The very popular all-you-can-eat buffet in Bristol where you can fill up on less than £16

For a horrible moment, I thought the 155cm measurement on the board outside the Bristol branch of Cosmo referred to waist sizes.

After all, this all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant has made a name for itself through generous portion sizes and low prices.

Thankfully, the 155cm was the height limit for kids before their parents had to pay full price. There can’t be many restaurants where customers are measured on entry. But then I wouldn’t want to be weighed after a meal at Cosmo because I’m sure I left slightly heavier than when I arrived.

When we arrived for the 6pm sitting on Saturday night, it was fully booked and there was a queue snaking around the corner for the next sitting.

Located on the Triangle, close to Queens Road where a number of restaurants and shops have closed in recent months, it’s still one of the busiest restaurants in Bristol.

And it’s not hard to work out its mass appeal. Even at its most expensive time slots (Friday or Saturday dinner when it’s £20.99 full price or £10.99 for kids), it’s still cheaper than many main courses in Bristol restaurants. Visit at lunchtime and it’s just £15.99 to stuff your face.

And, yes, you really can eat as much as your like. Or, at least, as much as you can before you start to go green around the gills and start eyeing up Wilko across the road in case they have a bucket for the journey home.

With its various ‘stations’ and counters, Cosmo offers food from all over the world, buffet-style just like when you’re on an all-inclusive package holiday.

The food is predominantly Chinese and Indian, but there are pizzas, sushi, a carvery and, of course, the famous dessert section with its chocolate fountain.

The whole operation is as well-oiled as the iron griddle at the popular Japanese teppanyaki section, which is the one place where you actually see some live cooking.

Staff are quick to clear tables and check with drinks orders, others are sweeping up food off the floor or refilling the metal hot trays when they run low. The chef bringing out the sushi did so with obvious pride.

Yes, there is a hint of ‘pigs at the trough’ about large groups of people walking around the place, heaping food onto already teetering plates, but then that’s all part of the experience. And if the thought of that offends you, there are plenty of other places to go.

So what’s the food like? Well, it’s certainly quantity over quality, with most of the dishes reminiscent of supermarket ready meals.

Each time I returned to my table, I seemed to have a veritable United Nations of cuisines on the plate.

Although most people seemed to be giving the ‘milky squid’ and the murky mussels dish a wide berth, there was a huge choice of dishes on offer.

I enjoyed the crisp and fragrant cumin lamb, the five-spice prawns and the beef in black bean sauce. The chicken tikka was also decent and so was the steak and prawns cooked in front of me at the sizzling teppanyaki counter.

Best of all was the Filipino beef kalderita, which contained tender chunks of meat in a thick, spicy sauce.

Avoiding the queue at the gushing chocolate fountain, I plumped for dessert of a synthetic-tasting peach melba cake, a scoop of old-school banana and custard and a weirdly mousse-like strawberry ice cream.

Although there were dozens more people waiting to be seated, there was no sense of being rushed by staff.

As I waddled out of the place, past the queue, I felt like Mr Creosote. Thankfully there was no offer of a ‘wafer thin mint’ on the way out, and no waist measurements taken. I exited with some dignity left after all.

Cosmo, 30 Triangle West, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 1ET.