Punk’s Simple Southern Food

We had a super good time at Punk’s. Everyone loved their food, most especially the sweet corn hush puppies. Cornbread is not supposed to be sweet in my book and these weren’t. Just the hint of whole sweet corn kernels were quite yummy. We went for my Aunt’s birthday and this place attracts some awesome clientele. The table next to us was so friendly AND funny. They even bought my Aunt’s brunch for her. Kid friendly with a giant courtyard in the back for them to play. They even surprised us with a giant bowl of pink cotton candy with a sparkler for her birthday. We will definitely go back for the food. I think our waiter was a newby, but all in all, a grand time was had by all. We will definitely return to try more of the yummy sounding menu items!

Food is good. Staff are fantastic. But the parking and valet? Horrible. A real cluster. I won’t go back until this problem is solved, there are many other quality restaurants in town.
Back to the food. We had the fried chicken. Perfect crisp on the crust. A hot sauce for the chicken was good. Biscuits quite good. Mashed potatoes above average. The ambiance very family’s friendly. In fact, if you have kids there is a courtyard behind the restaurant that is enclosed and a good place to ket the kids run free while adults get some face time.
I’d give it a 4 –5 if parking problem is solved. But for now, if you see a line, keep on diving.

the bad:
pan sausage tastes like the pork filling inside of a chinese pork bun (bao) or like a meatball. it is not like your traditional, sage-​y breffast type sausage.
maple syrup is very light in maple flavor, almost tastes like brown sugar syrup.
waffles are not golden crispy, they look very pale.
biscuits are mealy/​pasty/​heavy, not light n fluffy n buttery (biscuit sandwich from McD is better than the bacon, cheese, egg from Punk’s). biscuits are also very pale in color. serving size of the biscuit sandwich is small.
fried chicken is not crispy, and coating is very thin. i like mind to be extra crispy with a coating that will stay on the meat.
«runny» eggs in burgers are cooked well-​done.
the good:
–bloody mary’s
— the appetizers: pimento cheese spread (has bacon!), loaded tator tots, corn hushpuppies
— squash and zucchini side

Went there today for the first time, and I must say the food over there is epic. I went with some friends they ordered the fried chicken with Mac n Cheese and I ordered the Gumbo! By far the gumbo was the best gumbo I had in years! It was so good I had to congratulate the chef and they gave us complementary banana pudding! I will be going back soon.

The shrimp and grits were fantastic and the service was good. I was taken here for a lunch meeting but will return.

First time I came to Punk’s was several weeks after it opened on Mother’s Day. My mom and I fell in love with it! We grew up with this food — my grandma is a wonderful Southern cook. The Pimento and cheese appetizer is delicious; served with Ritz crackers because what else can you eat Pimento and cheese with?! Super yummy spread, frugal on the Pimento which is what I like. I’ve tried the fried corn hush puppies which were light and non-​greasy. Also, deviled eggs were made cooked, as well.
As for entrees, I’ve had the fried chicken; wonderful buttermilk coating fried perfectly, and very peppery. You get a variety of white and dark meat, ask the staff if you have preferences for breasts/​thighs/​wings. The burgers are cooked to perfection and topped with a wide variety of things. The Sunday brunch is phenomenal. Get the Grits Bowl or the Chicken and Waffles. Add a biscuit sandwich on the side, or some biscuits and gravy. Maybe not great for the waistline, but fantastic food for the soul.
Punk’s is wonderful and GREAT for kids. The green space is a perfect, safe area where kids can run free while parents can enjoy the food and cocktails. It can get a little hectic on weekends which slows up service, but all the waiters I’ve ever had have been helpful and attentive.

