Paleteria La Reyna

This is the best kept secret in Wichita and its prices are perfect. I actually had to ask if they had gotten the whole order when the girl told me it was 12 dollars for two tostadas two tacos and a gordita. They have a nice patio that isn’t crowded and its a kid friendly joint. All around family spot on the north end.

Food and service were amazing! Great prices! This will definitely be a regular place for us. The tacos are to die for! Yummmy

This place rocks! I think it started out as a ice cream place that started serving food, but the food is where it’s at. I usually get the chicken tacos, they have a guac sauce on them that’s like no other, pretty tasty. Pork tacos are also good, burritos are massive so bring your appetite. Only downside would be they only serve chips with the dinners, so if you don’t order a dinner you don’t get chips. If you you have room go for the ice cream which you can’t go wrong with, but I usually have to pass.

Heaven! My friend recommended this place, and I would have never found it if he didn’t. The staff is so friendly and answered my million of questions. We had the asada gordita meal and fried taco meal. Everything was delicious. We also tried the pineapple water and mango ice cream. So delicious!!!

Amazing place! We have been eating here for years and I have never had a bad experience or anything that I didn’t love! Also the ice cream and strawberries with fresh cream can not be beat anywhere else in Wichita. A true gem!

Get yo paletas here! Just trust me when I say that this should be the first and only option for Mexican ice cream in Wichita. Authentic paletas at their best. Keep in mind this is also a restaurant so come hungry!

As soon as you walk in, you can tell this is an authentic place. I was hit with the smell of… well, I don’t know how else to say it, but it smelled like the awesome cafes I visited in Mazatlan. Cleanliness mixed with some delicious cooking!
It’s bright, open and inviting inside. When I asked what a plate included, the proprietor instantly pulled up a large picture. It was great to see what I was getting. Also, they have incredible array of homemade ice cream flavors. The proprietor encouraged us to try his favorite: pine nut. It was really, really good!
The food was phenomenal, rich and spicy. We’ll definitely be back.

We are new to Wichita and have been on the search for tacos in this town. We stopped by last night for dinner and although the place was busy we got our food really fast. I got a torta w asada w/​everything on it. The meat was perfect and all the ingredients were fresh and tasty. Husband got the Gordita plate w adobo. Again, everything was fresh and tasty. We’d give this place a solid five on the food but they lack salsas. Gotta have a couple different salsas for tacos.
Their ice cream– that gets five stars! So good!!!

Hands-​down, no question, the best tacos in Wichita!
When you come here don’t expect to be waited on. Simply find a table you like walk up to the counter and order something to eat. No matter what you choose the food is outstanding.
The tacos are as traditional as they get. Fried flour with your choice of either beef or chicken with lettuce tomato sour cream and guacamole as well as some shredded cheese if you like.
Simple cheese and onion enchiladas are available as well as giant burritos. But no matter what you decide to eat make sure you leave room for dessert.
They make their own ice creams and they are wonderful. There are some crazy flavors such as mango and even tequila but the creaminess in the richness has to be tasted to believe.

Absolutely my favorite tacos in Wichita! The al pastor is always flavorful and moist. Something that needs no more than its regular, humble onion, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime accompaniment on a soft corn tortilla. These are not to be missed.
When I go, I always get one taco al pastor and one fried beef taco. Although the fried taco is so completely different than the taco al pastor, I really can never pass up either variety. It starts with a perfectly golden and crispy flour tortilla. Wrap that around simple, yet flavorful ground beef, lettuce, tomato, shredded cheese, avocado, and sour cream. This makes for the perfect crunch to soft and creamy combination. Super flavorful. Super wonderful.
If after a couple tacos, you still want more, I highly recommend the corn in a cup (elote). Get it with everything: sour cream, chili powder, cheese. You won’t be sorry… unless there’s too much water with the corn. This has happened once or twice.
On the sweet side of things, I’m not terribly experienced with everything they have to offer. I’ve had their pine nut ice cream (not a typical American flavor, but very tasty), but since having the Oreo variety I can’t bring myself to try anything else. My husband tends to crave La Reyna’s raspas. Recently he’s been getting a strawberry raspa but adding a scoop of piña colada ice cream, then topped with sweetened condensed milk. This. Is. Dangerous (–ly delicious).
I’ve been to this great taco and ice cream joint more times than I can count. Every time the food quality is consistent (and as you can see above, I think it’s pretty great). Every time the service is exceedingly efficient and friendly. The facilities recently had a bit of a face-​lift and the space is always clean and welcoming.

I don’t eat Mexican food often, but I had a craving for refried beans, so I came here with hubs. He loves ice cream, and I’ve been trying to get him here forever. We ordered the chicken gordita on flour tortilla plate and then the coconut ice cream in a waffle cone. The gordita was fine, I think that the corn version might be better. The beans were solid. The standout was obvs the ice cream. It was very creamy and the waffle cone was the right crunchiness. O, I almost forgot the elote, which was also really good. I asked for less crema, and they happily obliged.
So cheap and good, the way Mexican food ought to be.

Amazing ice cream! And their fried chicken tacos are to die for. Great service. Happy people. Love it.

I ordered the chicken tacos. They are crispy and well done. I have no complaints. The order comes with chips and salsa both of which are also delicious. The side dishes are rice and beans. These were only mediocre. The corn in a cup is okay, but way too unhealthy for the taste, meaning it’s not worth the caloric bomb. The atmosphere is like a cafeteria. I didn’t get to try the ice cream. I’d come here again if in the area.
Second visit: I got the ice cream. It was great. Try the coconut.

