Rain Bistro & Lounge — Restaurant in Wichita

I'm always looking for new places to check out in the Downtown area, so lo and behold my surprise when I found that Rain Cafe served a full menu. I stopped by on my weekly visit to the Old Town area.

Surprise, surprise, Rain is a Mediterranean restaurant serving the hummus and Fattoush salad that populates the majority of Wichita restaurants. To my legitimate surprise, however, I realized that there isn't a Mediterranean restaurant in the Downtown area, so I guess Rain chose its cuisine properly.

Whatever it serves, the kibbe balls I ordered as an appetizer were great, a fried ball of ground beef, onions, and pine nuts, it was pleasantly different from the Mediterranean far I've gotten at other places, and it tasted good, to boot.

The falafel sandwich I ordered as my meal was pretty good, too, though I thought that it could have used a couple more of those fried chick pea balls - the bottom of my pita pocket was nothing but lettuce and tomatoes. The scoop of red pepper hummus that came along with it was good and different enough to situated itself from other restaurants, and the tabouli was straight-up great, featuring a tremendous citrus accent that was quite refreshing.

Rain's menu is best suited to lunch, but it offers it for dinner, too. It should also be noted, however, that while I don't know if it would be fair to label Rain a "gay bar" per se, there did seem to be a larger-than-average LGBT population than you might find at an average bar (which is to say, none at an average bar). I personally don't care one way or the other, but I realize that other folks in this city might, so now you know. As it is, Rain is the only choice for Mediterranean fare in the Downtown area, and luckily...

The night crew has been great the few times I've been. They are very cool, at tentative, and pretty fast. However, my friend and I have tried going for lunch a few times now, and the day crew is awful. The first time we were forgotten about outside after the server had already given us drinks and menus, we went inside to order and she was sitting at the bar on her phone. My friend's mac and cheese was watery and the "cheese" was too runny to stick to the noodles. We told her and she argued with us, and was super annoyed. The customer is supposed to always be right, even if they aren't. Plus, we were being nice and cooperative, there was no reason for the rude come backs. The second time we went, there were just us two, one other table, and a couple people at the bar. Our food took an unecessary amount of time for how dead it was to arrive, and our servers attitude had not improved since the previous time. Today we tried again, and the server (a different one) was just out right mean. She talked to us like we were idiots and a waste of her time. I always over tip even if my experience isn't great because I am also a server, at a high end restaurant and that's how I am paid. I am very understanding that accidents happen at restaurants, but I was planning on leaving this gal a very poor tip due to her attitude, we figured it would just be better to leave than draw out the terrible service and our time there. We are very disappointed because the night environment is so fun! It isn't a surprise why they are so dead during the busiest time of...

Good and Bad. Banner implies buffet but brunch IS NOT buffet (in case u were wondering)... and if you call they say brunch is $5 but it is really $5 per serving (they offer like 4 or 5 dishes to choose from menu)! Never seen a brunch that wasn't a buffet but oh well. Anyhow, I ordered the Biscuits&Gravy that came with bacon and hashbrowns (should be 2 eggs instead of bacon but maybe this is the meatlovers or something. The gravy was actually pretty good but they ruined it with two cold and very hard biscuits that were not even cut in half. The bacon was pathetic, definitely the cheapest around - it was little, greasy and had absolutely NO MEAT and was just all fat. The fried potatoes were also pretty good (seasoned with taragon or oregano possibly) and were not to greasy and mostly crunchy. The gravy (not the biscuits) and the potatoes were the highlight. My wife had the omelet with no complaints except coffee was weak. Service was 3 out of 5 I guess since he didn't. Check with us much or refil beverages. Get a brunch buffet with hot cut biscuits and we'll be back...