Reviews in York

Great value, excellent service, good food & extensive variety

Been going to this fabulous buffet restaurant in York for many years (originally ‘ Cosmo’) and it is always a great pleasure and delight to eat there. The variety of dishes on offer is amazing - something to suit everyone’s taste - staff are welcoming, friendly and attentive and a visit to Panda Mami is an experience more than just eating out. Prices have increased over the past couple of years, but it still offers good value for money.

We like the food at PandaMami very much, especially my sons. We drove about 40 miles there several times and were happy with the effort. Last time, it was my younger son's birthday, and the nice staff provided a delicious birthday cake. It was an impressive experience indeed.

We had another great meal at Maxi's - kids, adults and a grandparent. They were good with allergies and a good selection for vegetarians. The service was excellent and they were on the ball with what we were celebrating. We ate on a Tuesday so it was naturally quiet, but that suited us. It isn't cheap to eat there but you get fantastic quality. Thank you!

We attended for a meal at York restaurant. The guy who greeted us was so lovely and attentive. We went for my mums birthday and he came out after our meal with a cake and sang happy birthday. Im ashamed I didn't get his name, but he was a true a professional and gave us a lovely memory. Food was also really good, and we all left with smiles and full bellies.

Excellent attentive service. Fantastic value with an multitude of dishes to suit all tastes. We will definitely be back.

The food was excellent, such a vast choice and the tastes were superb. We particularly enjoyed the sushi; the maki rolls were stunning. The staff were friendly and accommodating, they cleared the tables as soon as you had finished your plates. The atmosphere in the evening was delightful and welcoming. The amazing amount of cakes was mind blowing. Thoroughly enjoyed our meal and if back in York again would definitely re-visit.

Me and my wife visited on the night time and this place is amazing. Great value for money with so many food options and the staff are super friendly definitely be visiting again

Fantastic service from emailing when booking table to service on the day. Great food . Good time had by us all

As always, a great value lunch, particularly as it was York Restaurant Week (2-4-£20). However, not the usual large selection, and some dishes looked a bit tired. We knew their opening hours were until 1500, but they started closing serveries (all deserts gone!) at 1430 and kicked us out dead on 1500, so all a bit rushed at the end. Staff were trying to be accomodating and apologetic, but they could have explained the timings when we arrived at 1315. Also, a strange extra £1.20 added to the bill, which they explained as 'service charge', but 3% seems an odd amount! We left a few quid for the server anyway, but I think it's all combined/shared.

Great food, great and friendly staff

Excellent food no complaints,enjoyed by all of my party.A great selection to choose from.Once finished there was no rush to get us to leave.

Went as a group of 6 at 5 pm the restaurant wasn't busy but we liked this the food was excellent and plenty of it the staff were all lovely and polite and had a really good banter with them will definitely be coming back

Dreadful. A place where the marketing jargon is so outrageous that it is laughable. The website claims that 'guests are at the centre of Panda Mami; everything we do is designed to surpass expectations'. That didn't happen on Monday night, we certainly weren't the centre of anything, much of the food was lukewarm (at best) and sometimes mislabelled (crispy duck....no way was it crispy, breaded crab claws that had never had a whiff of the sea), some was bland and in the case of the carvery virtually non-existent. When I inquired why the only meat offered on the carvery was a scraggy end of gammon, the guy asked what I would like and when I said 'beef' he said there wasn't any. No apology, just 'there wasn't any'. When I re-iterated my complaint when paying the bill he admitted there wasn't only no beef joints, but there was no other joints of meat at all. Really? I hadn't realised York was the centre of a meat crisis. This hardly 'surpassed my expectations' and I didn't feel that, I the customer, was 'the centre of Panda Mami'. As for the temperature of the food, there were no local inspectors there to check, so any claims by the owner that it conformed to standards are probably wild of the mark. If there had been I doubt very much they would have passed. Sweets should have been fine, but ice cream was unavailable as a notice said the fridge wasn't functioning and there was another note on the cake cabinet warning customers to be cautious as they could be frozen because the temperature couldn't be controlled! In fact, they were fine, but when my wife and I tried a lime green concoction in a glass, we were mystified, it was so tasteless that we had no idea what on earth it was. Afterwards, I wondered whether Monday was quiz night and this particular offering was the tie-break question with the teams having to name the ingredients! When I saw the restaurant's maintenance man wrapping aluminium foil around the terminals of a heat-light bulb above the pizza counter in order to make it work it rather summed up the whole dreadful experience of a place where Health and Safety would have a field day. One blessing was that we weren't paying the full price of £22.99, it was York Restaurant Week so the deal was £15 each. So when the bill came to £41,40 and the only extras we had were a pint of Guinness and a half pint of Somersby cider (the two costing a staggering £11.40) I reckoned it helped them recoup the difference! I should have challenged it, but although it was a quiet night, we had already waited at least ten minutes to pay (the guy seemed to be struggling) and I had just about lost the will to live, all I wanted was the leave the restaurant as quickly as possible and never to return.

My husband and I visited Oscars for Restaurant Week on a Monday being at 18:00. Starters; Halloumi Sticks with Harissa Sauce and Garlic Bread with Cheese. Mains; Chicken Gyro, Lamb Gyro. Drinks; White Wine and Peroni. The Halloumi Sticks were fresh, hot and tasty with the Harissa Sauce. The Garlic bread was also hot and fresh with plenty of Cheese. After finishing our mains we were asked if we’d like additional drinks which we accepted, but after 15 minutes we hadn’t received our drinks, even though there were only half a dozen other tables in use. The waitress was wandering about in an abstractly busy manner, but wasn’t so busy that she couldn’t serve us so I had to approach the bar to ask for the drinks she had offered. After a few minutes we were given our drinks. From finishing our Starters to receiving our Mains it took over 20 minutes. Both the Chicken and Lamb Gyros were generous in portion size but unfortunately both meals were luke warm and in my Chicken Gyro I found a small Bone. Our plates were cleared away and we asked for our bill which was presented to us in a timely manner, but then we sat for another 15 minutes without the waitress returning for payment as she was in conversation with somebody at the bar and the other waitress was back and forth between the kitchen, tables etc. So after waiting we approached the bar to make payment. It was very quiet in the Restaurant so the waiting time for Drinks, being served our Mains - which were like warm and paying for our bill wasn’t due to being busy. I don’t feel that my husband and I will ever return to Oscars again.

Friendly, helpful reception, nice atmosphere, not too busy. Good choice of food, predominantly Asian. The dessert was lovely too. Overall a good experience.

Great selection of food and everything we had was very tasty. Friendly staff and great looking restaurant Great value for money and will be going back next time we're in York