With more than 1,000 restaurants in Wichita, you won’t go hungry here! We have excellent, locally-owned restaurants you’ll enjoy even if you have food sensitivities, allergies or follow a specific diet. We even have donut and ice cream options that won’t compromise a vegan diet. Here are several dining options in Wichita for folks with food sensitivities:
Beautiful Day Cafe
2516 E. Central
Beautiful Day Café is known for creatively preparing responsibly-sourced ingredients into a menu with plenty of vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free choices. Even though the restaurant is tucked into the core of the city, it has a garden next door growing its herb and vegetable supply for part of the year. Beautiful Day is open during breakfast and lunch hours and its cozy dining room fills up quickly. They serve the full menu throughout their hours, and you’ll see tables with plates of banana buckwheat pancakes, burritos filled with free-range eggs, vegan French toast, hippy porridge and other breakfast favorites. Lunch favorites include burgers – veggie or grass-fed beef, organic potato salad and their tasty sandwiches.
Churn & Burn
548 S. Oliver
Churn & Burn is an ice cream and coffee shop that specializes in making your drink or dessert exactly how you want it, and if that means dairy-free or vegan they will make it for you! They use local ingredients and can customize a flavor in minutes using liquid nitrogen to freeze the ice cream. They offer soy and coconut bases for dairy-free ice cream and shakes, and those can be made vegan by removing honey and caramel.
Kind Kravings
various locations in Wichita
You don’t have to miss out on the fabulousness of the food truck scene in Wichita. Many of these chef-driven mobile kitchens are happy to accommodate your dietary needs, and Kind Kravings features comfort food veganized. Think chocolate chip cookie dough balls, roasted cauliflower tacos, flavorful veggie burgers and tofu manicotti. The all-vegan menu allows diners to order anything on the menu without concern about ingredients being non-vegan or cross-contaminated. Owner Rochelle Collins traded in her original food truck and this spring is launching a double-decker, dine-in bus that will seat 20-30. Click here to check their schedule.
Lotus Leaf Café
251 N. Washington
Travelers are happy to find Jacquelyn Keefer’s health-conscious Lotus Leaf Café when they are in Wichita and looking for raw, vegan, vegetarian or gluten-free meals or prefer clean food made with sustainable ingredients. The menu includes appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers, entrées, smoothies and desserts. Among the favorites are a vegan buffalo cauliflower dish, house-made sweet potato chips, black bean/quinoa burger, pasta primavera made with spaghetti squash noodles, tacos made with almond-crusted cod and vegan cheesecake.
Tanya’s Soup Kitchen
1725 E. Douglas
Tanya’s Soup Kitchen is a quick-service restaurant serving unique, tasty, hand-crafted soups, sandwiches and salads in a fun and casual atmosphere. They serve at least four small batch soups daily, and while the soups rotate daily and seasonally they almost always include offerings to meet vegetarian, vegan, kosher and gluten-free diets. Here’s a soup menu one day last week: chicken tortilla with chips and cheese, tomato dill bisque (V/GF), chunky vegetable and mixed lentil stew (VEG/GF) and a creole style shrimp and artichoke chowder (P). Their signature veg sandwich, the Lulu, features two kinds of hummus and roasted red peppers. Gluten-free bread is available.
The Donut Whole
1720 E. Douglas
The made-from-scratch vegan donuts at The Donut Whole are so tasty that many non-vegans opt for them over regular buttermilk cake donuts. But plan ahead: the vegan donuts are only sold on Wednesdays and once they sell out, you’ll have to wait another week.