Kansas is often labeled
a flyover state , and it gets a bad rap as a place with nothing much to do and nothing much to see. Its residents are subjected to unending
Wizard of Oz jokes. But with a population of more than 400,000, Wichita offers many of the perks found in the big cities, minus the traffic: It’s large enough that residents don’t feel isolated from art, culture, and entertainment, but small enough that they run into someone they know every time they leave the house. People who live in Wichita often say that it’s a “big small town” — one full of worthy, vibrant restaurants. Some of the country’s
most famous restaurant chains actually got their starts in Wichita, including Pizza Hut, White Castle, and Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers. A longtime urban myth is that Wichita has more restaurants per capita than any city in the country. Though that may not actually be true, eating out is definitely one of the city’s main pastimes — which I’ve enjoyed while covering the local food scene here for the past 25 years. As you might expect from a city located in the middle of cattle country, Wichita is a good place to get a great steak. But it’s also home to Lebanese, Vietnamese, and Mexican communities who have filled the city with top-rate eateries. Here are 17 of my favorites. Deano’s, an upscale sports bar, has long been a gathering place for those who want to catch a game. But it became even more popular in September when it added a brand-new west-side building that gives customers room to spread out and cheer on their teams. The new Deano’s has two stories, a shaded double-decker patio facing a residential lake, a U-shaped bar lined with 40 seats, 30 beers on tap, and 30 television sets. The menu offers favorites like wings, ribs, burgers, and steaks. Be sure to try the pizza: Deano’s owners also have a pizza restaurant across town, where they’ve perfected pillowy dough. One Wichita restaurant has operated at the same address longer than any other — close to 100 years — with a menu that’s close to the city’s collective heart. The original Nuway debuted in Wichita in 1930, though the dining room has been expanded and upgraded many times over the decades. The star of the menu is the loose meat sandwich, which features a hamburger bun filled with crumbly and delightfully greasy ground beef, topped with mustard, chopped onions, and pickles. Grab a seat at one of the stools lining the counter, and be sure to also get a float with house-made root beer and an order of fresh onion rings. Wichita’s most well-known breakfast spot was inspired by the Guy Fieri show
Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives . Its owners strive to create overflowing plates of rib-sticking comfort dishes like crab cakes Benedict, breakfast burritos smothered in green chile sauce, crispy corned beef hash, and the Brutus, a tower of breakfast food that includes hash browns, caramelized onions, chicken fried chicken, sausage gravy, and two eggs. When Wichita State University basketball was on a hot streak in the 2010s, ESPN anchors would frequently eat at Doo-Dah before raving about it on the air. First opened in 1958, Connie’s Mexico Cafe is a Wichita culinary institution. It’s the oldest family-run Mexican restaurant in town and is popular for its fried tacos made with ground beef filling that’s mixed with peas and potatoes. Other favorites include the guacamole burrito, steak con chile, and fajitas. And the chips and salsa are hard to beat. Look for the photo of Harrison Ford — a frequent annual visitor to Wichita for flight training — posing with Connie’s owner posted near the cash register. Wichita has a large Vietnamese population, and it’s a great place to get acquainted with that country’s cuisine. One of Wichita’s most popular restaurants is Little Saigon, known for its bun (vermicelli noodle salads); pho stocked with thinly sliced beef and topped with bean sprouts, jalapeños, cilantro, and lime; and banh mi stuffed with grilled pork on crusty French bread. Need an energy boost? Treat yourself to a cafe sua, a potent iced coffee drink made with sweetened condensed milk. Hidden inside this tiny, sort-of-Irish dive bar in downtown Wichita is a menu full of cravey-worthy sandwiches. The Artichoke’s food menu lists more than two dozen, but locals know to order the Famous No. 8, a grilled sandwich filled with turkey, bacon, Swiss cheese, cream cheese, shredded lettuce, and tomato stuffed into an onion hoagie then doused with Italian dressing. (Get the broccoli salad as your side.) Almost as famous: the Nancy’s Roast Beef, also made on an onion hoagie but with roast beef and ranch dressing. The bar itself is modest, but it always has cold Guinness on tap and offers live music in the evenings.
