Category Archives: Menus

Metro Grill III will open Thursday

June 12, 20122:42 p.m.

With all due respect to the many sandwich artists in town, no one makes a better sandwich in Wichita than Michael Gonzalez.

The outspoken chef has a legion of fans in town, earned through years of making gourmet sandwiches and other dishes in the unlikeliest of places — out of a cart in the food court at Towne East Square that he called Metro Grill. By Thursday, he’ll have his latest restaurant open, this one in the Waterfront at 13th and Webb.

Metro Grill III is “the big one,” Gonzaelez likes to say. He’s had his share of personal and business drama over the past several years, which resulted in him selling his Metro Grill II in Andover to an employee — but this restaurant is the one he’s always wanted.

It’s in the former Chill Gelato Space at the Waterfront, 10096 E. 13th St. N., suite 122. Gonzalez has remodeled the space, adding a granite bar, a giant New York City skyline on the wall, and an open kitchen where diners can watch him work.

Michael Gonzalez

There’s seating for about 45 inside and a 16-seat patio outside. Gonzalez will be open for lunch and dinner daily except Monday and has several upscale dinner-ish items on his menu as well, including Pasta V.I.P., made with seared chicken and shrimp over linguine with pine nuts, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, arugula and asparagus, and his Steak Christopher. You can see the full menu here.

Customers order at the counter and servers will deliver the food to the tables and offer drink refills. Gonzaelz should have his liquor license within a month, he said.

He’ll have live, Frank Sinatra-esque music on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. He also plans to have live music all day on Thursday, his official opening day.

Hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays. The restaurant can be reached by calling 316-631-1454.

“I want to thank Wichita for giving us so much support,” he said. “Metro Grill is back.”

By Denise Neil | Tags: , , Filed under About-to-open, Menus, Sandwiches | Comments

The crepes remain at Lotus Leaf

April 17, 201210:25 a.m.

I told you a few weeks ago about changes planned at Lotus Leaf,  the restaurant at  613 W. Douglas.

Owner Jacquelyn Keefer had just hired new chef Rebecca Gold and was rededicating herself to her original vision for the restaurant, which inlcuded the healthiest of health food dishes. She was considering eliminating crepes all together.

Keefer and Gold now have completed the new menu, and some crepes made the cut. There are also several tempting sounding vegetarian dishes, including a sweet potato crepe and a black bean and quinoa burger.

Hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays, 11 am. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays. For more information, call 316-295-4133.

By Denise Neil | Tags: Filed under Healthy restaurant food, Menus, Vegetarian food | Comments

This menu rocks

Jan. 9, 201210:37 a.m.

The totally rockin' menu at Jerry's

My friend Jaime sent me this photo over the weekend of the totally rockin’ menu at Jerry’s Bar and Grill, 630 N. Robin.

Though I’ve never eaten there, the creative menu makes me want to. This is just the appetizer part of the menu, too. The rest of it is just creative, featuring entrees such as a Fleetwood Mac Wrap.

Click on the picture to make it bigger, and then you, like me, will probably spend the rest of the day trying to decide between Bruce Springcheez fries and Styx Sticks.

By Denise Neil | Tags: Filed under Bar food, Menus | Comments

Zaytun adds pizza and other Indo-Pak deliciousness

Dec. 16, 201110:51 a.m.

Zaytun, the fabulous Middle Eastern restaurant at 2020 N. Woodlwan, has recently updated its menu.

When he called to tell me he was going to open on Christmas Day, owner Syed Abbas also told me about the many additions to his lunch and dinner menu. You can view the menu here. The new items are in bold.

Abbas is particularly excited about the addition of some Mediterranean pizzas, which he cooks in a brick pizza oven left behind by the building’s previous tenant. They’re unlike a typical pizza, he said, and their descriptions support that claim. I’ll take the Spicy Seekh Kabab pizza, which is topped with cilantro chutney, green chili, onion and mozzarella cheese.

He’s also added a Tandoori chicken dish and several vegetarian selections, and Abbas enthusiastically recommended his new rib eye steak, which is charbroiled and served with charbroiled steak with rosemary garlic potato and pomegranate mushroom sauce.

One other change: Zaytun now allows lunch customers to order a la carte from the menu or choose the always-different Indo-Pak lunch buffet.

Zaytun is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays for lunch. Dinner is served from 5 to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and from 5 to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Abbas also offers an elaborate Pakistani brunch from 11 to 3 p.m. on Sundays.

Call 316-613-2474 for more information.

By Denise Neil | Tags: Filed under Indian food, Mediterranean food, Menu changes, Menus | Comments

Now open: Shoeless Joe’s Old Fashioned Burgers and Phillys

Nov. 18, 201110:55 a.m.

David Chaffin, who just opened Sholess Joe's Old Fashioned Burgers and Phillys.

Restaurateur David Chaffin, known for founding Player’s, opened Shoeless Joe’s Old Fashioned Burgers and Phillys on Tuesday at 2315 W 21st St. in the space that most recently held a Jimmy’s Egg.

I drove past the restaurant, and it looks sorta like a mini-Player’s, full of wood and sports memorabilia. The menu looks familiar, too. It’s full of old Player’s dishes and was created using the same font from the old Player’s menu.

