El Cali Mexican Food

El Cali Mexican Food is a family-run traditional Mexican restaurant in the Sutters Landing center at 9530 James A Reed Road, just south of Bannister, in the storefront that was Olive Cafe for two decades. Isias Castaneda-Dorantes and Cristina Pastrana, who grew up in Mexico and opened Cali KC in Independence around 2022, opened this second, closer-in location in mid-November 2025 with their children working the room. Birria de res, caldo de res, quesadillas, tortas and tacos sell best; menudo, milanesa, mole rojo and cecina with shrimp round out a made-from-scratch menu that the family warns can take twenty or thirty minutes to arrive.

Description

El Cali sits in the Sutters Landing strip on James A Reed Road just south of Bannister Road, in the far south-east of Kansas City.¹ The space was Olive Cafe, the Mansi family’s Levantine restaurant and bakery, for some twenty years until the family moved that business to 8015 Bannister Road as The Olive Zaytoona; El Cali opened in the vacated storefront in mid-November 2025.¹

The Martin City Telegraph’s Joyce Smith, visiting in January 2026, reported the best-sellers as birria de res, caldo de res, quesadillas, tortas and tacos, with menudo, a plato de milanesa, mole rojo con pollo, a plato de cecina y camarones, shrimp toast, nachos, burritos, aguas frescas, lunch specials and a children’s menu also on the card.¹ The pitch is scratch cooking over speed. “Our food is very traditional. Everything is handmade,” Edgar Jardon, one of the family members working the restaurant, told the Telegraph. “It might take 20, 30 minutes to get your order because we make it fresh.”¹ The restaurant opens at 9 a.m. every day, which puts breakfast and the weekend menudo-and-caldo trade squarely in its lane.¹²

No first-party menu or price list was found; the restaurant’s own web presence is a Facebook page.³ A liquor license and additional kitchen equipment were on the to-do list as of January 2026.¹

Ownership and history

Isias Castaneda-Dorantes and Cristina Pastrana both grew up in Mexico and worked at several Kansas City-area restaurants before opening their own, Cali KC Mexican Restaurant, at 11024 E. U.S. 40 Highway in Independence about four years before the Telegraph’s January 2026 story — that is, around 2022.¹ El Cali on James A Reed is the family’s second restaurant; the owners told the Telegraph they expect it to be as successful as the first.¹ Which part of Mexico the family comes from, and what the “Cali” in both names refers to, are not covered in retrieved sources.

The restaurant is staffed by the next generation: Edgar Jardon, 23, Lesley Castaneda, 20, and Irene Castaneda, 17, are named by the Telegraph as family members working there.¹ A Missouri LLC, El Cali Mexican Food LLC, is registered in Kansas City; its filing details were not retrievable.

The space

9530 James A Reed Rd was Olive Cafe, founded by Jerusalem-born Salah Mansi and his wife Nijma — the Telegraph dates it to 2003, the Registry’s own page to about 2004 — a halal Palestinian-Levantine restaurant, bakery and market known citywide for its house-baked pita.¹ The Mansis relocated to 8015 Bannister Road under the name The Olive Zaytoona, and El Cali took the James A Reed storefront.¹ Note that the Registry’s Olive Cafe page carries ZIP 64138 for this address; the Census Bureau geocoder and Apple Maps both return 64134, which this page uses.⁴²

Links

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/el.cali.mexican.food/
• Martin City Telegraph opening story: https://martincitytelegraph.com/new-mexican-restaurant-on-james-a-reed-road/
• Sister restaurant (Cali KC, Independence): no first-party site found

Menu

Last verified: — · Source: none first-party · Confidence: —. No official menu, ordering page or priced list was found; the item names in the Description are from the Martin City Telegraph’s reporting, and third-party delivery menus were deliberately not used. menu_status: unverified.¹

Sources

Footnotes

1. Joyce Smith, “New Mexican restaurant on James A Reed Road,” Martin City Telegraph, 2026-01-21 — Confirms: El Cali Mexican Food at 9530 James A Reed Road in the Sutters Landing center south of Bannister; opened mid-November (2025); former Olive Cafe space (operating since 2003; relocated to 8015 Bannister Road as The Olive Zaytoona); owners Isias Castaneda-Dorantes and Cristina Pastrana, grew up in Mexico, worked at area restaurants, opened Cali KC Mexican Restaurant at 11024 E. U.S. 40 Highway in Independence four years earlier; family staff Edgar Jardon (23), Lesley Castaneda (20), Irene Castaneda (17); hours Mon–Sat 9–9, Sun 9–5; best-sellers and menu highlights; liquor-license and equipment plans; the Jardon quote. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

2. Apple Maps place listing, “El Cali Mexican Food.” Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: address “9530 James A Reed Rd, Kansas City, MO 64134”; phone (816) 298-6023; hours Mon–Sat 9–9, Sun 9–5. Map aggregator; phone treated as provisional until confirmed first-party. ↩ ↩²

3. El Cali Mexican Food — Facebook page (@el.cali.mexican.food). Retrieved 2026-08-28; page content behind login, only the page title rendered — Confirms: existence and name of the restaurant’s own Facebook page. ↩

4. U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder, one-line address match for “9530 James A Reed Rd Kansas City MO.” Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Returns: ZIP 64134 (address range 9500–9598 James A Reed Rd), coordinates 38.95121, -94.49415. ↩