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One of Wichita’s oldest downtown restaurants is still one of its favorites. Old Mill Tasty Shop, which first opened in 1932, is an old soda-fountain style lunch spot that has hexagon-tile floors, old-school wooden booths, and blue-plate specials. The menu still lists two of the restaurant’s original items — a liverwurst sandwich on white bread and a banana and peanut butter sandwich with honey — but its owner also is known for her crunchy, oniony New York chicken salad and her Southwestern specialties like green chili, chicken enchiladas, and Monterey tostadas. Don’t skip dessert: The folks behind the marble soda fountain make legendary milkshakes and turtle sundaes. This breakfast/brunch/lunch restaurant started in Wichita in 2017, and its owners have since expanded it to the Kansas City metro area, as well as into Nebraska, Iowa, and Arkansas. One of the more popular Wichita locations is downtown, just off Naftzger Park. The interior has a classy modern farmhouse feel, and the menu is filled with standard breakfast and brunch options alongside unexpected surprises like homemade pop tarts. Homegrown also has fresh-squeezed juices and a full bar that specializes in breakfast-friendly cocktails. Be prepared to wait for a table on weekend mornings or use the waitlist feature on the website, which allows guests to get in line before they arrive. Located in Wichita’s Old Town bar district, Public is a speakeasy-meets-gastropub that operates out of a cozy, underground space filled with glowing edison bulbs, a polished cement floor, and exposed brick walls. Its owners are dedicated to using local ingredients and serve a diverse menu that includes everything from pork belly to house-made pickle plates to brisket tacos. Be sure to try the bao buns, puffy pillows of goodness filled with a choice of pork belly or hoisin-glazed mushrooms. Public is also known for its beer selection and menu of craft cocktails. Wichita is filled with restaurants selling Lebanese fare, but the local Meddys chain puts a modern twist on classic dishes like falafel and hummus. The quick-service restaurants’ menus are populated with dishes including shawarma sandwiches, salmon wraps, and crunchy fattoush salads, and their dining rooms are decorated with Mediterranean tiles and filled with sunlight. All Meddys feature full bars serving craft cocktails. Of its five locations, the one that’s right downtown is within walking distance of the city’s big arena and a good jumping off point for a night in the brick-lined Old Town nightlife area. Wichita is fickle about its barbecue, but for the past three years, Station 8 has been the favorite place to fill up on St. Louis-style ribs, brisket, pulled pork, and hotlinks. The restaurant is set up inside a converted fire house near downtown, and the owner has decorated the space with antique phone booths, vintage fire engine toys, and a 1940s Wurlitzer jukebox. It’s a lunch-only place that serves heaping plates buffet style, and it’s always packed. Be sure to grab a classic bottle of soda from the display case. In 2020, some entrepreneurs converted a midcentury building on Wichita’s main drag into a hip restaurant that has since become one of the city’s most popular. It’s filled with 1960s-inspired fixtures and furnishings, and has retractable doors that, in agreeable weather, can completely open the dining room to the outdoors on three sides. A new chef recently upgraded the menu, which features bruschetta with a variety of unique toppings (fig, jam, and prosciutto, for example), pasta dishes, and meat and seafood entrees, including a scallop dish served with charred bok choy, coconut cream sauce, and pickled kumquat. The Belmont also has one of Wichita’s best craft cocktail menus and has become the place to see and be seen, especially on weekend evenings. Just on the edge of the Wichita State University campus, Social Tap is a sports bar meets food hall. Opened by a couple of Wichita State college buddies, the restaurant invites customers to use their phones to order beer from 52 taps at the main bar and food from two “concept kitchens” operating in the space: Sungrano Pizza and Wheatley’s Burgers. The dining room is huge, as is its massive television screen airing sporting events. Social Tap also has a large patio overlooking a small lake. If not for the fact that the Georges French Bistro operates in a strip center, customers there could easily persuade themselves they were dining in Paris. Georges — which recently made local history when it became Wichita’s first-ever
James Beard Award semifinalist (for Outstanding Restaurant) — has marble floors, a brass bar, black walls with gold trim, and all-season patio doors. It serves French bistro favorites like escargot, duck a l’orange, and savory crepes. You can’t go wrong with the steak frites, which comes with a serving of tangy truffle fries. Recently, Georges added its own bakery that provides the dining room with fresh baguettes, loaves, and pastries. Angelo’s is Wichita’s oldest and most beloved Italian restaurant, and may have invented a special type of cuisine best described as “Wichitalian” — salads topped with zesty dressing and house-made pickled eggplant; manicotti cooked in metal dishes until the cheese gets crispy on the edges; and thick-crust pizzas loaded with toppings like homemade Italian sausage, which saturates the crust with delightfully greasy flavor as it cooks. This local favorite, originally founded by Italian immigrants in 1960, closed in 2000; but Wichita loved it so much, citizens donated to a crowdfunding campaign that helped the founders’ son and granddaughter revive it in 2021.
