A seafood Thai restaurant from well-known Kansas City chef has closed
A Thai seafood restaurant from a well-known KC chef and her husband has unexpectedly closed after two years in business.
Aqua Penny’s, one of several eateries from Penny and Doug Mufuka’s Thai restaurant roster, served its last dinner on Saturday, Doug confirmed.
“It’s very difficult. It meant a lot to (Penny),” Doug said.
On a phone call, Doug said the restaurant had a rough start when it came to finding its voice upon opening in Leawood’s Park Place shopping district in April 2024. It started as an elevated seafood restaurant then, but in doing so, it didn’t really feel like a spot with Penny’s voice of vibrant and often playful Thai cuisine, Doug said.
They eventually added their dishes that represented Penny’s style better, while still remaining a higher-end seafood restaurant, with menu items like seafood drunken noodles and mango catfish that Doug said he must have eaten three times a week.
“In the end we got it right, but it was too late,” Doug said.
It’s an end for Aqua Penny’s and the Mufukas in that space, located next door to the Aloft Leawood hotel. It’s also in the same shopping district as Bamboo Penny’s, the couple’s another concept that Doug said isn’t going anywhere. Their other two concepts, KC Thai and Penny’s in the Village, will also remain open.
Doug said the shuttering of Aqua Penny’s doesn’t close the book on potential new restaurants from the Mufukas. The seafood restaurant was part of a spate of openings from the couple, and he said they’re always eyeing other places to bring Penny’s beloved Thai food — especially to underserved parts of Kansas City.
“If people want to register their vote, I’d be happy to listen,” Doug said. “We’re torn between which direction: Northland, out east, even Olathe. We’re not going to give up.”
