Restaurants in Hutchinson

Kinfolk Cafe’s menu of comforting, homestyle country cooking is inspired by the aromas of the owner’s mom cooking dinner or her grandma flipping bacon and eggs on the stove in the morning. Meats from local farms appear on plates in the form of meat-loaf served only on Fridays, breaded-pork tenderloin, fried chicken, or chicken-fried-steak dinners, lovingly smothered in peppered gravy and accompanied by sides such as onion rings and generously buttered mashed potatoes. Hearty third-pound burgers can be topped with chili, cheese, or bacon, and can have extra bacon mixed right into the patty. Kinfolk Cafe serves breakfast items such as omelets, belgian waffles, and egg scrambles all day long, helping customers fill up after a long night of filling up the neighbor’s convertible with sand.

The kitchen staff at Bann Thai Restaurant has nary a can opener. This is because they craft each dish from scratch using the owner’s family recipes—brought straight from Thailand—rather than using bottled ingredients procured on internet auction sites. Thai-style curry dishes smother chicken, beef, and pork with brightly colored sauces, while the flavors of thai basil, ginger, and chili peppers energize plates of duck and seafood.

In his hunt for the perfect breakfast, Guy Fieri, the host of Food Network's hit program Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, didn't have to look any further than Brint's piping hot platters of homemade hot cakes, egg dishes, and its specialty: biscuits and gravy. Had the charismatic host, whose surgically implanted sunglasses only reflected the glare of sizzling early morning skillets, stuck around, he would've also enjoyed a homemade dinner selection that includes a butterfly-cut chicken breast and fresh, hand-breaded country-fried steak. Molten mounds of chili tumble across heaps of tender noodles on the Cincinnati spaghetti dish, a regional specialty that elevates the traditional pasta dish with diced onions and shredded cheese.

Classic Chinese food favorites populate the menu at Chosen Wok, which takes pride in its practice of cooking each dish fresh to order. Chefs prepare entrees in open view, doing their work in front of their customers like actors in a play or lawyers reading 600 pages of case law in front of their eventually sleeping clients. They slice and heat savory morsels of kung pao shrimp, sesame chicken, szechuan beef, and hot braised pork in special brown sauce. Warm yellow hues pervade the dining room, which is home to egg rolls and cooling glasses of milk tea.

A wave of flavor washes over visitors to Tsunami Teriyaki, who can dig into charbroiled teriyaki, chicken wings, and Thai and Vietnamese dishes. Spring rolls stuffed with chicken and vegetables and garnished with a ginger-lime sauce can start off meals, or diners can sample salad rolls made with carrots, bean sprouts, and peanut sauce. The hearty selection of noodles ranges from pad thai, “Thailand’s official rice noodle,” to vermicelli, Vietnam’s “light and healthy rice noodle.” The luscious noodles arrive mixed with cilantro, toasted peanuts, lemongrass, bean sprouts, and proteins such as tofu, chicken, or steak. The house Tsunami Specials platters include chicken or tofu mixed with string beans, Thai herbs, or a crushed peppercorn sauce. Thai iced tea and Vietnamese iced coffee wash down spices, and boba drinks of avocado, mango, and sour-green-apple flavors provide refreshing sips that may come with pearls of tapioca freshly stolen from the elusive tapioca oyster.