Spike the Punch

I like Punch. Let me just start off by using that very bland description of my feelings toward the place. What I mean to say is...it's nice. A banal adjective to match a bland verb. Both of these things are true. But while niceness and feelings of "like" can often be used to define casual friendships, they are not the stuff of great romance. Thus, it follows that Punch fits that same category.

Let me clarify. I would definitely recommend eating here. The food is quite good, and if you choose carefully the prices are reasonable. I suppose the point I'm trying to convey is that it's an agreeable dining situation, but I wouldn't rave about it and force everyone I know to eat there immediately (SEE: Curly's, Last Stop, Awesome Thai).

I had a lovely brunch experience there last summer with my friend R, so when she suggested a return trip for dinner last week I was all in. Most of the entrees were a little pricey, but since I'm easy to please so I went with a turkey burger and (you guessed it) sweet potato fries for $12. The turkey burger was juicy and quite meat-alicious and the fries were good (although I finally satisfied my SPF craving at Curly's a few days later, which obviously blew Punch's version out of the water).

Two mild annoyances: the wait staff basically ignored us, so we had to sit around for quite awhile and then flag someone to take our order even though there were only a handful of people in the restaurant. The second issue was with the dessert. Although it was a good concept (ice cream sandwiched by two chocolate chip cookies) with a lovely presentation (which included strawberries!), the cookies seemed to be a bit stale. Maybe they were supposed to be hard rather than soft, but when we had difficulty chipping them apart with a knife, it became evident that there was an issue.

Still, overall the food is good and affordable if you choose wisely. It's true I didn't fall head over heels, but Punch and I certainly have a nice platonic relationship developing. I feel like I should punch it (pardon the pun) on the arm and call it dude. Or explain to it that we're just friends and nothing more can ever happen between us. Or tell it I'll be really busy with other restaurants for awhile, but we should definitely try to get together in a few months when things settle down. Okay, stop typing, eLs. Stop typing.