Punch is a drink. The oldest cocktail in the world, born in India, from five elements (the Hindi paanch), before it travelled west and took on a new name. A punch is also the instrument that makes a clean hole through something solid, like paper, leaving a perfect circular hole where material once was. As an adjective, it describes something vivid, effective, and dynamic: a punch of colour, a punchy line, an ingredient that brings punch to a bite. Punch is also a verb. And a punchline is the end of a joke: a beat the whole setup has been building toward. It’s the last line that makes the room come alive. Bandra Reclamation’s newest bar, in the very versatile ONGC lane, is a tribute to the drink it’s named after, but answers to all five definitions simultaneously.
Helming the kitchen is chef Amninder Sandhu, and leading the bar are Jeet Rana and Chirag Pal. You’ve seen this team before, at older sibling, Delhi’s Barbet and Pals. The design flows from the name. Mistress of maximalism Mehak Malhotra of Giggling Monkey, plays with holes and circles, through furniture and fittings. They spill all over the room, like confetti from a paper punch. The bar’s threshold is luminescent, spilling onto the pavement, its name in an unmissable swirl. The room beyond it is punchy in every sense: warm, glowing orange, woody mustard, aged wood, charcoal. Its interiors are wall-to-wall with witty puns on the word punch. Once you see it, you can’t use it.
Before you’ve even touched the menu, every guest receives the welcome drink: a fluted bowl set over a large fluted thimble on a stem, really quite sculptural, making for instant intrigue. There’s a smoked olive stuffed with blue cheese in the bowl—so deeply complex and flavourful that the first one felt like we were just getting to know the flavour, so we promptly asked for a second. The glass below contains the OG Punch, a rummy, spice-forward sip of the tart-sweet drink that opens the palate.
Chef Sandhu’s menu is instinctively built around how people actually eat when they are out drinking. It’s fun, tasty food that encourages sips and vice versa. For one, her plate of hot-weather-ready cured watermelon, stracciatella, and macadamia looks nothing like it tastes. Under sheets of compressed fruit are lactic, rich, creamy ribbons of fresh cheese, punctuated with buttery, crunchy nuts. It’s the sort of dish that makes you take tentative early bites, and the next thing you know, you’re scraping the plate.
And indeed, she really has Made Wings Great Again (yes, that’s what they are called) with her spin. These are sticky, spicy chicken wings glazed in Thai chilli and lemongrass, and pop on the palate not just from spice. Sandhu has coated them with puffed black Manipuri rice, a genius move that makes the dish so memorable. These little, almost mischievous surprises litter the menu. Like the Too Many Mushrooms Toast on jalapeno sourdough, which has mushroom pate, a tangle of slick mushrooms, and a latticed, pitched roof of fried enoki. Or the Two Good Lamb Ribs, paired with two buff marrow bones, a spoon to scoop out their silky insides, propped up on one bone. “The way to have it is to put the marrow on the ribs and eat it up,” says Sandhu as she sets down the plate. No one tell our cardiologist, we think, as we follow her instructions.
Like us, you may want to ask Sandhu what she was smoking when she decided to make ice cream with Iberico ham, top it with crispy Iberico ham nubs and smoky ghee, tiny cubes of seasonal mango and a Bhavnagri chilli tucked alongside. It’s that good.