This is my new «go to» Mexican restaurant when in the neighborhood. Good tasting food, excellent chips and salsa, friendly service, good prices. Order the mango for dessert — delicious seasoning and you might not be able to finish it all as it is big. Haven’t tried the ice cream yet but have seen little kids walking out with ice cream cones half their size. Outdoor seating area, secure parking lot.

Best salsa in town! All food is fresh and tasty, and the tacos are actually spicy unlike most places in town.
My favorite is the sopes with barbacoa. The sopes are always freshly made, crispy outside, and fluffy on the inside. All of the ice cream I’ve tried is delicious, but the pistachio really stands out.

Try the corn in a cup

This place is amazing! I highly recommend the Mexican plate with guisado rojo, or get it half n half with verde!

I really wanted to LOVE these tacos — but they were just ok. Single wrapped corn tortilla — they fell apart. The Carne Asada had gristle in every bite and the Al Pastor is WAY under seasoned.
Got spoiled in Southern California with the REAL thing!
Husband also mentioned that we ordered 5 Al pastor & 5 Carne Asada tacos — received only 2 lime wedges and 2 radish halves — 1 each per box. Not nearly generous enough.

I had lunch at Palateria La Reyna today, ordering my usual trifecta of street taco goodness (asada — carnitas — barbacoa), with rice and beans on the side. Maybe I went in with the wrong expectations or perhaps I ordered poorly, but I was not as taken with PLR as so many others have been. I really wanted to be blown away, but I couldn’t get past the fact that my tacos were each made with only one tortilla. This meant that my first bite of each taco was followed by a full disintegration of the vessel and I was left to use the two tortilla halves as if they were naan, scooping up the rest of the innards with my fingers. In my annoyed state, I noted that the tortillas were not fresh and tasted suspiciously pre-​packaged.
However, the meats were great, particularly the barbacoa. There was some confusion when I ordered about whether it was ready, which leads me to believe I was the first to have it today. The stewed beef is full of flavor and I even had a few glorious fatty bites, which is an indicator that there is actual skilled cooking happening in the back. The beef was as good as any I’ve had in Wichita. Don’t miss it!
Also fantastic was the most flavorful Mexican Rice I’ve ever had. I believe they prepare it pilaf-​style, frying the rice in oil and spices before steaming it, which helps the spices come through, rather than tasting like they poured a can of tomato sauce on some Uncle Ben’s. It also had sauteed carrots and peas mixed in, which means I’m counting it as a vegetable side dish for dietary purposes. I would come back and buy this by the quart!
I didn’t try the desserts and I haven’t delved further into the menu than a few tacos and some gringo-​friendly side dishes, so I intend to return and try more of PLR’s restaurant menu. Despite my complaints, it’s still authentic and better than 95% of what passes as Mexican food in this town. But, if you’re in the mood for tacos, you should either eat very quickly or plan on getting messy.

Paleteria La Reyna needs to work on its social media strategy, because their only online presence is a personal Facebook page; according to the site, there’s a person name Paleteria La and they really like to post pictures of food. Not that that’s atypical behavior for most Facebookers. I did notice something interesting, though: the proprietor lists their hometown as Rio Grande, in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, located in the North Central part of the country. Perhaps this geographical distance from both the Jalisco-​style (every other Mexican restaurant seems to have «Jalisco» plastered on the sign) or the Baja– Sonora– Chihuahua– or Coahuila– style that dominates your particular border state explains why Paleteria seems to do things so much more differently than most other Mexican restaurants in town.
The guisados are certainly a draw. Easy to find in Texas and nowhere else, this simple amalgamation of slowly simmered protein and the sauce in which it is cooked turns into a thick and gelatinous gravy spiked with pull-​apart tender pieces of meat as the ingredients coalesce. It’s a simple concept, not unlike making a chili, and the results are almost foolproof, as you are free to cook it for as long as it takes to come together. The sharp, bright flavors of the pork verde here are familiar and delicious thanks to the tomatillo, cilantro and lime. The pork rojo, however, is something new to me, and while they may disguise it under a simple guisado moniker, if you look back a littler farther, you may find some similarities to Asado de Bodas, a bright red pork stew containing cinnamon, Mexican chocolate, and chiles, and which is unsurprisingly a dish native to Zacatecas.
You might be able to argue that sopes, which originated in sorta-​nearby Culiacan, were also something specific to the region that was able to make the trip to Wichita. But I’m not going to make that argument; instead, I’m going to shut up and make them my preferred method of taco delivery, because they offer the best of both hard and soft-​shelled worlds: a crispy exterior that’s too thick to collapse under the moisture of the guisado and a soft, substantial interior that alludes to their freshly-​fried nature. They’re a little messy, but don’t be afraid to get dirty.
Guisados aside, the barbacoa and al pastor are so good that it makes you wonder why so many other Mexican restaurants struggle with it.
It would be enough to just be an awesome paleteria, which it is — only one of two paleterias in town, and one of only a handful of places that make their own ice cream, though none with the open-​mindedness to throw just about anything into either of their frozen creations just for the hell of it. It also is to La Reyna’s credit that this little restaurant tucked away a block south of 29^th and Arkansas can have their wares stocked throughout the city.
Superlatives aside (because I’ve simply run out of superlatives to use), Paleteria La Reyna is the best Mexican restaurant in town, without question or qualification. Yes, it’s pretty far north, and in a part of town you don’t usually visit unless you want to eat Mexican food, and yes, there’s a newer sister restaurant on West that offers a more hot dog and hamburger-​themed menu (I don’t watch local television, but it’s telling that the only commercial I could find for La Reyna 1 is in Spanish, and La Reyna 2 in English), but it doesn’t matter. Go there now and experience the pleasures of talented Mexican cooking.