Punch Bowl Social — Restaurant in San Diego

This was a Company Sponsored Event. The time was 6-9 pm. When we arrived @ 6 pm, we found the food was cold. We order the Taco Bar.Not only fodd was cold but the beans and rice were not fully cooked. The meat was dry and overdone. Tortillas were super small very cold and not enough! The best part was the grilled veggies. For the price per person and the total amount we paid for the food, I expected more. We had tons of food left over, so at the end of the night I asked for to go containers so I can bring to the rest of the team. They told me that was not allowed. Hard to understand why. We paid for that food, so why were we not allowed to bring with us is beyond me. In addition, there was not one trash can on side, forcing us to leave trash on the tables. As for the drinks, when event was set up, I instructed the company would pay 2 drinks per employee. The waitress kept taking orders from everyone and demanding more tickets from company to pay. Even at times encouraging employees telling them how many tickets were still left...

We had issues with the timing of when the entertainment was available. We got 2 lanes and a karaoke room. I did not understand that the time would start clicking from when we 1st arrived. I understand it is in the contract, but no one mentioned that to me. So, I assumed we could eat and then get to playing. When I went to ask if we could start the bowling lanes was almost 7 pm. They told me the time had started at six. Our contract called for 2 hours so we only had until 8 pm. The manager came out to talk to me and he said that he could grant us 30 more minutes but more than that he would have to charge us for the whole hour extra. That being said, they graciously allowed us to stay in the Karaoke room until 9 pm. But the waitress made sure to keep bringing drinks to everyone until then. Overall, I was not impressed. The bowling lanes were horrible!! Totally uneven. The service lame, We spent over $ 1000 for 7 of us. The food was overpriced and bad and on the top of it we were not allowed to take it. I would never recomend this...

Food and drinks ware good, but the main reason why we booked our private event here was for the games. We booked the bowling alley for 2 hrs. and confirmed with the Host that we can have access to all the other games including and specially karaoke and ping pong table. Bowling: Things started well but the bowling machines kept getting stuck we had to call the service almost 5 times to get the game back on track. 2nd and worst of all the throwing area was super slippery almost everyone slipped. Even staff cleaning the spots was no help. It was our luck that no one got hurt. karaoke, Ping-Pong & scrabble: We confirmed with the host that we will have access to the above-mentioned games. The Host said yes we most defiantly will have that. So I made sure to added in the event invite. I was so embarrassed in front of my whole team when the server told us unfortunately there was a last min change in scheduling and none of the above games will be available for us at all. Darts: After the disappointment we all decided we can play some darts as that was the next best thing for the team. To find out the venue was out of darts, the explanation we got was some one took all the darts few days ago and they never returned it. Really??? At last, we moved to the foosball table and found a broken ball which we were having hard time playing with when asked for another ball we ware told the same thing. “That’s the only ball we have sorry!” The worst part was after all this the slap on the face was the apology offer from the manager “ you can choose one game (from what is working) and we can give you that for 1hr for free“ I did not want to make a scene and ruin the event so I just took that offer to the team and we played shuffleboard for short time. Finally, we ended the event quite a bit early and left. This was one of the worst team building...

I really like Punch Bowl Social!! Spiked Milkshakes, really delicious food, fun games, private room karaoke make this a go to place when you want a place to just have a good time with friends. For this review let me start with the food which was all very good!!

The Chips & Guac were made with Avocado, Roasted Poblano, Charred Corn, Pickled Jalapenos, Salsa Roja, & Corn Tortilla Chips

The Knockoff Burger was Two Beef Patties, American Cheese, Comeback Sauce, Pickled Onion, Shredded Lettuce, Sesame Seed Bun, Rosemary Fries

Roasted Poblano Baked Mac & Cheese which was Melted Cheese, Noodles, Roasted Poblanos

For drinks the following:

Malted Maple Royale which was made with Jim Beam Maple Whiskey, Malted Milk, Vanilla Soft Serve, Nutmeg, Whipped Cream, Candied Bacon

Jalapeño Cucumber Limeade made with House-Made Jalapeño Cucumber Syrup, Fresh Lime Juice, Sparkling Water

They even gave baked in-house biscuits with jam which was sooooo good!!!

The only issue which is why I took away a star (subject to change) was the service. Our server wasn't at the top of his game at all. We had to constantly remind him for requests which if the place were busy I'd be a little more understanding but at 2pm in the afternoon on a weekday there wasn't a lot of people there. For example we placed our chip and guac order with drinks prior to placing our meal order in. He had to come back and ask what my drink order was. Later we received our main order prior to our chips & guac order!! Can only imagine if it was busy and there were more than 2 of us. Probably could be easily fixed if things were written down when placing our order the old school way.

Overall I'm sure I'll add that star back with my next visit because other than service everything...