Restaurants in Derby

While comfortably seated between brightly colored walls, diners at Felipe’s Mexican Restaurant enjoy the sensory stimulation of eating outdoors. Sunlight streams in from a skylight, washing over tables forming cozy clusters and beaming onto plants forming an impromptu barbershop quartet. Open since 1971, the eatery was voted Best Mexican Restaurant by readers of the Wichita Eagle from 2008 to 2011. Though it shares a menu with its sister restaurant, the kitchen here specializes in queso primo, a dip made with white cheese, spinach, and pimiento.

Every day, Kababs owner and chef Syed Jillani fills the dining room with the aroma of fresh herbs and spices. Ginger, garlic, turmeric, and curry swirl in the air like an all-scent production of Cirque du Soleil while Syed applies more than 25 years of experience to preparing classic Indian and Pakistani dishes such as tandoori chicken, samosas, and, of course, kababs. These specialties arrive individually with à la carte service or sit in buffet displays during lunch.

The talented hibachi and sushi chefs at Saké Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar freshly flip, cut, and roll all of the meals they serve. Elegant blue lighting washes over a capacious menu that caters to variable tastes with more than 30 dexterously crafted sushi rolls, such as the spicy-crunchy-tuna roll, yellowtail-scallion roll, and the large dining-room-carpet roll. In-table hibachi grills set the stage for fast-handed chefs to perform theatrical flips and flourishes as they prepare grilled, aerodynamic meals featuring chicken, shrimp, or steak, all accompanied by a festive trio of soup, salad, and fried rice.

As hungering eyes look upon dexterous feats of cooking, elegantly modern décor beckons forth diners' appetites with clean lines, glossy surfaces, and ancient Edo-period hedge-maze maps.

Olives, tahini, feta cheese, and herbs accent Mediterranean Grill's recipes, lending their signature flavors to schawarmas, hummus, and fattoush salad. In addition to lamb shanks, seasoned roasted chicken, and other classic Mediterranean meats, the kitchen whips up pastas and grains that include a four-cheese penne rigate and vegetable curry served over a bed of rice. More than 20 wines from around the world color-coordinate with each dish, and Turkish coffee paired with desserts such as baklava top off each meal.