Restaurants in Ponca City

The cozy café’s sweet aromas of freshly baked breads and pastries satisfy sniffers without even making them scratch the menu of morning and midday delights. Quiche Lorraine and quiche Florentine ($4), which are new additions to The Palette's bill of breakfast fare, whisper savory complements to sweet stacks of waffles ($4). For lunch, nosh a handheld pineapple-, grape-, and cashew-clad chicken-salad sandwich or a grilled meatloaf sandwich, both served on homemade bread ($6). Cleanse your esophagus with barista beverages such as chocolate café au lait ($3), tropical paradise iced tea ($1.50), citrus smoothies ($4), or raspberry or apple Hot Lips sodas ($3), and complete the sweet with a warm slice of apple pie with ice cream ($4) or carrot cake with cream-cheese frosting ($4).

Master chef David Wirebaugh collaborated with his cooking crew and local farmers to create refreshingly simple lunch, breakfast, and dinner dishes that showcase the diverse agricultural products of Kansas. Infuse a weary workday with elegance by stopping by for a bowl of blistered onion soup ($7), a cider slow-roasted BBQ-pork sandwich ($10), or a mesquite-smoked prairie-chicken salad ($13), dressed in a lovely little strawberry-basil vinaigrette. Carve into your evening with the charcuterie platter ($9), or gobble garden goodies by trying a tomato salad, assembled with pan flashed heriloom tomatoes, calypso beans, and rocket greens, all doused with balsamic vinaigrette ($6). The natural-fed, 12-ounce KC strip steak ($26) can fill any appetite bucket to the brim, while the fire-roasted half chicken with baby potatoes, herb carrots, and natural au jus ($15) provides the perfect portion for a half picnic.

Inside Wichita’s 1870s-themed cattle-town museum, guests can mosey over to the Diamond W Chuckwagon and enjoy three hours of food, music, and family-friendly fun served up by the award-winning cowboy Western quartet known as the Diamond W Wranglers (formerly the Prairie Rose Wranglers). Fans of food, music, music about food, and musical foods will relish the tastes of an all-you-can-eat brisket dinner that includes smoked beef brisket and sausage, roasted rosemary potatoes, cowboy beans, honey cornbread, and chocolate-chunk brownies with vanilla ice cream for dessert. The meal—which may be served by the Diamond W Wranglers members themselves, three of whom own the restaurant together—then merges into an after-dinner show of good-old-fangled cowboy Western tunes interspersed with jokes, tall tales, and coyote brandings. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the meal is served at 6:30 p.m. Check the upcoming schedule before making a reservation.

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.

Since 1930, the grill masters at NuWay Burgers have been crafting their unique crumbly burgers from the same recipe and patented cooking equipment, preserving the signature texture that has kept customers returning to their original Douglas Avenue location for more than 80 years. The crumbly burgers share a menu with chicken and pork sandwiches, handmade onion rings, and frozen treats, including floats made with homemade root beer.

"We’ve been careful not to break anything that wasn’t broken," says Egg Crate Cafe's Greg Buss, who took over the casual diner-style restaurant with his family in 2011. But his hands-off philosophy hasn't kept Greg from putting his mark on the eatery. As general manger, he takes the time to get to know his regular customers, helping to create a comfortable atmosphere as genial and friendly as he is.

What has stayed the same, however, is the chef-designed menu. The kitchen staff—most of whom also worked for the former owner— carefully crafts comfort-food dishes from fresh, simple ingredients. The country-fried potatoes that accompany almost every breakfast plate are chopped fresh daily, and house-made hollandaise sauce smothers eggs benedict. Even the wontons on the asian salad are crisped in house instead of by the corporate-owned dragons used by many restaurants.

What few items they can't make themselves, the café procures from local sources. Local bakery Connie’s Cookies supplies Egg Crate's desserts, and the paintings of flowers and Wichita landscapes on its walls were crafted exclusively for the restaurant by local artists Steve Murillo and Wayne Clark.