EVEN in a town dwarfed in population by Swindon, Wootton Bassett has always been lucky with the variety of restaurants on offer.
One of the town's crowning glories is Oriental Aroma in High Street with its unique 140-dish buffet.
I first visited the restaurant 18 months ago when I first moved to Wootton Bassett and had gone little further than the takeaway next door for my Chinese food fix.
But Oriental Aroma just seems to get better and better - as does the service.
When we arrived the High Street restaurant at 8pm the place was quiet with only two other parties - albeit bigger parties - there.
We were quickly shown to our table where we munched prawn crackers while we poured over the never-ending menu.
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The dimly lit restaurant is tastefully decorated with Chinese lettering and murals and had an illuminated roof garden outside which would have been a perfect location for our meal had it not been April and therefore freezing!
Our eyes bigger than our bellies we took full advantage of the "All You Can Eat" offer.
We chose the mixed hors d'oeuvres - a meal in itself with curry parcels, satay chicken skewers, crispy seaweed, pork ribs, pancake rolls, prawn toast, battered bean sprouts and sweet and sour chicken wings.
The waiting staff were on hand throughout the meal regularly topping us up with drinks and prawn crackers.
Tid chose our second course - crispy aromatic duck with pancakes, spring onions and cucumber.
The duck was fat-free when it appeared at our table and was crispy and succulent - two important points that meant it was no struggle to finish.
We knew from experience that Oriental Aroma served generous portions so decided to share a bowl of rice when we ordered our third (and thankfully, final) course.
I chose satay chicken, a choice made after sampling it from our earlier hors d'oeuvres. Tid chose lemon chicken.
As someone who normally orders the same old dish, this was a welcome change and the chicken was moist and cooked to perfection.
In spite of the "all you can eat" pledge that accompanied each dish, the quantity of each serving of food meant that attempting a second helping would have been impossible.
The restaurant staff remained constantly attentive and we were never without a topped-up drink.
Without a rice grain of room to spare we opted to round off our meal with a cup of coffee.
The bill which included four drinks came to £36.
Oriental Aroma
50 High Street, Wootton Bassett
Tel: 01793 840600
Opening times: Sunday-Thursday 12.30pm-10.30pm, Friday and Saturday 12.30pm-11.30pm.
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