Inside Punchline, Bandra’s playful new cocktail bar inspired by punch bowls

Punchline’s aerial of levity promises a much-needed departure from the city’s question of “serious” cocktail bars. The caller Bandra barroom with its boxy exterior, neon signage, and oversized windows evokes a 1970s American diner. The vibe present is casual — unfussy drinks inspired by punch.

The five-ingredient precursor to cocktails (its sanction rooted successful the Hindi connection paanch) was archetypal cobbled unneurotic by East India Company sailors to marque section hooch much palatable. The bar, thankfully, does not instrumentality the liberty this writer has by springing a past acquisition connected you. It is determination should you enquire, but the squad astatine Punchline would alternatively service up a gag (the laugh-and-groan kind) and a frosty highball, due to the fact that that is what you came for.

This is the 2nd bartender-led cocktail task by co-founders Jeet Rana, Chirag Pal, and cook Amninder Sandhu. Barbet & Pals, which opened successful precocious 2025 successful Delhi’s GK2 market, feels inspired by their roots. Punchline is them connected their time off. Early-2000s popular euphony wafts done the cosy abstraction with conscionable the close magnitude of shoulder-rubbing intimacy. Every borderline is rounded, the precocious tables are made for lasting banter, and the small nooks invitation conversation; everyone is talking and mingling with the easiness of regulars astatine a neighbourhood bar. Punchline is portion ode, portion aspirant to the Bombay bars of yore; the amber partition lights glow similar aged kaali peelis.

“We’ve ever wanted to bash a barroom successful Mumbai, and it had to beryllium successful Bandra,” says Jeet. For him, Punchline is the coming unneurotic of a fewer antithetic desires. “I dreamt of making a barroom astir punch. The archetypal portion I made was successful a large punch bowl,” helium says. The ones astatine Punchline brim with technique. In his earlier days, Jeet would person gotten into the nitty-gritty. Now, helium says helium knows better. “A impermanent who conscionable wants to drawback a portion is not funny successful that. Ask them, ‘How are you doing? Are you thirsty? Would you similar to devour something?’ That speech is much long-lasting. It builds relationships.”

Both helium and Chirag suggest a drinking acquisition that is societal astatine its core. Chef Amninder sums it up best: “We mightiness hide what we were drinking, but we retrieve who we drank it with.” The cook is simply a Bandra resident, and for her, the barroom strives to evoke the come-as-you-are comfortableness of Toto’s and Soul Fry. Punchline besides occupies the precise spot erstwhile location to IBar, the beloved unrecorded euphony associated that shuttered successful 2017.

What you should try

Every cocktail sits connected its ain small flavour island, making the offerings casual to navigate. There are communal punch bowls that incorporate astir 4 servings. I dutifully commencement with the Punchline Paradise, a fruity gin-based fig softened with clarified milky oolong tea. The Nutorious is whiskey with overtones of sesame, reined successful by a tangy deed of sherry. Swine & Brine anchors Punchline’s titular cocktail conception — a medley of 5 spirits held unneurotic with a Goan chorizo infusion.

The highballs statesman with the T-Root Bomb, a crisp vodka-citrus premix that sparkles connected the lingua acknowledgment to akarkara basal from Jeet’s autochthonal Uttarakhand. In boozier territory sits Funk You, which blends tequila, mezcal, and lightly fermented notes of Japanese koji and strawberry. Pungent flavours are dialled down but ne'er lost; contiguous capable to bask without inducing palate fatigue.

Chef Amninder takes a maximalist approach, populating the paper with her favourites. The Made Wings Great Again are tandoor-roasted and encrusted with crispy achromatic rice. There’s the Two Good Lamb Chops with a broadside of marrow, and the Iberico Ice Cream flecked with crispy ham.

Vegetarians volition person to contented themselves with the Whopped Feta with spicy cherry jam, Too Many Mushroom connected sourdough, and Punchline Roast Broccoli with fermented chilli butter. A fewer much communal digit foods to complement those sociable punch bowls would beryllium a invited addition. Desserts opposition nicely with the Pickle Packs — a brace of frosty tone and briny pickle foodstuff shots that spell down similar a whiff of salty oversea breeze. Delightfully dangerous.

It is midnight, and Jeet orbits the room, topping up consenting glasses with punch. At the bar, Chirag oversees a dependable watercourse of beauteous tipples flowing into the mostly lasting crowd. He is catching a red-eye to Delhi successful a fewer hours for play work astatine Barbet & Pals. Elsewhere, Chef Amninder chats with a patron arsenic succulent chickenhearted wings interval by. I americium reminded of her mentioning “certain dishes that marque you pause, decorativeness the plate, and lone past proceed drinking.” As the evening progresses, occasional chants of “Chug! Chug! Chug!” erupt crossed the country and consciousness caller — astir therapeutic — for a cocktail bar.

With the city’s balmy vigor connected the rise, I recovered myself subconsciously searching for an elevated watering spread that inactive retains the walk-in easiness of Bandra’s aged bars. It remains to beryllium seen however superior Punchline is astir rising to the juncture erstwhile impromptu drinking plans instrumentality shape, due to the fact that that is what your neighbourhood barroom is each about.

A repast for 2 (with drinks) volition outgo astir ₹3,000 + taxes