This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

Lilly’s Cantina is a small, family-run Mexican-American restaurant and full bar at 900 Southwest Boulevard on Kansas City’s Westside, in the corner building that housed the Tenderloin Grill for some 90 years. Teresa Grado — whose family has been in the neighborhood for a century — opened it in Midtown in November 2021 and moved it here in October 2023 with her son JaJuan Turner and daughter Alexus Grado; the name and the recipes belong to her mother, Lilly. The food is Kansas City Mexican comfort cooking: crunchy fried tacos and flautas, mole-covered enchiladas, chile con carne fideo, weekend pozole and menudo, “burrito spreads,” and a list of eleven margaritas. In summer 2026, months of Southwest Boulevard road construction cut off its parking and nearly closed it; a “100 Friends of Lilly’s” appeal brought the neighborhood back through the door.

Description

Lilly’s is the corner storefront at 900 Southwest Boulevard, a blue front door framed in mosaic tile.1 Kansas City Magazine, putting its “Cousin Rob Plato” on a 2025 list of the best Latin plates under $15, called it a “family-run cantina” with “something familiar yet refreshing about the small joint. Maybe it’s the welcoming blue front door … the full bar or the menu that serves comfy Mexican platters and tacos — done really well.”1 The site’s own line is “Comfort Food in a Comfortable Setting,” and its pitch is local: “We’re here to share our love of food and family with the city we were born and raised in.”2

The menu is the Kansas City Mexican-American canon rather than regional Mexican. Tacos are the crunchy fried kind ($3.15, three for $9), alongside chicken flautas, tostadas, seasonal tamales and enchiladas à la carte; the combination plates are named for family — Big Bob’s Burrito Spread (pork or chicken under melted cheese), Jessy’s Burrito Spread (with white cheese dip), The Cousin Rob Plato, Limp’s Plato and Chris’ Grande Plato.34 The Cousin Rob, per KC Magazine, is “the ultimate combo plate, complete with a deep-fried taco, a tostada, a mole-covered cheesy enchilada, a crunchy corn quesadilla and, of course, the quintessential side of rice or beans.”1 Chile con carne fideo — a pork-and-noodle soup — is a house specialty, and the weekend board adds pozole rojo, menudo, a pork rib chile plate, chorizo and eggs and enchiladas rancheros.34 A server told Kansas City Magazine in 2026 that the restaurant used to serve the parmesan-dusted “KC taco” but no longer does.5 The bar pours eleven margaritas — Citrus, Clásico, Yucatán, Mexican Peach, Pomegranate, D’Oro — and “Angie’s Mexican Candy Shot.”3

Ownership and history

Teresa Grado learned to cook from her mother, Lilly, and grandmother, Josefine; a mural of Lilly by local artist Phyllis Hernandez hung in the first restaurant.4 Lilly’s Cantina opened November 2, 2021 at 3711 Southwest Trafficway in Midtown, in the former Freshwater space, with Grado’s parents helping at the launch — her father partial to the pork rib chile plate.4 It lasted about eighteen months there: rent was higher on the Trafficway and parking was a problem, and the family closed it in the summer of 2023.6

The move to Southwest Boulevard was a homecoming. The Tenderloin Grill had left 900 Southwest Boulevard for the City Market in April 2023 after roughly ninety years at the address, and Grado, her son JaJuan Turner and daughter Alexus Grado took the space that fall. “Our family has been in this neighborhood for 100 years,” she told the Star; she had eaten at the Tenderloin Grill weekly as a child, and “the original owner was one of my sister’s godfathers.” Lilly’s expected to open there October 10, 2023, with a full bar and hours that ran to 2 a.m. on Fridays.678

Southwest Boulevard’s 2026 reconstruction — new bike lanes, upgraded crosswalks and traffic calming — nearly ended the restaurant. For months the work blocked street access and the rear parking lot; Grado told KCTV5 that nearly 40 percent of her regulars stopped coming, and the FIFA World Cup crowds she had hoped would fill the gap did not — “most of my regulars told me before FIFA came that they wouldn’t come in,” she told KSHB, adding that vandals were still climbing on the roof and had broken the gutters.910 She set August 1, 2026 as the date she would close if nothing changed, and said so in a Facebook post. The response was the “100 Friends of Lilly’s Challenge”: more than $2,500 sent directly to the family, some gifts of $500, and new customers driving in from across the region. Lilly’s stayed open. “Ask for help,” Grado told KCTV5. “We’re going to come running.”9

The space

900 Southwest Boulevard was the Tenderloin Grill from at least 1952 (Kansas City Star archives) until April 2023 — a 1932 pushcart business founded by the Nabor family, bought by KMBC photographer Ricardo Herrera in 1974 and run by his family until a 2021 sale to partners in Minsky’s Pizza, who moved it to 25 E. Third Street in the City Market in the spring of 2023 (see taste-of-brazil, which had vacated that stall). Post-pandemic lunch trade on the Boulevard had thinned, one partner said: “the people who used to patronize it weren’t around anymore.”78 The Grados’ tenancy is the building’s second restaurant in a century.

