffets. Fill your boots, and all your other shoes, too. Despite the variety, it always surprises me how kids will always go straight for the low value items at restaurants like this. The chips, fish fingers, hash browns, or chicken nugs, rather than the seafood or slightly less beige bits. Anyway, at least they were happy, with their 30-storey piled-high plates, and big pint glasses of refillable fizzy pop. I was pretty impressed, too. I mean, I have quite low expectations, because these places are more about quantity than quality, but there were some pleasant dishes, like the gingery prawns, jammy sweet and sour chicken, sesame-seed-studded prawn toast, Beijing sticky ribs, shredded duck with pancakes, biryani, and the wakame salad. You’d never be able to work out where you are in the world, just from looking at your plate. Anyway, I went back up about four times, so that’s an endorsement of sorts. I can see why this venue, along with most other buffet restaurants, has no obvious windows. Nobody can peer in and witness your bottomless greed. Well, apart from other diners. In buffets, they usually consist of specific subgroups. These are mainly students, families, and giant six-foot rugby-player-ish dudes for whom a regular three course meal is nothing but an amuse bouche. This place is no exception. It’s not the sort of place you go on date night. It was also noted that the service here is very warm and attentive. They’re always suddenly appearing, like illusionists, to whip away your sauce-smeared plates, so you’re ready for the next round. As far as pudding goes, we made sure to leave a little space. There’s the obligatory chocolate fountain, plus a tray of apple crumble and custard, hot waffles, and a machine that dispenses swirls of vanilla soft serve into wafer cups. That’s as well as plenty of syrupy fruit in bowls, squares of orange and yellow jelly – usually only available in schools or hospitals – and lots of small squishy squares of dessert, like brownie or Oreo cheesecake, plus a huge chocolate fudge cake that’d had been pre-cut into unwieldy bricklayer slabs. The profiteroles looked rather withered, but tasted surprisingly decent. I double up on their chocolate topping, by dunking them into the sugary Trevi Fountain. Anyway, I wouldn’t come back here alone, or with my other half. It’s just not my thing. However, I know I’m going to be returning, at the next nephew or niece’s birthday shindig. And I’m not mad about it. Cosmo Edinburgh, Omni Centre, Greenside Place, Edinburgh (0131 557 0808, www.cosmo-restaurants.co.uk) Read more: “I tried the new £39.50 lunch in Edinburgh’s most elegant dining room and it was a proper treat” Read more “I had lunch in Edinburgh’s newest and best Japanese restaurant and it was pure magic” Read more: “I took my family to Edinburgh’s newst pizza restaurant and they were so impressed” Read more: “I tried the buzzy new Edinburgh luxury hotel restaurant that’s got everyone talking”