Foodie Friday: The Monarch - Wichita, Kansas
Located on a corner in the fabulous Delano district of Wichita sits a great place to go to wind down after a long day. A place that is as chill and familiar as your own backyard, but one that also makes it easy to have a good time. This is The Monarch Bar.
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Location: 579 W Douglas Ave, Wichita, KS 67213
Hours:
Monday-Sunday: 11am-12am
Accepts cash/card
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After a day of smelling tulips at Botanica and watching monster movies at Exploration Place Melaina, Alex, and I made our way over to the nearby Monarch Bar for what we hoped would be good food and a good time. We struggled slightly with finding a “main” door in to the place, but eventually managed, walked in, and seated ourselves at a booth near their outdoor seating area.
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Here is a look at their menu:
And their drink menu:
Alex and Melaina ordered some drinks off the drink menu to try out. For Melaina it was the Kombucha and Alex went with the classic old fashioned.
We also decided we wanted to try out some appetizers (of course) so we went with their fried green beans (which were a first for both Alex and Melaina) and their wings whose size and style surprised us.
For the main entrees Melaina ordered the chicken caprese sandwich, Alex the Cuban, and I the Delano club.
Crew Reviews:
Alex: 7.5/10
Customer service wasn’t the best because of the seating situation. Drink was good and the food was okay. The sandwich was a good Cuban, but not the best. The wings tasted good but didn’t like the style of the chicken wings because it was harder to eat. Paying was annoying too. If they aren’t going to have a host and do things different then have tablets or something on the table to let people pay easier.
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Melaina: 7/10
Service could’ve been better. Didn’t like the seating and it was too confusing. The green beans were good, sandwich was okay, but it was kind of bland. I really liked the sauce on the wings, but they were hard to eat. LOVED the kombucha, it was very refreshing. Cool vibe though.
The Monarch Final Stats
Service: 8/10
Food: 8/10
Cleanliness/Décor: 10/10
Price: $
Overall Rating: 8.7/10
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I do have to agree with the crew that the seating situation here at The Monarch is a confusing one for first timers due to a lack of a hostess stand or signs telling you to go ahead and seat yourself. Our server for the most part did a good job, however there were a couple of times when things took waaay longer than they should have especially when it came time for us to pay. The food was pretty good although I do think my sandwich could have used a lot more sauce. It just was a little plain, but man it was PACKED with so much meat which I appreciated. The fried green beans and aioli sauce were absolutely delicious. I probably could have ate the whole appetizer basket on my own. I didn’t try the wings mainly because I was intimated by their size and was unsure how to go about eating them without turning into a saucy mess, but they looked good and fancy. lol I really liked the overall vibe of the place. It was chill yet fun and just felt like a cool hip place to be and the decor was really cool to look at as well including some of the art work done by local artists. Although I do know that when I go back I will not be picking a booth right by the doors leading to the outside seating area…especially on a windy day. Every time the door opened we might as well have been in a twister. lol But overall a place I would return to!