Few options exist for restaurant plated lunch in downtown Wichita, and of the options that do exist, 90% come associated with hotels. Of the hotel restaurant options that exist, I would call AVI Seabar & Chophouse a lesser evil. Coming with a traditional hotel price tag, they offer better options than other similar restaurants in the area. We frequent AVI Seabar & Chophouse when dining with coworkers over a lunch meeting or just wanting a quick bite when fast food will not cut it. Other downtown employees seemed to have the same idea on a busy Friday. Looking around at the other patrons, it was clear that most of their business comes from business people.
AVI Seabar & Chophouse offers a more eclectic menu than some of their neighbors, but limited options for those with dietary preferences (e.g. vegetarians, vegans, and gluten-sensitive). AVI Seabar & Chophouse does several more options under “seabar” and “chophouse” on their menu, so it’s clear their focus is on pricier hotel food than food that one would want to eat on a regular basis. While their prices are far more reasonable than most other hotels, I still find it expensive for taste and portion size.
For lunch, we typically stick with salads and sandwiches because of the lighter fare and lower price. I would say their salads are decent and sandwiches are fine, nothing particularly spectacular, but hard to find either in downtown Wichita.
If I were to pick a stand out dish, it would be their fish tacos. AVI Seabar & Chophouse serves their fish tacos with chunks of mahi mahi and halibut either lightly breaded or blackened with honey lime slaw and avocado cream. I always felt that both options of lightly breaded or blackened masked the true flavor of the fish and that the avocado cream looked less than appetizing in the presentation, but I know people who just love these tacos.
AVI Seabar & Chophouse offers the best out of a fairly mediocre category, so it might be easy to be better than the worst. We will probably continue to eat here out of convenience until something better comes along.
AVI Seabar & Chophouse
135 N Waco St, Wichita, KS 67202
316-262-3300
Monday-Saturday 11:00AM-12:00AM
Sunday 11:00AM-9:00PM