Get a taste of Wichita-brewed beer at this popular brewpub, where pizza on thin, cracker-y crust is the specialty. Wichita Brewing Company is one of the town’s most prolific local brewers and the winner of multiple national beer awards. (Try the WBC Wheat, the 5:02 Amber, and the V.6 IPA.) The just-opened third location, in the Delano neighborhood on the edge of downtown, features a rooftop bar, two additional patios, and two levels of seating inside. Kansas is decidedly landlocked, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have some top-rate sushi restaurants serving fresh fish. The best sushi in Wichita can be found at Sapporo Japanese Restaurant, which is tucked away at a strip center near one of the city’s busiest intersections. Family-owned Sapporo offers a big menu of sushi rolls, hand rolls, sashimi, and hot entrees, including teriyaki and katsu. Splurge, if you can, on Sapporo’s giant Love Boat, a wooden boat filled with two rolls, six pieces of sushi, and 10 pieces of sashimi chosen by the chef.
Deano’s, an upscale sports bar, has long been a gathering place for those who want to catch a game. But it became even more popular in September when it added a brand-new west-side building that gives customers room to spread out and cheer on their teams. The new Deano’s has two stories, a shaded double-decker patio facing a residential lake, a U-shaped bar lined with 40 seats, 30 beers on tap, and 30 television sets. The menu offers favorites like wings, ribs, burgers, and steaks. Be sure to try the pizza: Deano’s owners also have a pizza restaurant across town, where they’ve perfected pillowy dough. One Wichita restaurant has operated at the same address longer than any other — close to 100 years — with a menu that’s close to the city’s collective heart. The original Nuway debuted in Wichita in 1930, though the dining room has been expanded and upgraded many times over the decades. The star of the menu is the loose meat sandwich, which features a hamburger bun filled with crumbly and delightfully greasy ground beef, topped with mustard, chopped onions, and pickles. Grab a seat at one of the stools lining the counter, and be sure to also get a float with house-made root beer and an order of fresh onion rings. Wichita’s most well-known breakfast spot was inspired by the Guy Fieri show
Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives . Its owners strive to create overflowing plates of rib-sticking comfort dishes like crab cakes Benedict, breakfast burritos smothered in green chile sauce, crispy corned beef hash, and the Brutus, a tower of breakfast food that includes hash browns, caramelized onions, chicken fried chicken, sausage gravy, and two eggs. When Wichita State University basketball was on a hot streak in the 2010s, ESPN anchors would frequently eat at Doo-Dah before raving about it on the air. First opened in 1958, Connie’s Mexico Cafe is a Wichita culinary institution. It’s the oldest family-run Mexican restaurant in town and is popular for its fried tacos made with ground beef filling that’s mixed with peas and potatoes. Other favorites include the guacamole burrito, steak con chile, and fajitas. And the chips and salsa are hard to beat. Look for the photo of Harrison Ford — a frequent annual visitor to Wichita for flight training — posing with Connie’s owner posted near the cash register. Wichita has a large Vietnamese population, and it’s a great place to get acquainted with that country’s cuisine. One of Wichita’s most popular restaurants is Little Saigon, known for its bun (vermicelli noodle salads); pho stocked with thinly sliced beef and topped with bean sprouts, jalapeños, cilantro, and lime; and banh mi stuffed with grilled pork on crusty French bread. Need an energy boost? Treat yourself to a cafe sua, a potent iced coffee drink made with sweetened condensed milk. Hidden inside this tiny, sort-of-Irish dive bar in downtown Wichita is a menu full of cravey-worthy sandwiches. The Artichoke’s food menu lists more than two dozen, but locals know to order the Famous No. 8, a grilled sandwich filled with turkey, bacon, Swiss cheese, cream cheese, shredded lettuce, and tomato stuffed into an onion hoagie then doused with Italian dressing. (Get the broccoli salad as your side.) Almost as famous: the Nancy’s Roast Beef, also made on an onion hoagie but with roast beef and ranch dressing. The bar itself is modest, but it always has cold Guinness on tap and offers live music in the evenings. One of Wichita’s oldest downtown restaurants is still one of its favorites. Old Mill Tasty Shop, which first opened in 1932, is an old soda-fountain style lunch spot that has hexagon-tile floors, old-school wooden booths, and blue-plate specials. The menu still lists two of the restaurant’s original items — a liverwurst sandwich on white bread and a banana and peanut butter sandwich with honey — but its owner also is known for her crunchy, oniony New York chicken salad and her Southwestern specialties like green chili, chicken enchiladas, and Monterey tostadas. Don’t skip dessert: The folks behind the marble soda fountain make legendary milkshakes and turtle sundaes. This breakfast/brunch/lunch restaurant started in Wichita in 2017, and its owners have since expanded it to the Kansas City metro area, as well as into Nebraska, Iowa, and Arkansas. One of the more popular Wichita locations is downtown, just off Naftzger Park. The interior has a classy modern farmhouse feel, and the menu is filled with standard breakfast and brunch options alongside unexpected surprises like homemade