Anarchy in Action: The one thing you would never expect to work as a collective action

The idea is to challenge the normal restaurant model of charging as much as possible for as little as you can get away with and paying staff next to nothing.

Here the collective – professional and amateur chefs, waiters, bar tenders – have come together to briefly run the best restaurant they can for the love of it, begging and borrowing everything from cutlery and pots and pans to chairs and tables. It's a not-for-profit venture – at the end of every meal guests pay what they think the meal was worth, no more, and profits are ploughed back into the project.

And it is working. The restaurant is just about the hottest ticket in Bristol. As word spread, it was booked out before the group could send its flyers out.

The collective has asked the Guardian not to reveal the location or the name of the restaurant – not because they are worried about the authorities, but because they fear they could be over-run by would-be customers.

Bristol's rebel restaurant is the hottest ticket in town