Riverside Cafe — Restaurant in Wichita

Allow me to get a little philosophical for a moment. What really justifies a five-star review? Humans are imperfect by nature, so I’d argue that no business or service can truly earn five stars if we define that as perfection because perfection doesn’t exist. That said, my personal standard for a five-star rating is simple: I had no critiques. If everything met or exceeded expectations, then it was as close to perfect as it gets.

With that out of the way, I’ll keep this short and sweet. The food tasted amazing, the portions were generous, and our waitress was fantastic. She refilled my coffee twice, kept my drink full the entire time, and accommodated my dietary needs with ease. The atmosphere was cozy and welcoming.

The only possible critique would be the price, but let’s be honest, given the current economy, spending at least $10 per person for a quality meal with a drink is just today’s reality. In that context, this place absolutely delivers value. It’s a great experience and a strong contender for your limited “eating out” budget.

If you need more convincing, the staff here knows how to cook eggs, bacon, and sausage the right way. Nothing was burnt, and all the meat was cooked to perfection. My pancake was nearly the size of the entire plate, and not a small one either. It was a standard dinner plate. That’s value for your dollar.

We were so impressed that our party left a 35 percent tip. I know that might not sound like a lot to some, but for our budget, it was. That says a lot. We felt the food and service were impressive enough to go beyond what we would normally spend.

Bottom line? This place is worth the money. Try it, you won't be...

We've been going to the Riverside Cafe on Central a couple of times a month since last year. It was always friendly and great service. You were treated like family. On this visit, we noticed their sign read, "New Employees New Cooks" and we weren't sure what to expect.

Upon entering, we were told to sit anywhere we'd like, and we took a booth in the larger room. The restaurant was less than half full, including one large party that had finished eating. Five minutes after we sat down, one of the waitresses sat another table adjacent to us and provided them water and menus. Another five minutes later, a waitress brought us drinks and menus. This was our first interaction with the wait staff, despite several walking by our table in that time. Another waitress came by and promised to come take our order.

10 minutes later, we gave up! Our initial waitress was hunkered down in a booth studying the menu. The others were engaged in conversation with other staff and each other. I waited a few minutes at the desk to pay for my cup of coffee, but they told me, "That's OK."

Obviously, I don't know how the new cooks are doing since we never ordered.

According to a piece on Kake.com, the cafe is under new ownership. Based on this visit, it's not going well! We may try this again once they've had more time to learn how to run a restaurant and train staff, but it will be a while. There are too many similar restaurants with friendly, attentive staff and decent food to experience this. For the sake of this longtime Wichita staple, I hope they figure...

This is not the "Riverside Cafe" that I grew up with.

To begin with all of the things we wanted to eat are now considered "specials...no coupons please", ruling them out as we planned to use a coupon. The lettuce salad, although small, was very tasty. My chicken "tenders" were not (tender). They were tough, dry & thin with breading that fell off as they were eaten. The green beans looked like they had been simmering on the stove for days (faded, limp & cold). My Diet Pepsi was awesome!

My husband's meat loaf, green beans and mashed potatos were also cold. As he said, "the highlight of the meal was the salad". I will add to that that I'm sure that his Diet Dr. Pepper was fabulous as he quickly slurped it down.

We found out from the mechanic in the same building (who was working on our vehicle) after we'd eaten that Mr. Cohlmia doesn't even own this location any more and that the new owner just doesn't care. He stated that it's obvious that it's going downhill quickly as the parking lot that used to be packed is now mostly empty. Had we known this beforehand we would have proceeded to Cholita's & had a good fresh meal!

Even with a "buy one entree & 2 drinks & get a free entree" coupon the meal was almost $30, effectively blowing our "eating out" budget for the week. Very sad & disappointed. No matter our future circumstances we...