pop tarts. Homegrown also has fresh-squeezed juices and a full bar that specializes in breakfast-friendly cocktails. Be prepared to wait for a table on weekend mornings or use the waitlist feature on the website, which allows guests to get in line before they arrive. Located in Wichita’s Old Town bar district, Public is a speakeasy-meets-gastropub that operates out of a cozy, underground space filled with glowing edison bulbs, a polished cement floor, and exposed brick walls. Its owners are dedicated to using local ingredients and serve a diverse menu that includes everything from pork belly to house-made pickle plates to brisket tacos. Be sure to try the bao buns, puffy pillows of goodness filled with a choice of pork belly or hoisin-glazed mushrooms. Public is also known for its beer selection and menu of craft cocktails. Wichita is filled with restaurants selling Lebanese fare, but the local Meddys chain puts a modern twist on classic dishes like falafel and hummus. The quick-service restaurants’ menus are populated with dishes including shawarma sandwiches, salmon wraps, and crunchy fattoush salads, and their dining rooms are decorated with Mediterranean tiles and filled with sunlight. All Meddys feature full bars serving craft cocktails. Of its five locations, the one that’s right downtown is within walking distance of the city’s big arena and a good jumping off point for a night in the brick-lined Old Town nightlife area. Wichita is fickle about its barbecue, but for the past three years, Station 8 has been the favorite place to fill up on St. Louis-style ribs, brisket, pulled pork, and hotlinks. The restaurant is set up inside a converted fire house near downtown, and the owner has decorated the space with antique phone booths, vintage fire engine toys, and a 1940s Wurlitzer jukebox. It’s a lunch-only place that serves heaping plates buffet style, and it’s always packed. Be sure to grab a classic bottle of soda from the display case. In 2020, some entrepreneurs converted a midcentury building on Wichita’s main drag into a hip restaurant that has since become one of the city’s most popular. It’s filled with 1960s-inspired fixtures and furnishings, and has retractable doors that, in agreeable weather, can completely open the dining room to the outdoors on three sides. A new chef recently upgraded the menu, which features bruschetta with a variety of unique toppings (fig, jam, and prosciutto, for example), pasta dishes, and meat and seafood entrees, including a scallop dish served with charred bok choy, coconut cream sauce, and pickled kumquat. The Belmont also has one of Wichita’s best craft cocktail menus and has become the place to see and be seen, especially on weekend evenings. Just on the edge of the Wichita State University campus, Social Tap is a sports bar meets food hall. Opened by a couple of Wichita State college buddies, the restaurant invites customers to use their phones to order beer from 52 taps at the main bar and food from two “concept kitchens” operating in the space: Sungrano Pizza and Wheatley’s Burgers. The dining room is huge, as is its massive television screen airing sporting events. Social Tap also has a large patio overlooking a small lake. If not for the fact that the Georges French Bistro operates in a strip center, customers there could easily persuade themselves they were dining in Paris. Georges — which recently made local history when it became Wichita’s first-ever
James Beard Award semifinalist (for Outstanding Restaurant) — has marble floors, a brass bar, black walls with gold trim, and all-season patio doors. It serves French bistro favorites like escargot, duck a l’orange, and savory crepes. You can’t go wrong with the steak frites, which comes with a serving of tangy truffle fries. Recently, Georges added its own bakery that provides the dining room with fresh baguettes, loaves, and pastries. Angelo’s is Wichita’s oldest and most beloved Italian restaurant, and may have invented a special type of cuisine best described as “Wichitalian” — salads topped with zesty dressing and house-made pickled eggplant; manicotti cooked in metal dishes until the cheese gets crispy on the edges; and thick-crust pizzas loaded with toppings like homemade Italian sausage, which saturates the crust with delightfully greasy flavor as it cooks. This local favorite, originally founded by Italian immigrants in 1960, closed in 2000; but Wichita loved it so much, citizens donated to a crowdfunding campaign that helped the founders’ son and granddaughter revive it in 2021. Get a taste of Wichita-brewed beer at this popular brewpub, where pizza on thin, cracker-y crust is the specialty. Wichita Brewing Company is one of the town’s most prolific local brewers and the winner of multiple national beer awards. (Try the WBC Wheat, the 5:02 Amber, and the V.6 IPA.) The just-opened third location, in the Delano neighborhood on the edge of downtown, features a rooftop bar, two additional patios, and two levels of seating inside. Kansas is decidedly landlocked, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have some top-rate sushi restaurants serving fresh fish. The best sushi in Wichita can be found at Sapporo Japanese Restaurant, which is tucked away at a strip center near one of the city’s busiest intersections. Family-owned Sapporo offers a big menu of sushi rolls, hand rolls, sashimi, and hot entrees, including teriyaki and katsu. Splurge, if you can, on Sapporo’s giant Love Boat, a wooden boat filled with two rolls, six pieces of sushi, and 10 pieces of sashimi chosen by the chef.