The most popular menu item so far, Chaffin said, is the Philly cheese steak sandwich. He’s also serving salads, burgers, wings, nachos and more.

Food is served from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. The bar stays open until people go home or 2 a.m., whichever comes first

By Denise Neil | Tags: Filed under Buffets, Just opened, Menus, Sports Bar | Comments

Now open: Wok Hey

Oct. 27, 20113:43 p.m.

Wok Hey, a new carryout Chinese restaurant at 1444 N. Maize Road, opened last week. It’s owned by Andy Diec, who also has Kwan Wah in Towne West Square, and it specializes in Chinese dishes to-go, though there’s also a small dining room.

Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sundays. For more information, call 316-721-3838. To see the menu, follow this link.

By Denise Neil | Tags: Filed under Just opened, Menus | Comments

Kanai awesomeness: New menu items, chef dinners

Oct. 17, 20113:55 p.m.

I haven’t exactly been quiet about the fact that I love Kanai and that I think its sushi is the best in Wichita.

Now, Chef David Kanai is offering fans like me a chance to try something new. He’s recently added 11 new items to the menu. Among them: an Umai Roll made with squid tempura and asparagus tempura; a roll called Beef29, made with red bell pepper tempura and beef tenderloin; and Hamachi Kama Shioyake, which is grilled whole yellowtail cheek in a special sauce. You can see the complete new menu here.

Chef David Kanai

Kanai co-owner Penny Ellis also told me about an interesting option for Kanai diners. Chef Kanai has started offering special chef dinners called “Omakase.” For $100 a person or more, depending on how lavish one wants his Omakase, the chef will prepare a special five-course meal full of off-menu dishes, including sushi, cooked items, and upscale ingredients such as Kobe beef and yellowtail cheek. Chef Kanai loves doing the dinners, Ellis said, because it allows him to show off his creativity step outside of the confines of the menu. The Omakase requires a reservation at least a week in advance, and the price doesn’t include alcohol or gratuity.

Kanai is at 12111 Maple, which is at the corner of 119th and Maple on the west side. For more information, call 316-719-2929

By Denise Neil | Tags: Filed under Chefs, Menus, Sushi, Uncategorized | Comments

Lizzie’s Delights offers near-downtown lunch

Sept. 28, 201110:19 a.m.

Elizabeth Navrat has been catering in Wichita for 10 years, the last three out of the building at 3238 E. Douglas that previously housed Creative Catering. A couple of months ago, she started serving lunch at her Lizzie’s Delights Catering and Deli and plans to enhance her offerings in a few weeks by adding a hot lunch buffet.

For now, Lizzie’s Delights is open from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays serving New York Deli-style sandwiches, cold sandwiches, wraps, salads, soups and daily specials. You can see the menu here.

In mid-October, she plans to add Saturday hours and also will begin offering a hot lunch buffet that will have different offerings each day — Southern fried chicken, Mediterranean food, Italian food, etc.

Navrat’s space has seating for about 50 and an order-at-the-counter system. For more information, call 316-250-8618.

By Denise Neil | Tags: Filed under Just opened, Lunch, Menus | Comments

A look at the AVI menu

Sept. 22, 20113:11 p.m.

AVI will open in about a month in the newly remodeled Drury Plaza Broadview Hotel.

Ben Arnold just shared with me the new menu for AVI, the fine dining restaurant he plans to open in the newly remodeled Drury Plaza Broadview Hotel.

Created with input from new chef Adam Courtney (who replaced Jeremy Wade), the menu includes high-end dishes such as steak, veal and duck. There’s also a delightfully long list of entrees based around fish and seafood. (Maryland blue crab-stuffed flounder? Yes, please!)

Check it out by following this link. Arnold says that the restaurant is still on track for a mid-October opening. He offered me a tour, which I’ll take soon and report back.

By Denise Neil | Tags: Filed under About-to-open, Chefs, Menus | Comments

Menu additions at two local favorites

Sept. 12, 201111:54 a.m.

Carlos O' Kelly's new southwestern egg rolls.

A couple of local restaurants have made some changes or additions to their menus that will make fall much tastier.

One is Carlos O’Kelly’s, the locally owned Mexican chain that each year challenges its 41 restaurants to a cook-off. The best dishes the stores come up with are added to the menu for a limited time.

On Sunday, the restaurant started serving southwestern egg rolls created in Marion, Iowa; Hawaiian chicken fajitas, teriyaki glazed and topped with pineapple pick de gallo, from Ames, Iowa; Poblano pork pastel, featuring sweet corn masa cakes smothered with braised pork, from Rochester, Minn.; a fajita steak burrito created in  Sioux City, Iowa; and a cinnamon flautas dessert invented in Manhattan.

The new dishes are available now through the end of October.

Watermark Cafe, the cozy little eatery inside Watermark Books, also has added some items to its menu, including several sandwiches ( the PrairyErth made with grilled chicken, provolone, radishes, sunflower seeds and lettuce topped with pesto aioli on an herbed flatbread sounds interesting); a black-eyed pea salad; and breakfast items such as a Nutella and banana-filled puffed pastry, and “Green Eggs & Spam,” made with egg, pepper jack cheese and fried Spam on a toasted bagel.

You can find Watermark’s full menu on its website. Cafe hours are 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

By Denise Neil | Tags: , Filed under Menu changes, Menus, Mexican food | Comments