Skip's — Restaurant in Des Moines

BAM!!!  Had a great dinner Friday night at Skips.  Our youngest daughter was visiting and wanted to take her out for a really nice dinner but not some place stuffy.

Skips was the ticket. I've seen a few posts on them that were all really good and the online reviews were really positive.  We were waiting for an opportunity to give them a try.

We arrived at approx 6:20pm and had a 25 minute wait which wasn't bad for a Friday night.  Had a couple drinks at the bar while we waited.  They have a wonderful list of cocktails and beers.

I was a little bummed as they were out of the nightly special "prime rib".  Next time we will just get there a little earlier.

We had the Calamari Strips for an appetizer and they came out piping hot.  The dipping sauce was absolutely dynamite.  My wife is usually not a fan but she commented that they were really good.  Needless to say, they didn't last long.  Ohh so good.    I had the ribeye and baked potato.  Cooked perfectly medium rare.  My wife had the Tomato Basil Pasta with shrimp.  The shrimp were not shrimps, pun intended.  Large shrimp in this dish.  She really enjoyed it.  My daughter had the blackened salmon with bowtie pasta.  The Cajun cream sauce was just fantastic and made that dish.  it was lick the plate good!! She loved it.

The service was great.  Very friendly and welcoming from the hostess, bartenders and our waitress.  Couldn't ask for a better dinner, service, and environment.  Just a very relaxing place to have a great meal and catchup with our daughter.  I would highly recommend giving them a try.  You won't be disappointed.  We will definitely be back to try some of the other items...

My girlfriend treated me to dinner at Skip's last night. I've always had good dining experiences here, but tonight was exceptional.

We started with the jalapeno shrimp, which is absolutely amazing. It has just the right amount of kick, and the butter is perfectly zesty and garlicky. I'm almost ashamed to say it, but, with the warm, crispy bread that accompanies the salads and the garlic toast pictured with the shrimp, we cleaned the entire plate.

Now, onto the entrees. My girlfriend went with her go-to, the cavatelli, which never disappoints. Baked to perfection with a generous amount of bubbly cheese, heaping with Italian sausage, and served with garlic toast, it's one of the can't miss dishes on the menu. I opted for the bone-in pork shank with mushroom demi glace, which is essentially osso bucco. It was my first time ordering this dish, but I can confidently say that it won't be my last. The pork was cooked perfectly; fall-off-the-bone-tender and succulent, yet caramelized and crispy on the exterior. The sauce was a deliciously savory complement to the flawlessly braised shank, and mixed well with the well-cooked rice pilaf that the meat was served over.

As satisfied as we were with our food, it would be wrong of me not to mention how great the service was. We were greeted warmly, seated promptly, and our server was attentive; filling our glasses before they were empty and making sure that each dish was to our liking.

If you've not had a chance to try this Southside gem, I would recommend that you make a visit, and treat yourself to an awesome...

This is actually the first review I’ve ever written, and I’m writing it because I feel that our experience tonight shouldn’t go unnoticed. We came in at like 9 and they close at ten, our server was Julie and she was amazing, I don’t think I’ve ever had a better server anywhere, and that means a lot coming from me because I’ve been a server myself for many years until the past few months. The food was amazing, like it has been the 3 or four times we’ve been there, steak a perfect rare, asparagus cooked perfectly, etc., that also means a lot coming from us, because my husband is an ex chef with 20plus years experience in the kitchen, and we are used to perfection at home(when he cooks 😜)When we go out to eat, we like to try the various higher end local restaurants as opposed to the chains, and of all the local Des Moines restaurants Skips is the only one we’ve been to more than twice, and I think there is only one other we’ve been to twice. Now back to the service, we were made to feel comfortable and so encouraged to enjoy our time by Julie, I was seriously amazed and I have never been so impressed. We were even those jerks who stayed past closing (but we didn’t even know it until we looked at the time ourselves), because we were treated so kindly. My experience today at Skip’s with Julie as our server really made my birthday special, and I thank the Lord for such a blessed evening ❤️ -edit: I guess I wrote a few reviews years ago and...