Punchline’s air of levity promises a much-needed departure from the city’s wave of “serious” cocktail bars. The new Bandra bar with its boxy exterior, neon signage, and oversized windows evokes a 1970s American diner. The vibe here is easy — unfussy drinks inspired by punch.

The five-ingredient precursor to cocktails (its name rooted in the Hindi word paanch) was first cobbled together by East India Company sailors to make local hooch more palatable. The bar, thankfully, does not take the liberty this writer has by springing a history lesson on you. It is there should you enquire, but the team at Punchline would rather serve up a joke (the laugh-and-groan kind) and a frosty highball, because that is what you came for.

This is the second bartender-led cocktail project by co-founders Jeet Rana, Chirag Pal, and chef Amninder Sandhu. Barbet & Pals, which opened in late 2025 in Delhi’s GK2 market, feels inspired by their roots. Punchline is them on their day off. Early-2000s pop music wafts through the cosy space with just the right amount of shoulder-rubbing intimacy. Every edge is rounded, the high tables are made for standing banter, and the little nooks invite conversation; everyone is talking and mingling with the ease of regulars at a neighbourhood bar. Punchline is part ode, part aspirant to the Bombay bars of yore; the amber wall lights glow like old kaali peelis.

“We’ve always wanted to do a bar in Mumbai, and it had to be in Bandra,” says Jeet. For him, Punchline is the coming together of a few different desires. “I dreamt of making a bar about punch. The first drink I made was in a big punch bowl,” he says. The ones at Punchline brim with technique. In his earlier days, Jeet would have gotten into the nitty-gritty. Now, he says he knows better. “A guest who just wants to grab a drink is not interested in that. Ask them, ‘How are you doing? Are you thirsty? Would you like to eat something?’ That conversation is more long-lasting. It builds relationships.”

Both he and Chirag propose a drinking experience that is social at its core. Chef Amninder sums it up best: “We might forget what we were drinking, but we remember who we drank it with.” The chef is a Bandra resident, and for her, the bar strives to evoke the come-as-you-are comfort of Toto’s and Soul Fry. Punchline also occupies the very spot once home to IBar, the beloved live music joint that shuttered in 2017.

What you should try

Every cocktail sits on its own little flavour island, making the offerings easy to navigate. There are communal punch bowls that contain about four servings. I dutifully start with the Punchline Paradise, a fruity gin-based number softened with clarified milky oolong tea. The Nutorious is whiskey with overtones of sesame, reined in by a tangy hit of sherry. Swine & Brine anchors Punchline’s titular cocktail section — a medley of five spirits held together with a Goan chorizo infusion.

The highballs begin with the T-Root Bomb, a crisp vodka-citrus mix that sparkles on the tongue thanks to akarkara root from Jeet’s native 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 never lost; present enough to enjoy without inducing palate fatigue.

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

Vegetarians will have to content themselves with the Whopped Feta with spicy cherry jam, Too Many Mushroom on sourdough, and Punchline Roast Broccoli with fermented chilli butter. A few more communal finger foods to complement those sociable punch bowls would be a welcome addition. Desserts contrast nicely with the Pickle Packs — a pair of frosty spirit and briny pickle juice shots that go down like a whiff of salty sea breeze. Delightfully dangerous.

It is midnight, and Jeet orbits the room, topping up willing glasses with punch. At the bar, Chirag oversees a steady stream of pretty tipples flowing into the mostly standing crowd. He is catching a red-eye to Delhi in a few hours for weekend service at Barbet & Pals. Elsewhere, Chef Amninder chats with a patron as succulent chicken wings float by. I am reminded of her mentioning “certain dishes that make you pause, finish the plate, and only then continue drinking.” As the evening progresses, occasional chants of “Chug! Chug! Chug!” erupt across the room and feel novel — almost therapeutic — for a cocktail bar.

With the city’s balmy heat on the rise, I found myself subconsciously searching for an elevated watering hole that still retains the walk-in ease of Bandra’s old bars. It remains to be seen how serious Punchline is about rising to the occasion when impromptu drinking plans take shape, because that is what your neighbourhood bar is all about.

A meal for two (with drinks) will cost around ₹3,000 + taxes