Origin 7

Despite the mixed reviews, my wife and I went to Origin with open minds and hungry tummies.
After being seated, the layout of the restaurant was explained to us. Basically it’s spread acros 3 floors with different genres located on different levels. A bit weird, but not necessarilly a bad thing. The actual restaurant was hugely spacious (as you might imagine ith 3 levels!) and looked so much classier than Red Hot World Buffet. It was fairly quiet too, which gave it an edge over RHWB.
We started with chinese food. It looked pretty good and I was optimistic as we sat down with our plates piled high. Then things started going south. Fast!
The first bite of my rice was cold. Frustrating, but not the end of the world. I moved onto my noodles. Also cold. Desperately hoping to find something delicious, I dove into my chicken, beef, and veg dishes. All cold. All mediocre in terms of taste.
My wife didn’t fair any better but we hoped that we had maybe had a bit of bad luck with the chinese food. We moved onto the other genres, all of which tasted really middle of the road, at best, and many of which were also cold or old. The only decent food I had came from the dumpling station where I literally had to wait 15 minutes to be given 2 tiny dumplings.
The entire experience was a disaster. Bad food, cold food, long waits, and yet the prices remained over £10 per person.
When we went to leave, I told the staff that almost all the food we ate was cold and the things that weren’t cold tasted bad. All I wanted was a simple apology but I walked away with nothing more than a, «Well, tell us which dishes and we’ll make sure they’re changed.» to which I reiterated, «Almost all of them.»
Needless to say we won’t ever eat here again. Awful experience.

Me And a bud pop in for some lunch me being a porkley kinda guy I like buffets and trying out new things. This place is kinda hard to find as on the 1^st floor of the lite opposition Leif to the vue cinema .£11.50 for all u can eat Japanese Chinese Italianate sounds good if all did not tasted a day old. Pizza was cold and satey chips tasted lukewarm and reheated .the Chinese food was awful to tons of water pour of the lids of each dish .hmm maby I want at bad time but it was nasty

Masses and masses of food for a set price! Sounds like heaven to me. If someone offered me all the food I could eat for a set price I would definitely take them up on that. Speaking of which, I need some dinner.
(…Pause for dinner…)
Leeds City Center already has one ‘All You Can Eat’ in the form of Red Hot Buffet with another to open up shortly closer to the station. So with this in mind we entered into the newly opened Origin 7.
Origin 7 is located in The Light. Situated on the first floor, sharing space with Vue Cinema and Virgin Active, this all you can eat establishment has a classier look and feel about it. Entering through an arch way you are asked to wait until seated. Once taken to your seat drinks orders are placed and the merriment ensues. One of the friendly staff, who was in this case the same guy that seated us, asked if this was the first time we had been. Knowing we hadn’t he proceeded to explain the layout of the building. What we had not realised, and this was just from gazing across from Vue, was that this business was over 3 levels. This not only shocked me but also my company too. The building looks small from the outside.
On the main floor (the entrance level) you will find a selection of Indian, Japanese and Desert options including a self-​service ice cream machine. Located on the upper level, along with the toilets, are the Italian and English Carvery stations. And finally located on the lower level are the Szechuan and Chinese stations along with a hyper enthusiastic gentleman trying to get anyone to try Szechuan food with the phrases «Do you like spicy food? You tried Szechuan?»
So what of the food I hear you say. Hold your horses, I am getting there (No horse puns please). As we were seated on the main floor we both opted to head towards the Indian station. Presented in perfectly clean, and covered serving bowls, the food looked highly appetising. Opting for the vegetarian options I tucked in and was immediately brought much delight. The food tasted on par with a good Indian restaurant. It wasn’t amazing but it was good. This looked promising.
Skipping over the English and Italian (basically Pizza and Pasta) I headed towards the Szechuan and Chinese. Looking over the Szechuan station I was limited for options. Being vegetarian normally doesn’t limit me in Indian/​Oriental food but to my dismay I was severely limited. In one hand you have a rock, in the other you have the proverbial hard place and stuck in the middle, like an over squeezed lemon, was me. 1 main vegetarian dish (tofu in chilli) and 5 bland accompaniment dishes lay before me. I tried the recommendations of the enthusiastic server and was severely unimpressed. The highlight from the Chinese section, even though it is a Thai dish, was the Thai Green Curry. Beautifully spiced and flavoured it was a delight to eat. This was a vast comparison to the sweet potato fritter that basically tasted of grease and batter.
Desert time. Limited to say the least. A few mousse like options, 2 soft cakes (rhubarb crumble and cheesecake) both with limp looking and tasting pastry and peanut brittle. Peanut brittle? Why I will never know. What, luckily saved it, was the inclusion on an ice cream machine that churned out the creamiest and softest ice cream I’ve had in a while. It took me back to my seaside days, 5 years old, trunks and arm bands on, spade in one hand and ice cream in the other.
Overall we paid about £10 including a pint of diet coke and left full, but disappointed. Yes the Indian food was good, but the general standard of the rest of the food not.
The staff are friendly and attentive and the overall place looks good, professional and clean but, and this is a big but…
«I like big butts and I cannot lie…»
MC Hammer!!! Get out of my review, you’re not welcome here (Oh I lie, he is always welcome).
Anyway, as I was saying. The overall standard of the food is less than that of Red Hot Buffet. There are no ‘Live Cooking Stations’, less options in regards to the countries offered and the food quality is generally of a lower quality. Yes Red Hot Buffet is not brilliant, but it is consistent. I do want this place to work but changes need to happen to the quality of the food.

Yesterday (no, I’m not starting to sing) saw a troop of the NHS’s finest (well, hungriest) IT crowd head down to this new all you can eat (or «eat all you can» if you’re like me) in The Light, Leeds city centre.
The overall experience was pretty good — an introductory offer of £4.50 per person (usually £9) for an all you can eat with a range from Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Italian and English to choose from. The Japanese selection was a bit piffling (rather stale veggie sushi and some rather tasty chilli coleslaw type mush) but the other selections seemed pretty varied and (apart from the very chewy and bony lamb rib type things) generally very tasty, without the annoyingly salty overload of MSG overriding the taste of the food.
They also do tap water for free (available in pint glasses on the bar), which is a good thing if you’re not bothered about a) alcohol (I usually am, but it was lunchtime with work chums) and b) paying for more than your food.
I didn’t sample any of the Italian or English (I’m much more of an Eastern sort of chap when it comes to food) but I was informed by co-​eaters that it was pretty good. What I did have was generally (rather like Ross Kemp informed us in the Fruit N’ Fibre adverts many moons ago) tasty, tasty — very very tasty.*
Very tasty :)
I’d definitely recommend this for a meal for a large party (there were 18 of us in total). The restaurant is laid out over 3 floors, which is a bit of a nuisance when carrying plates of food around (see reference above to not drinking alcohol.) but at least it helps you burn off a few calories in the process.
Dessert wise — no great shakes (or other milk based products. ho ho.) but really, once you’re full of lamb Rogan Josh does it really matter?!
The only odd thing about the seating we were allocated was the long chair that some of our party were sitting on (the ones with less foresight than myself). This meant that they had to up (chop)sticks whenever someone wanted to get out for another bout of culinary fisticuffs with some fried rice etc. Surely «all single chairs» would have been a much better idea?
Apart from that — great, friendly efficient staff and decent food. What’s not to like? :)
*Was it Fruit N’ Fibre? Or was it some other breakfast cereal. I forget.