Five Wichita restaurants win prestigious Wine Spectator awards, but one falls off list

Wine Spectator magazine recently put out its annual Restaurant Awards lists, and five Wichita restaurants were on it.

Five were also on the list last year — but in 2022, a new Wichita restaurant was added and another fell off the list.

The magazine, which each year honors the “world’s best restaurants for wine,” this year recognized 3,169 restaurants from all 50 states and from more than 70 countries. The magazine chooses award winners on three levels. The top is the Grand Award, given to only 97 restaurants this year.

The next best is the Best of Award of Excellence, which this year was given to Wine Dive at 4714 E. Douglas. That restaurant has been on the list of winners since 2016. Of all the winners, 1,290 earned this distinction. (The Stevens’ Wine Dive + Kitchen in Manhattan also won the award.)

The four Wichita restaurants that received an Award of Excellence, which the remaining 1,782 winners earned, were Scotch & Sirloin, 6325 E. Kellogg; Siena Tuscan Steakhouse, 104 S. Broadway; Vora Restaurant European, 3252 E. Douglas; and Chester’s Chophouse, 1550 N. Webb Road.

Chester’s, which is now owned by Georges French Bistro’s George Youssef, was not on 2021’s list but has received the award in the past. Meanwhile, 6S Steakhouse at 6200 W. 21st St., which had been included each year since 2018, fell off the list this year.

Scotch & Sirloin, owned by Mike Issa, has been on the list since 2018. Siena Tuscan Steakhouse, the fine dining restaurant inside the Ambassador Hotel, has been on the list since 2016. Vora, which like Wine Dive is owned by Brad and Brent Steven, has been on the list since 2019.

The Wine Spectator awards were launched in 1981. To see the full list, visit www.winespectator.com/restaurants