Skip’s

Food was fantastic! Our waitress was very nice and knowledgeable about the menu items. I had a jalapeño chicken pasta which was amazing! Nice kick with a creamy sauce. I had the honey mustard sauce with my salad which was also very good. I was able to get a couple bites of some steak which was also very good.

Best calamari. Will definitely come back. I had calamari with a salad for lunch and it was meal sized definitely sizeable enough to share.

So many great things about this place. The ambiance is great and the food is delicious. We always have lovely servers. My favorites are the chicken nachos (the full order is always big enough to fill up my husband and I), crème brûlée, and bread pudding.

I have lived in Des Moines for over 2.5 years, and my most shameful secret is… it took me this long to experience the magic that is Skips.
From the moment we walked in to this establishment the wait staff and ambience were on point. Our server, Julie was personable, knowledgable and prompt.
The appetizer of calamari was the best I’ve had outside of Seattle, Wa (where my dad and I actually fish fish for these creepy but tasty little squids.)
Care was taken in the preparation of salads and main courses. The sauce on the chicken marsala brought back memories of my grandmother’s kitchen– #homemade.
Key lime pie for dessert was top tier. I feel like this restaurant is the best kept secret in Des Moines.

The food and service here were excellent. I really like that the food was served here in a timely manner. However, the place was quite dim. Other than that this place was pretty dope.

Went there on a Wednesday night after a long flight. Skip’s was busy, a bit cramped. First good sign was when the group at the bar squeezed In to make space for me. They seemed to be regulars. The bartender had his back to me and was tearing through drink orders for the wait staff and, for a moment, I despaired I’d never get served. But after half a minute he turned to me, smiled, no sign of stress, and hooked me up with a beer and a menu. I got the steak sandwich which was great. Bob the Bartender and the entire wait staff were loose, constantly communicating, and seemed to be enjoying the hectic atmosphere. Friendly, attentive, competent staff and great food. So glad I chose Skip’s. Looking forward to another visit tomorrow before I fly home.

Love the layout (It has formerly someone’s home), the atmosphere and the service was fantastic. My Cheeseburger Chowder soup was great but I had the Surf and Turf (Iowa style) which consisted of a Rib-​eye and three shrimp. And I just wasn’t that impressed with the Rib-​eye. My boss joined my later and had the filet which he thought lacked some punch. I really wanted to give them five stars but they’re a solid four in my humble opinion. Definitely worth visiting, especially for a cocktail.

I have to admit since the building and area were not well lit that I was a little suspect but my experience was quite delightful. I was greeted at the door without a line but a 10 – 15 minute wait time turned quickly to shy of 5 minutes. The salad was fresh and the homemade creamy italian is definitely dressing of choice. The pan seared coconut and pecan crusted tilapia was quite memorably delicious and surprisingly not over soaked from honey mustard dressing that is placed under the fish. I highly recommend this place as local favorite.

Skip’s is the place while in Des Moines. I had a local brew that was awesome and the Walleye for dinner. I have to say the beer and fish were equally satisfying.
Make time, its worth it.

As I walked through the busy lunch crowd to be seated, I had a feeling that making a choice would be difficult. Everything on the plates of other diners looked delicious. We ordered potato cheddar soup, which seemed to be home made, and was delicious (it definitely had not seen a microwave). I had a grilled cheese with veggie sandwich and it was also very tasty. There are a few vegetarian selections here in case that’s your thing… I had a side of steamed vegetables with my sandwich and they were definitely not poured from a bag of frozen vegetables! They were prepared in house and were not microwaved either. Service was great and we were off to the airport in a flash.

Had a great meal here! You can not go wrong with their pastas. Three out of the four of us got pastas and we passed plates and got to try each other’s. This is how I can recommend that you get these pastas, in order of best to better than best. To start, the creole pasta had a smoky and spicy taste to it, but not in the hot and spicy kind of way. Simply put, flavorful. And then next was the chicken jalapeño pasta. Yes! This had a spicy hot kick to it, with a light cream sauce. I liked this! And better than best was the shrimp linguine with butter, garlic, and lemon. I really like lemon, and they did not skimp here. It had a dominant lemon flavor and subtle butter flavor.
One last thing… the bread basket they start you off with was a great starter. A savory sourdough that is made in house. Can’t go wrong when they say house made! Go here if you want to eat somewhere where it feels like home.

Skips is a very intimate type of restaurant. We had a group of six on a Saturday night and only had to wait 30 min. My husband and I shared the prime rib and it was average at best. I also ordered a lemon drop martini that was not great. They had a nice selection of local craft beers. Others in our party had the swordfish special and raved about it. I wasn’t super impressed and won’t beat a path back but the service was great and I’m sure I will give it another try at some point.

When I come to Skips I have one meal in mind. Cavatelli. This is a perfect Italian dish heavy on the sauce, pasta, cheese, and meats. With a portion for two, I always take home left overs.
The meal comes with a dinner salad and garlic toast. Yummm.
I always know where to go when I want pasta.

I had mussels for an appetizer and it was good.
I had the salmon with NE clam chowder and both were good but all of the above with a cup of coffee was $ 26 for lunch which is not bad considering I had mussels on top of there lunch. The atmosphere is nice and the staff is attentive for the most part.

