PUNOT — Restaurant in Iloilo City

Where the food is impressive, the dining service falls flat. Punot is probably the best tasting restaurant in the city, yet the dining service is subpar. People will blame the bustling tables at lunch or dinner but it's goes back to customer service. Expecting appetizers to come together before the main dishes. You sit there as a host of your dinner party with only half the table able to have appetizers while the other half drools and waits for their serving of appetizer. They waited what seems like 20+ mins. Even after the ALL the main dishes ordered came out there was still no serving of the appetizer order in sight. The staff's explanation was that it was an "add on" (ordered basically 5 mins after they initially took our full table order) ..........

This restaurant is pretty much an order, dump, and go dining experience.

Throughout and after our meal we literally sat there waiting for someone to check on us and to see if we wanted the desserts. Eager to order, NO ONE came for more than 20 mins! They only stopped by when one of the table guests flagged a wait staff.....

So DO check out their delicious meals, but also be aware - don't expect good service or any attention from their staff. Sadly, the service experience was a disappointment and outshined their mastery of local...

Nestled among the rows of restaurants at Riverside Boardwalk is this modern Ilonggo restaurant.

Our group of three wanted to explore another take on the local cuisine and so we ordered grilled squid (nicely smoky and yet fairly tender) and the classic KBL, a dish of local legumes, pork and green jackfruit. It was nicely sour but not too sour. More on the traditional take but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t good. It was.

The callos was a bit of a miss. It was too sweet to the point that it lost the original punch of the dish.

The clear winner was the laswa, which is a traditional humble clear soup made with the freshest vegetables, from okra, snake beans, squash, and local greens. As a modern nod to the old dish, this one was served with the soup placed in a separate bowl and a few slices of crispy pork on top of the pile of vegetables. To enjoy it, you pour the broth back to the bowl of vegetables. It was homey, light and fresh.

For drinks, I was intrigued by the batwan juice but, sadly, it didn’t do anything much.

Service was good. The place was well decorated. With a few more tweaks in the dishes, this would be a great place for me to introduce friends to...

We ate at their 2nd floor. The area has comfortable seating with elbow room, good a/c & clean. They have attentive staff and an extensive menu. Fast service. Food came out in less than 20mins.

Ordered: Citrus Buttered Chicken - the bomb! so flavorful and a little sweet KBL & Lechon Kawali - both were very tender Punot Salad & Pomelon Balingon Salad - both were very flavorful and delicious Sizzling Apan-apan - I don't know why, but it wasn't sizzling at all when it was served. Tasted great though

Everything we ordered were excellent except the Tortang Talong. It's not a tradional grilled Eggplant with Egg. It was cooked differently, tasted different, just not my thing. The rest of the food, well, it had a unique flavor of Ilonngo cuisine. I love the food in this restaurant.

Restroom was clean, with toilet paper. The liquid hand soap wasn't watered down. No...