Punk Burger Bistro Bar
1129 Ashford AvenueDay three of our Puerto Rican vacation was beach day. Our hotel was right on Condado Beach. The beach itself is public but the hotel had drink service, beach chairs and umbrellas near the water.
I had never been in an Ocean before so I was really looking forward to having a hotel on the beach. J was just really looking forward to kicking back with her toes in the sand and a cocktail in her hand.
We split our morning between the beach and the pool before getting out and venturing out of the hotel for lunch. We had picked up a couple of menus the previous night when we were walking down Ashford Avenue and really wanted to try something a little more authentic Puerto Rican. We headed towards a restaurant a couple of blocks down and found they had already switched to off season hours so they were no longer open for lunch.
We decided to just keep walking. J spotted a sign across the street from where we were that had the word “burger” on it. She asked if I wanted to check out their menu. I’ll never pass up a burger.
Punk Burger Bistro Bar is right on the corner of Ashford Avenue and CII Vendig. The restaurant is part of a mixed use development with several businesses on the street level and condos above it. There’s a short flight of stairs you have to go up to get to the split level restaurant.
The first level is kind of an all season patio while the next level up is the bar and dining room. It’s not a very big space. There is a large bar on the far side of the room. It’s covered in a stamped metal with black and white pub chairs lined up in front of it. The fully stocked bar is lighted at night with hanging bulb lights draped from the ceiling.
The dining room part of the room was only about half a dozen tables. The space is very simple with white walls and some cartoon art work on the wall. The were molded plastic which wasn’t super comfortable but not the worst I’ve seen at a restaurant.
I ordered a Coke to drink and it came in a can so there were no free refills. J ordered a drink they called Bushwacker. This was a frozen drink with dark rum, vodka, Kahlua, creme de cacao, amaretto, cream of coconut, and sprinkles of nutmes. The drink was really large and the bartender actually brought her a small cup of the leftover drink that didn’t fit into the glass. It was here we learned that “to-go drinks” are a thing in this part of San Juan. When J couldn’t finish it, the bartender just gave her a plastic cup to take the drink with her.
We went out in search of traditional Puerto Rican food and I ended up ordering a burger for lunch. I picked the Gnarly burger. The sandwich is a five ounce beef patty topped with a fried egg, ham, bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and punk sauce. The bread choices are either a regular white hamburger bun or Pan Sobao. Pan Sobao is at least a Puerto Rican bread so that’s how I got my local flavor into a burger meal. The bread mde this look more like a sub sandwich than traditional hamburger. It’s a soft sweet bread that really soaked up the juices from the slightly pink bukrger and the runny fried egg. The two kinds of pork kicked in a little bit of a salty flavor. I assume the Punk Sauce is some kind of mayo-ketchup since that seems to be a thing on the Island but I really couldn’t taste it which is fine with me.
The sandwich came with fries but not many. They were just simple frozen out of the bag fries anyway so it wasn’t that big of a loss.
J started out her meal with an order of Loaded Fries. The basket was the same fries that came with my sandwich but covered in Nacho Cheese Sauce and bacon. Like the fries, the cheese tasted like it came from a food service provider and was not made in house. It still made for a delicious appetizer though. I happen to like that almost glowing nacho cheese you get at stadiums and this appeared to be the same stuff.
Entree wise, J’s pick was the Spinach Salad. The fresh spinach leaves had tomato, onions, dried cranberries, feta and a homemade vinaigrette. The salad was pretty large and came out pretty thinly dressed. J asked for more dressing and I actually watched the bartender mix it up behind the bar and bring it out to her. There was a lot of cheese and nuts on her salad which always makes her happy.
Our bill for lunch was just over $44.
Punk Burger Bistro Bar was a pretty solid stop for lunch. We got out of the hotel for a while and we both got a satisfying meal that kept us having enough to get back and the pool and back at the swim up bar. Friday was our chill day in San Juan and this meal was very low key yet very tasty.
SW Michigan Dining 