Aroma Oriental Buffet restaurants

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The first Aroma restaurant I went to was in Stevenage, and about 7 or 8 years ago. My impression at that visit was that the food was OK, and the price decent at £6.50 for lunch. That particular restaurant felt quite spacious, the variety of dishes plentiful, and the owner friendly (although our hosts for the visit was aquainted with her, so it doesn't count).

But. I am going to focus on my experiences at Aroma in the Luton ...
...its cinema and all that. Aroma is located on the first floor and is readily viewable from the outside and whilst going up the escalators inside. The pricing is clearly displayed at the entrance.

So you go in, there is a sign indicating to you to wait for a member of staff to tend to you. They ask how many to dine, and whether or not you'd like to smoke. He/she then takes you to a suitably sized table and takes you drinks order; you ... more

I'd just like to mention that the opinions in here are quite strong, but I think they are justified with reason.

The first Aroma restaurant I went to was in Stevenage, and about 7 or 8 years ago. My impression at that visit was that the food was OK, and the price decent at £6.50 for lunch. That particular restaurant felt quite spacious, the variety of dishes plentiful, and the owner friendly (although our hosts for the visit was aquainted with her, so it doesn't count).

But. I am going to focus on my experiences at Aroma in the Luton restaurant.

I will split this into two parts, firstly the experience from entering to leaving; then a critique on the food.

-- Start to finish: --

The restaurant is located in The Galaxy centre, which is a dubbed Luton's premier leisure venue with its cinema and all that. Aroma is located on the first floor and is readily viewable from the outside and whilst going up the escalators inside. The pricing is clearly displayed at the entrance.

So you go in, there is a sign indicating to you to wait for a member of staff to tend to you. They ask how many to dine, and whether or not you'd like to smoke. He/she then takes you to a suitably sized table and takes you drinks order; you are prompted to help yourself to the buffet.
You can't actually ask for tap water here, they will only serve you distilled water which you have to pay for.

By the time you have your plate full of food you will return to your table where your ordered drinks are usually ready at the table.

Now that you are seated you start to notice the decor of the interior, which is quite contemporary with lots of stainless steel, funky light fittings, and clean tidy tables and chairs; simple but nice.

You scoff down the first plate within 5 minutes (due to the hunger built up for the occasion), and comment on it "that's really nice". You go for your second plate, feeling unable to wait for the rest of what's on offer.

At the food stands you see that all the containers have plenty in them, and occasionally you see kitchen staff refilling the containers. The stands are basically Bain Marie parries which have been fancied up and placed in a circular manner, looks quite nice, and placed almost centre of the floor. The lunch service offers at least 30 dishes. The dinner opening offers at least 60 including some more expensive seafood dishes including steamed salmon, mussels, and king prawns. Each dish is clearly labelled, with the name and a brief list of ingredients.

A waiter/waitress will have taken your first empty plate away by now, very quick and efficient.

You eat your second plate. Having earlier noticed the Tepanyaki (meaning "iron plate barbecue" in Japanese) you decide to give it go, it looks interesting. You hover over to the tepanyaki. There you get a plate and choose a number of uncooked ingredients including noodles, prawns, chicken, bean sprouts, and so on. Sometimes there is queue here (usually the dinner opening) for the two tepan chefs. Once you reach one of them they put you plate of raw ingredients onto the hot plate and asks whether you would like it to be spicy. The chef stirs your food around on the hot plate adding soy sauce and seasoning of salt, and serves it on a clean plate.

By now you've probably finished your drink and want another one, one of the waiters/waitresses are very happy to get you another drink, or you can buy one yourself at the bar with your table card (they use this to tally your items for the bill, it is left on your table) or cash.

After finishing your plate of tepanned food you will have just enough room for desert (probably). A selection of fresh fruits and fruits in juice, along with ice cream, and a few flavours of jelly are usually available. Sometimes they do a special grass jelly, which when made well is quite a nice acquired taste (to get used to). For the dinner opening there is also usually gateau and coffee cake available as well.

Once you have finished your meal you take you table card to the till, your bill is calculated, and you can pay by cash or major credit cards.

The price currently is £6.80 for lunch, and £12.80 for dinner from Monday to
Very simple from start to finish. It's possible to come to this place and be eating quicker than getting a Big Mac.

-- The Food: --

If I had to describe it in one word, the word would be POOR.

Each dish in this restaurant adds to the variety of the menu, this is great for an all you can eat buffet. People can just go up and try all the dishes available, as much as the stomach will allow. BUT. Each dish has been made to a below average standard, with, I imagine, many containing monosodium glutamate (MSG). A cheap shortcut for Chinese restaurants in making flavourful dishes. Monosodium glutamate can make some people quite ill, with vomiting and headaches as symptoms. But the main thing is the lack of pride in the food, for a restaurant that is bad news. Frankly I am surprised at their success as a chain restaurant. To me the standard of food is at most the standard of an average Chinese takeaway. The only strong point is the large variety.

The tepanyaki is a failure. The point of tepanyaki is that the chef cooks in front of the guests to their delight. Showing his skills as a chef, and as a host to the diners. The chefs at Aroma quite frankly are completely uninterested in the guests, and it seems even more so with cooking. I can't imagine how they retain their jobs as chefs. You go to tepanyaki section, and choose noodles with any random selection of ingredients, and it will come out tasting of the same thing, soy sauce, and salt. No care is put into ensuring everything is cooked to the right level. The chef throws all the ingredients onto the hotplate (which in fact is a standard kitchen griddle) at once, and proceeds to stir it all around with random splashes of soy sauce and a handful of salt, though I forgive him for that since it's hardly possible to judge when to put things in when all the ingredients are thrown in like that.
You end up with a sloppy plate of food with undercooked prawns and over cooked noodles, and the chicken just about cooked enough to avoid food poisoning.

Since MSG is actually such a negative, it should be clearly labelled on each dish that contains it.

-- Overall: --

Aroma is a easygoing restaurants that can provide a very quick and relaxed service for the customer. Its great selling points are value for money, quick service, large variety, and a clean modern setting.

The downfall with the quality of cooking and lack of care and pride in their dishes is in my opinion a very significant one, which outweighs much of the positives. After all people go to restaurants to eat and drink. So I think Aroma would be much more attractive with even almost shoddy decor but good, honest, quality cooking.

The price I think is reasonable compared to other restaurants. But other restaurants are better for food. However it did used to be quite a good deal with its £4.95 price for over a year, until the recent rise in price.

I hope to deter you all from Aroma, and go to Nandos instead. Only joking, Nandos is OK (salad dressings way too sour :p).

I hope you like this review, and have been informative. My comments on the food may be a bit harsh due to my unsatisfiable palate. I do put great emphasis on making things taste good, and a restaurant should do that being a place who's business is food. My opinion on this is honest and exactly what I think, it quality is certainly at most the quality of your average takeaway. This not being critical on the variety, which is plentiful.

Give me some comments and rating folks.

Ja out
 

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