Piggin’ out at Pigs & Punch

Sometimes it may seem as though we live in a vegan world, with a juice bar on every corner. And perhaps that is partly true. Fortunately for meat lovers, there are also plenty of places to fill your belly with animal products. If that’s what you’re craving, Pigs & Punch is the place to be.

In Amsterdam’s Utrechtsestraat you’ll find this pork heaven, where everything revolves around our favorite pink animal. Combined with killer cocktails, as you may already have guessed from the name. For the cocktails, we first head downstairs to the all American bar. The staff wear red checked shirts, while Johnny Cash and other country classics play through the speakers.

American punch

In quintessentially American fashion, the cocktails are served in a punchbowl. Using a kind of soup ladle, you scoop the drink straight into your glass. The list we can choose from is extensive, but fortunately the bartender lends a hand. After a brief assessment of our tastes, he makes us a cocktail that isn’t on the menu. With ginger beer, pear, peach liqueur and cloves: autumnal yet refreshing, and served in a generous quantity. So generous, in fact, that we leave a little behind because we’re afraid we’ll otherwise start dinner already feeling tipsy.

Pig out

For dinner, we move upstairs, where the place is already fairly packed for a Wednesday evening. Around us, we see people—mostly men—greedily taking bites of large burgers and spareribs, of which you get four enormous pieces. We go for the pig out, which means a whole porky plank. Spareribs, pulled pork with corn, homemade bratwurst with fennel and slow-cooked pork cheek. The sausage is delicious and well seasoned. The cheek tastes good and is buttery tender, although it doesn’t entirely fit the Southern theme of the rest of the plank.

So many ribs

The absolute star is the ribs. Exactly how we like them: falling off the bone and with a wonderfully smoky flavor. Some bites we dip beforehand in the homemade barbecue sauce. I can’t decide whether I prefer them with or without it, so I alternate. The portions are bizarrely large. Great if you’re a hungry bear, but I can easily imagine that a lot ends up in the trash here. To prevent that, we order a doggy bag containing at least half of our food.

The menu also includes vegetarian dishes and sea bass, or deep-sea pig, as it appears on the menu. If you’re not in the mood for a very meaty meal, there’s plenty to choose from. But it seems to me that you’d go somewhere else with your vegetarian friends, and come here only with people who don’t shy away from a bit of gnawing.

Pigs & Punch
Utrechstestraat 30A
Amsterdam