Skipchen

Situated a few yards from a Banksy in the Bohemian area of Stokes Croft, Skipchen uses food that has all been donated and/​or salvaged from skips. The staff are volunteers and apparently, the small building they use has been donated by one of the neighbours, apparently.
You pay what you want, and nobody is standing over you when you put any money into the donation box. If you don’t pay anything, then there’s no pressure at all.
The food we had was mostly fine so there’s no need to worry about undercooked gone-​off food and the suchlike. The sitting can probably sit about a total of 20 comfortably, or 30 or so if people are squished together.
It seems to close at about 4 p.m. However, we were there at about 5 p.m. one day. So, maybe it depends on staff/​food availability or something else.
The vibe may not be for everyone. Some of you will love it, whilst others may not.

Tummy-​filling, heart warming grub for all!
The Skipchen liberates food that would have been doomed for the landfill and turns it into tasty wholesome food. Their pay as you feel policy means that anyone can afford to have a hot meal. You can even donate food or your services as a dish scrubber instead of paying. Marvellous!
By its very nature it has unpredictable opening hours. It is definitely more a place that you would pop in whilst passing by than one you would pencil in months in advance (it took us four attempts before we caught their lunch service). Top tip — check their Facebook page for opening times and menu updates!
It is certainly cosy (an estate agent might term it bijoux) and sharing long benches with students, businessmen and homeless people alike means it has a great communal festival vibe to it.
The menu is eclectic and changes daily. On offer when we visited was: chicken soup, vegetable pasta, pizza, jacket potato with goats cheese and three bean soup. I opted for three bean soup and my fellow diner the vegetable pasta. Both were simple and tasty. There is water, coffee (though no sugar or milk) and if you’re lucky smoothies and juices on the counter to drink. Portions are by necessity fairly small, so if you have a big hunger, just beware!
I would definitely return. But perhaps checking the menu on Facebook beforehand next time!

Skipchen is not for the faint hearted, but I always follow these rules with out of date food.
Looks good? Ok smells good? Ok tastes good? Ok probably its safe to eat.
The first struggle with Skipchen is their uncertain opening hours. 11 – 4 ish the sign outside says which means you can only have lunch there which is fine, but I would have a backup plan just in case.
We actually tried to got there 3 times before we hit the opening hours. The 1^st time it was 5pm, the 2^nd time it had a sign saying closed for refurbishment but then opened an hour later anyway! The 3^rd time we went was just after 12 and so we went for a walk and came back just after 1 and we were relieved to see it was open.
There’s not a lot of seating in skipchen, but that adds to the cosy appeal of it and it didn’t take too long for us to perch on the end of a table. I particular loved the good use of space with the bike rack shelfs on the walls.
On the menu was pizza, jacket potatoes, veg pasta and chicken soup. Not a bad choice and we opted for the soup and pasta between us with bread rolls and crisps as extras. There was a coffee pot and a carton of smoothie also at the bar.
Couldn’t fault the food (I obviously wasn’t expecting Dave size portions, and I’m sure I could have gone back for seconds) the pasta and soup was both tasty and delicious and we ate in relative comfort.
Throughout the meal it was obvious that a lot of homeless people come to skipchen for their lunch and for this it is to be applauded. What you don’t really want is for them to ask the other customers if they can spare any change? I suppose you can’t blame them for trying, but I would set a rule to avoid this hassle.
And finally there’s the question of payment to be addressed? How much do you pay for your coffee, chicken soup and veg pasta? An answer I puzzled over throughout my lunch and still couldn’t decide!

Skipchen is a community project that takes waste food from shops and supermarkets and repurposes it in their café in Stokes Croft. They operate on a pay-​what-​you-​feel basis, so customers can pay what they feel the meal was worth.
Now, I wouldn’t normally review a restaurant/​café without trying the food. But I left Skipchen before I could order yesterday. Not because they had run out, but while I was stood in the queue waiting to order, I was asked by two different people if I had a roll-​up they could have (I don’t smoke roll-​ups and hadn’t given any indication that I did) and another guy came powering in, barged passed me to the front asking ‘ere mate, is it true you give away free food?‘
I like hippies. In fact, I love Stokes Croft and Montepelier because of the hippiness and screw-​you mentality of it. But It wasn’t the dreadlocks and thick hand knitted jumpers that put me off Skipchen, there was definitely no shortage of either, but after the roll-​up thing and a women saying ‘if they f’ing moved up we’d be able to f’ing sit down’ while trying to get a seat — I didn’t really like the vibe.
I applaud the guys at Skipchen for highlighting the huge amount of food that ends up in landfills, rather than on the plates of the people that need it. And it is great that there is a place for people to go to get a super cheap meal — even a couple of meals a day. It’s ridiculous to think we live in such an uncaring society that giving food away isn’t the obvious thing to do.
Who knows! Maybe I just went at the wrong time. But it wasn’t a great experience for me.
I’m giving it a 3 star, which is based on my experience (1) and what Skipchen are doing and what they have already achieved (5).