Torch Bistro - Punta Gorda

Wife and I went there for lunch, rather Linley at 1 pm in the afternoon. We chose salads and a brew, salads were fresh, atmosphere and service pleasant, chatted with the owner and agreed to come back for a meal.

I had to wait a couple of days to write this review to help me gather my thoughts to make this useful. I 've decided to break this down by the numbers. 1) Happy hour drinks. I ordered the Happy Hour $5.00 Patron Margarita. Ya, Patron! What I got was a glass full of ice and something poured out of a bottle without ever seeing any tequila, let alone Patron, being poured into my drink. When questioned about it later our server said they get so slammed during Happy Hour that they pre-mix the Patron Margaritas because they don 't have time to mix them individually. Pretty sad because it was just the four of us at the bar plus one other woman who was clearly friends with the bartender. No slamming going on here. 2) Quality of food. Two of our group ordered the FRESH stuffed flounder as advertised on the marquis in front of the restaurant and it clearly was not fresh. The stuffing was suppose to be fresh seafood but it turned out to be fishy smelling unidentifiable mush. The stuffed flounder was so obviously frozen and, dare I venture to say, possibly dug out of a can. I tasted a small sliver of it and it reeked. 3) Leftovers. Finally, our server shared her entire life story with our table. Telling us about her two dogs, two kids, ex, cats, etc...blah blah blah and at the end of the evening when I wanted to put my inedible AWESOME Bucco in a doggie box she practically arm wrestled me for the bones. I received a lecture on how I should never give pork bones to a dog and she 'd be happy to strip the meat from the bones for me and place just the meat in my doggie box. I declined because based upon her behavior I was sure those bones were quite valuable. In my opinion, the Osso Bucco I had ordered tasted like it had been previously cooked, possibly frozen and heated up in a microwave prior to being served to me. I wanted the left overs so I could feed them to our animals. Not being able to find any bidders for the bones on Craigslist, I ended up throwing them away. Honestly, I would not recommend eating or drinking at this establishment until they do a complete revamp of their kitchen and change the way they serve mixed drinks in the bar. I won 't be back until I start to see their Yelp reviews improve.

We had a friends birthday party at Torch last night. The service was amazing for our party of 10. Our waitress Heidi went all out to make our time very enjoyable. The restaurant let me drop the birthday cake off early and brought it out all lit up then sliced it for us. Everyone loved their meal. Their prices are reasonable and menu selections will satisfy anyone. Kudos to Torch and to Heidi!!

Had a wonderful lunch with 15 women the other day . The lunch menu had a great selection from sandwiches to salads to burgers. I chose the Goat Cheese salad for $9, good serving size. Other lunch specials are offered for $6.95 We were seated in a private room in the back and our server Annie was terrific. We brought in a cake, which she gladly served and then tallied up all those individual checks (yikes) Great service and food, keep up the good work you will be busy this season.

Food and service good, not impressed with policy of showing I D with credit card , won't hurry back. Would like to know if that is their standard procedure ? Never in my life time have I experienced this !!! The place was virtually empty, I can see why . There are too many terrific restaurants in Punta Gorda with Class to Enjoy .