Wichita Mexican restaurant revamps menu, joins trend toward shareable ‘small plates’
The owners of a favorite Wichita Mexican restaurant are trying something new with their menu, joining a dining trend that’s gaining traction in Wichita.
Mario Quiroz and Mara Garza, who own Molino’s Mexican Cuisine at 1064 N. Waco, today are introducing a new menu that highlights shareable, small plates. (You might recall that a new Wichita restaurant called Doma, which is co-owned by East Coast transplants, just opened at 7703 E. Douglas offering a menu of only small plate options.)
Quiroz said that he and his wife have been looking for a way to shake things up at the restaurant, which first opened in 2013. They’re trying to recapture some of the business they’ve lost since the start of the pandemic, and they’re fans of the small plates concept, which they discovered was quite popular on the West Coast when they traveled there last year.
The new menu, which will be offered at both lunch and dinner, still offers most of the Molino’s favorites customers love, including piratas, street tacos, chimichangas, fajitas and nachos. It is missing a few dishes that weren’t selling very well, Quiroz said, including cauliflower ceviche, the torta, the tilapia and the chile Colorado.
The new menu offers seven all-new shareable items, including Quiroz’s personal favorite: the pancita de cerdo, which is crispy pork belly bites served with tortillas, tomatillo salsa and guacamole. The small plates menu also includes bacon-wrapped jalapenos, rolled shrimp taquitos that feature a jumbo shrimp wrapped in a corn tortilla and deep fried, and mushroom quesadillas, filled with a mix of portobello mushrooms, corn, roasted poblano peppers and onions.
Mango fish ceviche, rolled chicken taquitos and a spicy cold shrimp salad called aguachile round out the new offerings. (You can see the new shareable items menu below.)
The idea, Quiroz said, is that a table of two would order three or four of the new dishes to share as a meal or order them as starters to the traditional menu items. And even those can be made shareable, he said. Customers can request that burritos or piratas be cut in half so they also can be shared.
On a recent visit, I sampled the pork belly, the shrimp taquitos, the mushroom quesadilla and the pork belly, and all were delicious. Diners repeatedly stopped by the table to inquire about the new dishes, which are presented with lots of garnishes on new platters.
My favorite was the shrimp aguachile, which had a nice kick and was tasty eaten by itself or piled onto one of the crispy tortillas served on the side. I also loved the mushroom quesadilla, which had a pleasing texture and even better flavor. I didn’t miss the meat.
Molino’s also is offering daily specials, including one on Tuesdays where house margaritas are 99 cents and the new shareable dishes are buy-one-get-one-free.
The menu at Wichita’s other Molino’s restaurant — Molino’s Taqueria at 2035 N. Rock Road — is not changing, Quiroz said.
Molino’s is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays.
Molino’s new shareable plates menu
This story was originally published February 1, 2022 at 10:51 AM.
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