The restaurant looks small from the outside but it actually has a lot of space. It also has two covered patio areas. We came around 8:30PM on a Friday but it wasn’t really crowded.
Southern food = some sort of fried chicken and/​or chicken fried steak. My bf and I ordered both plus some hush-​puppies ($ 7). «Crispy Fried Chicken» comes in 5 pieces or 10 pieces. Since it was just a party of two, we went for the 5 pieces ($ 18!!!).
The chicken fried steak is HUMONGOUS! My bf finished 99% of it but he was so full! It comes with a side of mashed potatoes (served with white gravy) and two slices of Texas toasts. The mashed potatoes was tasty and unique because it has horseradish in it. The CFS was delicious… well worthy of a food coma and not being able to eat some of Cloud10’s ice-​cream next door. (He didn’t but I did though…) (⁹⁄₁₀)
The hush-​puppies must have filled me up because I could not finish all 5 pieces of chicken. I ate 3 and to-​go the rest. NOTE: It will take 20 – 30 minutes for the crispy chicken to come out because they make it fresh daily (but marinated it for over 36 hours according to our AWESOME waiter Kellen). The chicken was VERY moist but I wish it was crispier. Flavor-wise…it’s your classic fried chicken so don’t expect any surprises. The entrée comes with blueberry jam and house hot sauce so you can add more flavor to the chicken. I like the hot sauce more than the jam. The jam was just too sweet for me. This dish also comes with mashed potatoes (with brown gravy), one biscuit (plus butter), and half of a pickle. I love their biscuit and sweet butter! I would have finished it but I was too full…(7/10)
Highly recommend the hush puppies. Soft inside, crispy on the outside. Did I mention there were bits of corn? Corn makes everything 5x better! (¹⁰⁄₁₀)
Customer service is FANTASTIC. Our waiter, Kellen, was so nice and kept on checking on us to see if we need anything.
I would come back here to possibly try their shrimps + grits and the oyster BLT. Their crispy chicken is good but I can’t splurge $ 18 on chicken pieces!!! We have Popeyes and Church’s as alternatives!

I don’t live in Houston so I just came here once, but overall this place was decent. I came here with friends who have toddlers so we sat our back so the kids could run wild in the green area behind the restaurant. We were a little disappointed to discover that the Happy Hour Menu does not extend beyond the bar — just FYI for those with kids who don’t sit at the bar.
OK the foods:
Sweet Corn Hushpuppies: Tasty and fried. Would get again.
Loaded Tater Tots: These are like arancini balls but are pretty delicious
Red Rice & Beans: Ehhh not fantastic. The flavor just wasn’t there — this should be a super flavorful dish, but the andouille was the most flavorful thing in the dish (the beans were kind of mediocre)
Overall, I’d go back because it was a fun restaurant but this time I would come without the kids and enjoy happy hour.

I’ll start off by saying that Punk’s is in a great location and the atmosphere of the restaurant is great. Cute décor, country theme. Pretty cool place.
Punk’s has a lot of potential to be a great restaurant. Their menu items are pretty good, great variety, unique options. That being said… It is definitely not to its’ fullest potential yet. I think there’s a lot of room for improvement. Maybe it’s because it’s fairly new, maybe the chef still needs to perfect the recipes.
The food had a decent taste to it. There were two of us and we ordered the Loaded «Tater» Tots as an appetizer, and we ordered a cheeseburger, and red beans and rice with andouille sausage for our entrees. The «tater» tots were pretty good. They kind of had a weird taste to them. But I think it’s only because I was expecting more potato, and it’s made from rice (my mistake for not reading the menu clearly). They are small but fried, so very heavy. The burger was good. It had a sweet (ish) bun, which I love. It was cooked to the perfect temperature. The veggies were fresh. The fries were okay… They had a weird aftertaste also. They are definitely not freshly made. Probably frozen. I was not impressed with the red beans & rice at all. The rice was very bland. No flavor to it at all. The beans were flavored okay, but they were cold when I got them. The sausage was not good at all. It was greasy, cold, and had a weird flavor to it. It came with a barbecue (I think) sauce, which was also cold.
The sweet tea is delicious. Not sure if they use real sugar, but it tastes like they do.
Our server was nice, but it took him about 10 minutes to acknowledge us and another 10 minutes to take our order. There were only 3 other small tables there at the time. But we still got in and out in less than an hour, on a Friday afternoon.
There are 3 options for parking and you have to pay for each one. Garage, metered street parking, or valet.
Overall, this would not be my top choice restaurant in the area. If we do return, I would probably just stick with a burger and maybe switch the fries for something else. We might wait a few years to return to see if they improve the quality of the food.