My go-​to restaurant for when I stay out by the airport for work closed. As I pulled up to the door and saw its signage was long gone I was at first deeply disappointed. However, this clearly demonstrated that when the universe closes one door it opens another. In this case, it was a door that lead to a much better restaurant that now has earned the title of my new #1 on Fleur Drive.
That is how I happened upon Skip’s. The place has a real old-​school restaurant vibe, complete with dark wood paneling. It’s the kind of place that makes you want to order an Old Fashioned. My server was a seasoned professional, clearly having worked in the industry (and possibly that restaurant) for a long time. She was friendly, efficient and handled the lunch rush with ease. I ordered the Seafood Chicken. Served open faced, it is chicken upon toasted sourdough bread with imitation crab meat, shrimp and hollandaise. The chicken/​seafood combo is one that I would have questioned. However, pictures of it on Unilocal were enticing enough for me to give it a go. I’m glad I did. It was really enjoyable which I guess shouldn’t have been such a surprise. I mean, how can you go wrong with a dish covered in hollandaise, am I right?!
As I left Skip’s fat and happy, my former dining fav was but a distant memory.

Hit up Skip’s last night for the first time and I really dug it! It was getting packed around 5:30 when we decided to try it out before hitting a movie and Fleur Cinema!
We found a couple seats at the bar and decided to plant ourselves there for the next hour before our movie! We enjoyed, Bob behind the bar! He was fun, super hard working, and a talented bartender, and gave us the tip, on getting a half order of Onion Rings instead of the full one! It was the perfect amount, and then he said, «I can always get you more if you need it.» with a wink!
I had 3 bottle of Point Lager, which I had never had before! It was great!
Ashley had a couple martini’s, I tried a sip of both and usually I’m not a martini fan both they were both really good. It was such a pleasure watching a great bartender work, and I dug the dark atmosphere of the restaurant!
Service was awesome, and there was a line outside the door for good reason! Menu is a bit on the pricey side, but you get what you pay for and this house turned into restaurant has got the goods! We will be back for sure!

This white house with the sign Skips in front may not seem like much when you are driving by, but definitely stop and have a meal here because it is really something! This restaurant would be placed into the romantic dining category if I had to choose a category for this eatery.
Upon entering you know it is an intimate place based on the limited seating and very dimly lit dining area. The staff members were all very friendly from the time we entered to the time we finished eating, our server was engaging and fun! The atmosphere was pretty relaxing, the majority of the customers were either couples or small groups of 3 – 4 people, very easy going place.
For our dinner we had Mussels for starters, we also had the Pork Shank and Bowtie Creole. We were both also given salad and bread with butter with our meal. The salad was good, but the bread with butter was phenomenal; it was warm, smooth, and very tasty. The mussels not only tasted great, but there was a good amount for an appetizer! There was a little error with the servers, apparently they gave our order to a party that came after us by mistake; they apologized for the mix-​up before we even noticed what had occurred. Accidents happen!
The Pork Shank was good, but certainly not the best I’ve had, they could have done better with the texture, it wasn’t tender all-​around. The fries I had for the side dish was okay as well, I probably will not be getting the fries as a side again. Now the Bowtie Creole, this is something out of this world! It tasted amazing, everything about it was great! It was so good I would be pretty confident if I stated it is one of the best pasta dishes I have had in my life! Yes, it is that good!
Do I recommend this place? Absolutely, but one thing I would recommend you do when you come here is GET THE BOWTIE CREOLE and then have your taste buds enter a whole new world!

Great old-​fashioned restaurant. I really enjoyed my experience here. the service was just right and the steaks were spot on! I ordered the Steak De Burgo med rare and it was exactly how I wanted it. The sauce and mushrooms were a nice compliment. I’m sure it may not be a healthy choice, but that wasn’t what I was looking for. I also had the house salad with a parm garlic dressing… pretty tasty dressing… and a side of the garlic mashed potatoes… yum. The only disappointment I had was on my beverage order… I ordered a Guinness… it came in a can and not out of the tap. I will definitely be coming back to Skip’s on my next business trip through Des Moines. I think for where you are this is a 5 star steak house, but if it were to be any where near Chicago it would be a 3 star… thus I arrived at my 4 star rating. Well done, Skippy!

Little disappointed based on the number of stars this restaurant has and the quality I received. It’s in a old white house, which provides for a nice atmosphere but I was not impressed. Based off the menu there was a lot of seafood, given I was in Iowa I did not go for the seafood, as I like mine fresh. I noticed the ‘Seafood Chicken’ which had imitation crab meat, it says that on the menu!
Steak selection was small, but I noticed they had a Pork Shank. Most entrees come with a house salad and a side dish. Salad was basic, I got Italian dressing which seams out of a bottle and very salty. Sides where basic, I chose the fresh vegetables and they were steamed, not alot of real flavor.
The Pork Shank looked very impressive and for $ 19 looked well worth it, but it stopped there. The pork was dry with a tough crispy skin as if they did not cook the pork long enough or properly, needs to be low and slow. The portion was large and the rice pilaf was basic. There was a mushroom reduction sauce on top, but not a lot of flavor.
Overall the food was ok.

Its an easy five step process:
1. Go to Skip’s
2. Sit at the bar and order whatever libation you desire
3. Ignore all food recommendations ‘Bob the bartender’ offers you
4. Order the chicken nachos, sit back and try to compare that deliciousness to any other nacho you’ve ever had at any time
5. Apologize to Bob for ignoring him, but explain that you’ve just had a religious experience with the best nachos you’ve ever had.