Punch Pizza — Restaurant in Maple Grove

If you're new to Neapolitan Pizza, then take the time to study Punch's website first. It's very important to know what to expect if you're a first-timer. This isn't your typical American pizza! This is REAL pizza. It's supposed to be oily toward the middle (it's the real extra virgin olive oil) and even a little soggy from the olive oil, and the outer edge of the crust is supposed to be dry and have a little charring on it and maybe some burnt bubbles, etc. The outer edge of the crust tastes a little like plain toast if you were to toast white bread in a wood-fired oven! It's delicious. After all, the ingredients are extremely simple (and they have no harmful ingredients whatsoever) as you can see from the FAQ titled "Do you have Nutrition Information?" The FAQ is on the 'About Us' page.

As a first-timer, you should also make sure to figure out what you want to order before you go because you could otherwise feel quite pressured into making up your mind extremely fast because the design of the restaurant corrals everyone into a line as soon as you walk in, and the line seems to keep moving sometimes. Sure, you can let people go ahead of you while you study the menu and that's fine, but still. I was behind a first-timer recently and they didn't know that it's ok to let people go ahead of them while they made up their minds because there's not much room to stand aside (there's plenty of room, but it's not a huge amount of room so it's not obvious). So they became extremely nervous and felt very pressured to order long before they were ready and so they stumbled through their first order quite badly. Fortunately, the person taking orders was someone who is extremely experienced and patient with first-timers.

There's something else every first-timer should know: there's only 1 pizza size, and it's about 10" in diameter. It actually looks more like a 12" pizza, but it's not. Everyone gets their own personal pizza to eat. One pizza is enough to fill you up but not so much that you will feel stuffed. It will simply be perfectly satisfying.

So the first time you see your pizza, you might think you won't be able to finish the whole thing - but you'll find it'll be very easy to eat because they don't use any ingredients that are harmful or unnecessary. It's actually a very nutritious meal. I might even call it "nutrient-dense". It's very satisfying and energizing and I always feel great after a Punch pizza. This place gives you a little glimpse into why the Mediterranean diet is so healthy and energizing (and delicious).

The pizza does lose all of its heat after just a few minutes though because it was only in the wood-fired oven for 60-90 seconds (which means you should expect the speed of a fast food restaurant). This isn't a bad thing, but you should still know about it.

Also, be sure to experiment with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and even fresh ground pepper (from one of the provided peppermills - their peppercorns are very good). I've only experimented with pepper and olive oil so far. I grind the peppercorns directly onto the pizza since it'll stick, and I put some olive oil in a bare spot I made on my plate after eating some of my pizza and I used that for 'dipping'. I always eventually pour some olive oil directly on the pizza before cutting and eating what I have left. lol It's so extremely delicious.

In other words, I recommend that you experience the whole Neapolitan pizzeria experience. Oh, and make sure you use a knife and fork. That's the proper way to eat Neapolitan pizza. True Neapolitan pizza isn't cut into slices. You get to cut it and eat it the way you want. The only reason they cut it into slices at Punch by default is because they had a lot of people asking why they don't do it. So now you have to tell them that you don't need yours cut (even ordering it Neo Style, they will still ask you if you want it cut).

Finally, if you get yours To Go, then ask for a side or two of olive oil and/or balsamic vinegar! You can ask for as many as you want...

Walking in was hilarious. Seems like they are trying to be efficient like Chipotle or Subway having what looked like a start your order here area. There is no obvious spot to start your order however.

I stood near the "Check In" sign for a moment before others, non employees mind you, told me where to go.

After sitting for a while I noticed absolutely everyone else that happened across this place change on the wrong door as well.

The menu was mainly ingredients with only 2 starting options. Classic or Napoli. I went with Napoli with a few fresh toppings. I chose Parmesan, mt vesuvo tomatoes or similarly named, roasted red peppers, and pepperoni.

Let's just say I would have loved to have had some pepperoni on the pizza. There were maybe 5 slices that I had noticed. There may have been a few slivers hiding amongst the red peppers which were very fresh as well as the tomatoes. Juicy and flavorful for sure. There was no sauce to speak of. It was like they tossed water on the crust with the ingredients.

We ordered 2 pizzas that were solo or personal size at best. They only have a single size so we also added a salad to the order.

It was pretty good actually. Probably the best part of the entire meal.

Nothing about this place stood out and said "Hey, you definitely need to come back for more".

I filled up on good ole Barqs Root Beer and we were on our way.

Avoid unless you have no other options or have money to waste and want to eat locally.

2 small pizzas 3 sodas and 1 salad ended up at just over 52 dollars.

At a nice restaurant that would be a great deal. This place was undeserving.

Good luck...

I'd never been to Punch pizza. I knew it was one of those trendy places serving italian style pizza and that doesn't do anything for me. They even serve mount vesuvio tomatoes, whatever that is. I didn't really care for the pizza. It was soggy in the middle and burned on the outside. Every pizza appeared to be coming out that way, so I don't think mine was a mistake. The flavor was good-ish, but it was hard to eat and the texture was weird. It needed lots of hot pepper flakes. (I don't ever take off more than one star if I don't like the food. Clearly, some people do and I shouldn't punish them because I don't happen to like it. If you're into communist style pizza, it's probably fine). The experience was good though. The service was fast and friendly. The place was clean, and the prices were fair. If you're into weird European pizza, you will like this place. If you're tastes are more New York style pizza, you will be disappointed in the food.

The chocolate hazelnut panini was pretty decent too... But you don't go to these places...