We attended a wine class at Texas Wine school and wanted someplace for dinner that was fast. We selected Punk for it’s proximity and pedigree. We should have read the reviews first.
First the place is bare, which I know some people like a lot but the stark room then becomes more of like being at your in-​laws for a funeral of someone whom you don’t care for simply because all the wait staff walk around with sad looks as if they all need a double dose of Prozac or a jolt of 120 volts. The motif is mid-90’s sports bar with almost enough TVs to keep you distracted from the zombie wait staff.
Then the food.
My wife’s red beans and rice looked like it came off the Hormel sausage truck along with a can of Del Monte red beans and Uncle Ben’s Rice. Nothing here from scratch as far as we could tell.
I had shrimp grits and must have missed the description on the menu. They were in fact Creole Shrimp with grits. The grits were never stirred by anyone as there were sections that reminded me of shattered cue balls after a bad bar fight. The shrimp was OK but I expect shrimp grits to have that roux-​based gravy.
Then the wine.
My wife was really smart as she had water but I ordered a glass of their $ 20/​glass Cab and the bottle must have been open since September.
Upside you ask?
My wife ordered hush puppies with her dish and as an appetizer it should have come out first, but it came out last. The night manager came over and said that they would not be on the check. They were not but they were the best part of the meal, should have had them with a bowl of gumbo and called it even.
we won’t be back but we will probably go next door where the crowd was located and have simple Italian food.

In rice village. $ 5 Valet parking. Ate on covered patio bc it was too cold inside. Got bitten by mosquitoe on foot. Almost got attacked by a bird that flew in. Service was really good. Food was mediocre. Ordered deviled eggs. It was like any other deviled eggs. The tator tots were pretty bland. The fried chicken was really good. It was hot salty spicy and crispy on the outside and perfectly juicy on meaty inside. The pickle was wrinkled and kinda sweet. The mashed potato was ok. The biscuit was large but dry. The strawberry peach cobbler with Mexican ice cream was large but bland. I’d come back for the chicken only but it is pricey. My friend enjoyed her rich chocolate brownie. The strawberry lemonade was fresh and refreshing with fruit chunks. I enjoyed that too.

I really tried to LOVE this place. The loaded tater tots sounded great, they also looked like giant tater tots. But I think that in the end, I just wanted some regular tater tots. Unfortunately the rice on the inside after such a crispy outside left me wanting. My fiancée got a huge chicken fried steak that looked quite impressive, but in the end I don’t think the taste was quite what I was looking for when I tried her plate. I ended up just getting a cheeseburger which was pretty middle of the road.
However, I must concede that location is great for people watching when the weather is nice.

Visited this during a past Labor Day trip and just getting to upload my thoughts/​get more active on Unilocal.
The space overall was inviting and open, much as you would expect from a southern establishment such as this. Bar area was huge so you didn’t feel cramped while eating your food and drinking (sometimes a problem for me as I tend to order many things at once). Most of the staff was chatty and warm, talking to my friend and I about where we were from and other spots to try in town. Our actual bartender/​waitress wasn’t as great. After our initial order, she basically ignored us for the other guys at the bar (there was at least 5 feet between us and them). She also forgot to put in part of my order. There was a gentlemen cleaning the vents as well which struck me as a little odd for numerous reasons, one of them being me not wanting dust in my food. As it wasn’t terribly busy, they must have found it an opportune time to «clean house».
Because they were both so reasonably priced I tried both the Chicken Fry and the Pulled Pork Sliders. I love biscuits. I grew up eating either biscuits or cornbread. The only way to improve a biscuit I eat would be to add chicken. I theoretically should have loved the chicken fry. I probably would have if it offered up the tiniest bit of a flavor profile. The biscuit wasn’t buttery but very doughy (bleggh), the chicken (though crispy) was blah and the dill pickles (presented in a sort of relish) didn’t seem to really be present. The Punk’s sauce was a nice addition, yet not enough to save everything else.
The chicken fry may have saddened me, but the pulled pork sliders were, how do the kids say it these days, on fleek? The pork was super tender and juicy, with enough flavor to make me temporarily not care about my first two items. The slaw had just the right amount of bite and there wasn’t a ton of it so as not to overshadow the real star of the show. There were three good sized sliders included making this dish really worth the money.
The Loaded Tater Tots were an obvious choice because I love bacon, cheddar and sour cream anything. It also seemed much healthier since it was made with rice. The tots were huge and definitely something you could share with a friend. Outside of that they were very bland and starchy. I almost wondered if there was really bacon in it (there were visible bits of the bacon and scallions). The ranch helped a bit but I try not to eat things that require you to smother it in ranch in order to eat them.
I decided to try Punk’s version of a Pimm’s Cup which I was told is one of their best sellers. I could immediately tell why. I normally stay away from gin, but this Pimm’s cup was delicious. The addition of the strawberry added to the flavor profile and helped the drink mellow out a bit along with the cucumber (which I normally hate, but liked in combination with the strawberry and lime in this drink).

