Cafe Maurice — Restaurant in Wichita

My wife and I ate a mid afternoon meal on a Friday, with only 3 tables filled and at the end of their meals, at that time of day, so there were none of the challenges that occur when a kitchen gets slammed in an evening meal rush (I was a former high volume restaurant owner for 8 years).

Our waitress was extremely attentive and delightful. No complaints there. She was top notch.

The prices are generally fair, but the first thing that I noticed was the extremely small portions, as they delivered our plates. Mainly the meat portions which are really lacking in size and substance.

This was our first time visit, since we are weekly diners at the Mediterranean Grill across from Towne East (we are in no way associated with them...just happen to think they are incomparably exceptional on their kabobs). After comments from friends that we should try Cafe Maurice, we gave it a go.

I ordered the MIxed Grill, which was one skewer each of Chicken Kabob, Beef Kabob, and Kafta. Besides being really small skewers with each having four 1/2" to 3/4" cubes of chicken and steak, and a Kafta patty about 2" to 2 1/2" in diameter, all three meat items were extremely overcooked and dry. In addition, neither one had any detectable seasoning to them or on them (except for the Kafta which did have, with the onion and parsley mixed into the patty). The kabobs were very plain and blah, in flavor, on top of being cooked far too long on the grill (grill marks approaching black on both as well as the Kafta). My first bite of each prompted me to ask our waitress if we could have some sauce to put on the meat, explaining that they were really dry. She eagerly and graciously brought us some Tzatziki cucumber sauce, as well as Tahini sauce. Although they were not memorable, they were at least passable in adding some flavor to the meat.

My wife ordered the large Fattoush salad with 2 skewers of chicken on it. The salad was a very generous portion (being the large), and it had what one would expect for a Fattoush salad, flavorwise. But her chicken cubes were also overcooked and dry.

The Mixed Grill comes with your choice of two sides. For one, I chose the steamed broccoli and carrots, which were cooked properly, but totally unseasoned. However my second choice of sides, was the best thing on my plate....the sauteed vegetables. They were absolutely outstanding with zucchini slices, mushroom slices, cherry tomatoes cut in half, grilled onion and red peppers. They were sauteed perfectly and had wonderful flavor. That is the only thing that Cafe Maurice bothered to season properly. I will never go back, but if I did, I would instantly choose the sauteed vegetables (2X) for my two choices of sides.

We also got an appetizer....4 cabbage rolls for 5.95. They were flavorful, but very small.

One other thing that surprised me was their tap water. We order water with no ice and both of us noticed on the first mouthful that their water tasted really musty, as if it came out of 100 year old pipes. Considering that Cafe Maurice is in a relatively new strip center, we are baffled at this. We asked for more lemon slices to try to mask the musty flavor, to no avail.

Bottom line is that although their prices are acceptable, the portions are very small (look at their menu online pictures as proof), flavorless and overcooked. There are dozens of restaurants in Wichita in this price range and lower which are far better choices, in quality of taste...

Loved the food. The front of house was a disaster the night we went there (and they weren't that busy). Our waitress couldn't remember our order (when it doubt WRITE IT DOWN) even 10s after us giving it to her. It took her numerous attempts to get it right and when our food came out she had it wrong. She came to our table once to get our drinks order, once to get our food order, again to try again with the food order, and again to bring us our food. We had to flag down someone else to get our check after sitting and waiting 20m after our plates were clean. No one else noticed including the manger for the front of house that night (even though she engaged in lengthy and loud banter with tables around ours). Get rid of or retrain the front of house waitress and manager to make them as good as the food was and this place...

Special order - disappointing! I meet friends often for lunch at Cafe Maurice, so when I needed a hummus platter to serve 40, I thought of them over other Wichita Mediterranean restaurants. I took a large platter in the day before I needed it, gave the information, and asked to have it ready the following day by 4:30. I arrived at 5:15 and when I asked for my order, they looked at me quizzically, went into the back and held up an empty platter. I needed to be at the venue by 5:30 --- perfectly timed. I had to wait for them to prepare it which took 20 minutes. Mistakes happen, but no one apologized for my inconvenience, or offered a discount. Just an apology would have made a huge difference! The only comment I got when I mentioned it was to be ready by 4:30 was "I don't know anything about it". ...