Teocali Mexican Restaurant & Cantina

This is one of our favorite restaurants in the downtown area. Tonight we had good service but last time was horrible. As for the margaritas, they are essentially virgins. I mean literally no tequila. With that said, I will return only because the food is top notch.

I purchased a $25 gift certificate for $50 from Fox 4 Be Our Guest on 11/29/2024 for Teocali Mexican Restaurant. I tried to redeem this at the establishment on 5/28/2025, which was before the stated expiration date of 5/29/2025. When I tried to use my voucher, I was told by the general manager that they were no longer accepting these. With a confused look, I asked why. I was told there had been some confusion about how many were sold to the public, which, as a paying customer, I shouldn’t have to worry about since I already purchased it.
I was not given any credit towards my bill and paid full price.
I was then told to reach out to Fox 4 Be Our Guest to see if they would refund me. I emailed them on 5/28/2025 and have still not received a response as of today. Please be aware and ask the establishment before you go if they still accept the gift certificates you purchased with your own money.

Excellent

Great food, great atmosphere! Hunter was very nice as our server.

I hate to write this post, but..... we went to a Mexican restaurant & I didn't see 1 Mexican! The menu is heavy Mexican with no pictures. The server Jalin, the black guy, was so unenthusiastic! Not welcoming at all. No Mexicans & no Mexican music inside a Mexican restaurant 😕! We ordered the spinach queso with beef, it came out with no visible beef & when asked about the beef, instead of bringing out another 1 made correctly, they brought out a bowl of beef! It tasted like it been cooked for days. The hard tacos came out with stuff all over it & the beef tasted old! (I paid for everything & didn't want anything taken off the bill). My main dish was OK but after the service I was already ready to go! Oh, the drinks were good😳! I think I can cross this place off my list. The balcony was peaceful as well.

I'm a regular customer and my work had a great holiday party at Teocali!

Kid-friendliness: Great family restaurant, kids are very welcome.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Chips and Salsa, Chimichanga

Worst dining experience we have ever had in Kansas City in the 4 years we have lived here. We used to eat here...about 3 years ago and it was great. Tonight...everything was a complete disaster. Never again

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

Amazing food.. fantastic place to eat a Mexican food

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Chips and Salsa, Guacamole, Chicken Enchiladas

The food is delicious. They had some traditional pooled and while it took about an hour to come, you could tell it was freshly prepared and tasted wonderful.

Tacos were great and so were the quesilladas. Service was slow but otherwise was fine.

Definitely worth a visit or two...

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 3

I really liked the open air seating options and went with the balcony seating for this dinner. Had the Tapatias (steak, chicken, and shrimp) fajitas, great plate for sharing. Have to commend them that they have a very reasonably priced ($6/glass) wine menu with interesting choices; I chose the malbec.

Service was just a little bit slow but otherwise very pleasant. They had lots of seating available. Currently, menus are online only but this might be a reasonable paper saving maneuver to make permanent. Also was not too noisy.

Definitely would come back if I'm looking for a downtown Mexican meal in KC .

Parking: When I came found free street parking right near the restaurant

Wheelchair accessibility: They only had second-floor seating when I was there, not sure if they have an elevator.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Chips and Salsa

Very good food. Lisa and Eli deserve a raise. Best customer service ever and they bust their tails. True story.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Chips and Salsa

Delicious soup. Neat atmosphere. Super friendly staff.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

What was2\]

We went in for happy hour and they over charged us on every. single. item. It’s like they don’t recognize their own advertised happy hour specials. Will not be returning.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 3

My wife and a few friends went to Teocali on a Saturday evening a couple of weeks ago. We sat on the roof, which was quite pleasant.
Unfortunately, that was the extent of the pleasantness.
The food was subpar and the service was pretty awful. Granted, the server had to go up an extra set of steps, but she seemed very reluctant to do that more than she absolutely had to.

To add icing to that cake, some of the metal chairs on the roof have holes in them and sharp edges. The seat of my favorite suit pants were torn in three places. My wife told the manager on duty, I cant remember her name, and she seemed to have little concern. She never even bothered to come look at the chairs.

I called the general manager a few days later. He seemed genuinely concerned about the situation and promised that he or the owner would call me back the next day to discuss it further. Its been two weeks and I still have heard nothing from them.
Alas, this just made the entire experience negative. Other than the roof being pretty cool, nothing about Teocali is worth returning. The service sucked, the food was bland, unimaginative and poor quality.
We will not be returning.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 1

Service: 1