Punks is definitely an interesting concept. My go-​to bad day margarita place is right next door and so this has been on my radar for a few months at least. We finally made it because of their tater-​tot rice things.
Pro #1: It was pretty easy to get a table on Friday night outside. It was a really nice day, so sitting outside wasn’t bad at all.
Our waiter was really nice and came by pretty quickly. I order the margarita, which was pretty good but didn’t really fit with the theme of the rest of the food. I think I would’ve been better off with a cider or beer. Speaking of beers, you get a tiny little glass to drink your beer out of. I think I would rather have a larger glass so I wouldn’t have to keep pouring some out if I didn’t want to drink out of the bottle.
The Loaded «Tater» Tots are… not my thing. I like fried balls of rice, but the rice seemed a bit too cooked. The mixture inside was good, but it needed a little more salt, and even without the lacking salt my mouth seemed dry the entire time I was eating these.
I ordered the Chicken Fried Steak because I eat one of these once every few years. I asked for the gravy on the side, which never actually happens when I order CFS. It’s not something worthy of sending back, just a preference thing. The gravy has andouille sausage in it which added an extra dimension of savory and pepper. Mmm.
Pro #2: The steak was tender.
The mashed potatoes were okay but not my favorite. As it’s Texas tradition to serve a chicken fried steak that’s nearly impossible to finish, this got about half eaten between my fiancé and me. I’d rather they sell a half portion because then I might be able to finish my food.
Would I come back? Ehh. It’s an okay place, and if i had friends who wanted to go I’d probably go again. Other than that, I think it was a fun place to try, but not on my regular rotation.

Not sure why people are having issues with parking? The garage cost me $ 2 for almost two hours. I have no problem with that ;)
WE CAME FOR THE CHICKEN!
It was delish.
The horseradish mashed potatoes were very interesting, could def taste the horseradish… borderline too salty.
We added Mac & cheese and the yellow/​green zucchini squash as additional sides. Both good additions to the meal, more bland than I would like.
But definitely a place I’d come back to.
Note.
The pickle served with the chicken was very interesting. Not your usual store bought. Perhaps pickled themselves?
I really enjoyed my pimm’s cup, probably a bit too much. So yummy.
What I can say about this place though, it is LOUD. inside and outside.
Our table was right against the patio window so we saw the massive HEARDS OF CHILDREN running around. Hahahaha looked fun and all but definitely not the place to be if you’re looking for a «chill» night.
Service was definitely slower at first. Our waiter was great though, as the night progressed. Just little bumps here in there from the people who brought out the food, etc.

Came here for HRW menu but their regular menu made more sense in regards to pricing.
Populated by families with kids under 5. Reminds me of a Chucky Cheese. Food and service were exceptionally good but not sure if I can handle spending a Friday night with 66% of the patrons being under age 5. Might order to-​go than actually eat here which is a shame given the quality of the cocktails and the nice bar.
Torn whether buying a box of Popeye’s chicken and picnicking at the park would be a better experience. Notable mention to Seth who provided exceptional service.

Another mediocre restaurant in Houston.
First impression: valet only? Great. this place isn’t fancy, so why are we forced to valet. We found a spot on the street and parked there.
Interior is nice. Fun, hip montrose style environment. Server was very nice and attentive.
To start, I had a spicy Bloody Mary and I must say that was the spiciest one I’ve ever had!
The corn hush puppies are super good and they were cranking those out of the kitchen faster than anything else. They are definitely worth getting.
My fiancé got the fried chicken and I got the chicken fried steak. The fried chicken was clearly the winner. The chicken was super juicy and the cornmeal crust was melt in your mouth good.
The chicken fried steak was just ok. They over seasoned the breading and the mashed potatoes were bland. I wasn’t impressed with the white gravy that came with it either.
Overall, I’d probably come back but I won’t be craving this place or coming very often.

I finally got a chance to check out Punk’s. It located on the back side of Rice Village on Morningside near Dustan St. Next door is the Cyclone Anaya’s.
This place is what I called a high end southern cooking. When I say high end I mean fried chicken with garnishes, with a higher price tag. I was kind of skeptical about this place at first. I always felt like southern food should be at places that has that down home look; you know like a Cracker Barrel. From the outside it doesn’t have that look, but indoors they got he southern décor down. Honey this place knocks Cracker Barrel out of the park as far as the food goes. But they charge double; so I guess you get what you pay for.
I ordered the chicken fried steak and my friend ordered a broil fish. I want to say it was snapper. The chicken fried steak was 21 bucks, but ideas huge and it was served with these horseradish mashed potatoes. I have never had horseradish mashed potatoes and now I don’t want anything else.
Parking in the village is cool. You have to pay to park in the streets and the garage as well, but it’s never too bad, or expensive. There is also valet available for 5 dollars. The restaurant do not validate for garage parking like some of the other restaurants.
The staff was great. The service started out a little slow, but it got better throughout the meal. I will definitely be returning to this place. A lot sooner than later.

Looking for some southern hospitality? Well, look no further! As we walked into the restaurant we were hit with a blast of country music and a sea of servers dressed in plaid shirts and jeans, all seemed happy to be there. The ambiance is that of a country setting with oak wood throughout and rustic tables and chairs. I like the high ceilings and that there is plenty of seating in– and outside.
I was worried we would need reservations but were able to get a table for two with no wait whatsoever. They offer both a brunch and lunch menu during the brunch hours. The sweet corn hushpuppies is a MUST HAVE and so is the Low Country Benedict which comes with crabmeat, poached eggs, and a jalapeño hollandaise sauce with home fries. My better half got the Chicken Fried Steak which is GINORMOUS and a side of horseradish mashed potatoes. This, IMO, can feed two people! He wanted to get some dessert, and I wasn’t quite sure if I had any room left, but so glad I made some for Mommia’s Gooey Butter Cake Bites. These are oh so good — so moist, delicious, and rich in flavor that we would go back just for them. The description below it says, «Trust Us» and trust me, you cannot leave without experiencing these bites!
Service is superb — make sure you ask for Kellen if he is working that day. He truly defines great service!

Get the Fried Chicken! Cant leave this place without trying it! I also recommend the Loaded Tater Tots. The Shrimp and Grits were just ok.
We were in the mood for Southern Fried Chicken. (Im still looking for fried chicken in Houston like Panama City’s Wicked Wheel). I did a Unilocal search and this looked good in the area of town we were in. The Fried Chicken was fresh and just fried because it was still very hot. It wasnt at all greasy. The breading is the key to southern fried chicken. Punks chicken was very crispy and seasoned so well. It wasnt a super think breading but very good.
We also got the Loaded Tater Tots which was also awesome. Its potatoes, bacon, cheese rolled together then breaded and deep fried! Very good!
The Shrimp and Grits i was hoping to boast about but it was just ok. The grits were pretty firm and didnt mix well with the sauce.
Service was very good. Our waiter gave us great recommendations and our drinks were always refilled. It can get crowded but you can make reservations. There were a few tables with family and kids so i would say its kid friendly.