Last verified: 2026-08-28 · Source: the restaurant’s own menu page at lillyscantinakc.com/menu (ChowNow is the ordering channel) · Confidence: High for items and prices; some items list a price range (small/large) and the site notes “Automatic 20% gratuity for parties of 8+.”3

Appetizers

  • Quesadilla Crunchy ($3) · Guacamole ($8.50–12) · Nachos Super ($13) · Cheese Dip (white) ($6–9.50)

À la carte

  • Tacos — beef or chicken ($3.15; 3 for $9) · Chicken Flautas ($3.25; 3 for $9.50) · Tostada ($3) · Tamales (seasonal; $3.50; half-dozen $17, dozen $30) · Burrito ($4.35) · Enchiladas ($3.50; two with sides $9.50–11.50)

Specialties

  • Big Bob’s Burrito Spread ($11.50) · Jessy’s Burrito Spread ($12.50) · The Cousin Rob Plato ($15) · Limp’s Plato ($15) · Chris’ Grande Plato ($16.50)

Saturday and Sunday only

  • Pork Rib Chile Plate ($16) · Pozole Rojo ($8–11.50) · Chorizo & Eggs ($13) · Eggs con Chile y Carne ($13.50) · Enchiladas Rancheros ($13.50) · Menudo ($8–12)

Sides

  • T’s Pico Salsa (hot) ($4–7.50) · Chips to go ($3.50) · Rice / Beans / Fideo ($3) · Tortillas (2) ($2.50) · Sour cream ($1.50) · Jalapeños ($1.50) · Chile con Carne Fideo ($6–10)

Kids plates ($5.30)

Cheese enchilada · beef or chicken taco · chicken flauta · cheese quesadilla

Drinks

  • Canned soda $2 · bottled soda $3.50 · bottled beer $4
  • Margaritas: Citrus $7 · Clásico $9.50 · Yucatán $8 · Strawberry $8.50 · Raspberry Rita $8.50 · Mexican Peach $9 · Pomegranate $8.50 · Mango $8.50 · D’Oro $10 · Fresca $8 · Angie’s Mexican Candy Shot $5

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Tyler Shane (ed.) et al., “Cheap Eats: Top 5 Latin bites in KC for $15 or less,” Kansas City Magazine, 2025-07-18. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: “Cousin Rob Plato | $15”; 900 Southwest Blvd; “family-run cantina opened on the West Side last year”; blue door with mosaic tiles; full bar; plate description (deep-fried taco, tostada, mole enchilada, crunchy corn quesadilla). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. Lilly’s Cantina — official website, home page. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: “Lilly’s Cantina | Authentic Mexican Food”; address 900 SW Blvd, Kansas City, MO 64108; phone (816) 652-8444; “Kansas City’s Newest Mexican Eatery”; “share our love of food and family with the city we were born and raised in”; “Comfort Food in a Comfortable Setting”; posole; ChowNow ordering link; site credited to the Grado family; nav Home / Menu / Gallery. ↩

  3. Lilly’s Cantina — official website, “Menu.” Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: every item and price in the Menu section; phone; 20% gratuity for parties of 8+. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. Lauren Quick, “Lilly’s Cantina serves up Mexican comfort food and Margaritas in Midtown Kansas City,” Feast Magazine, 2021-12-09. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: opened 2021-11-02 at 3711 SW Trafficway (former Freshwater); Teresa Grado learned from mother Lilly and grandmother Josefine; Lilly mural by Phyllis Hernandez; parents’ support; signature dishes (burrito spreads, chile con carne fideo, weekend pozole rojo, pork rib chile plate, flautas); eleven margaritas; 2021 hours. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. Tyler Shane, “The KC Taco Is Dying… But Maybe There’s Hope,” Kansas City Magazine, 2026-03-14. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: “A server at Lilly’s Cantina told me that they used to serve ‘the parmesan taco’ but don’t anymore.” ↩

  6. David Hudnall, “Mexican restaurant closes in Kansas City. Now it has a new location, opening soon,” The Kansas City Star, 2023-10-06 (syndicated via AOL). Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: ~18 months at 3711 Southwest Trafficway, closed summer 2023 over rent and parking; reopening at 900 Southwest Blvd in the former Tenderloin Grill space, expected 2023-10-10; owners Teresa Grado, son JaJuan Turner, daughter Alexus Grado; “Our family has been in this neighborhood for 100 years”; Tenderloin Grill’s original owner a godfather to Grado’s sister; Big Bob’s Burrito Spread $10, Limp Plato $15; full bar; 2023 hours. ↩ ↩2

  7. Joyce Smith, “Kansas City restaurant with the ‘best tender’ is relocating after decades,” The Kansas City Star, 2023-04-06 (syndicated via Yahoo). Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: Tenderloin Grill founded 1932 as a food cart; at 900 Southwest Blvd per Star archives since at least 1952; Ricardo Herrera bought it 1974; 2021 sale to Minsky’s partners Gregg Johnson, Angel Hernandez and Ken Kantner; move to 25 E. Third St. in the City Market, late April 2023; Taste of Brazil vacated that space. ↩ ↩2

  8. Kevin Collison, “Tenderloin Grill Moves to City Market, Pig Snoots and All,” Flatland, 2023-05-08. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: 90 years at 900 Southwest Boulevard; Lebanese founding family; Herrera family later; Kantner quote “the people who used to patronize it weren’t around anymore”; post-COVID lunch decline. ↩ ↩2

  9. Zach Fisher, “Lilly’s Cantina nearly closed. Kansas City showed up,” KCTV5, 2026-08-02. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: Teresa Grado operates with her children; named for her mother; nearly five years in business; construction blocked street and rear lot; ~40% of regulars stopped coming; World Cup hopes unmet; August 1 closing deadline; Facebook post; “100 Friends of Lilly’s Challenge,” $2,500+ raised, $500 gifts; open Tue/Thu/Fri/Sat 11–8; “Ask for help. We’re going to come running.” ↩ ↩2

  10. Daniela Leon, “Kansas City businesses hit by construction say World Cup crowds haven’t boosted sales,” KSHB 41, 2026. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: Grado quotes on flat sales, regulars avoiding FIFA congestion, roof trespassing and broken gutters; project scope (bike lanes, crosswalks, traffic reduction); restaurant open through the work. ↩

  11. Lilly’s Cantina Street Food — official website (Columbia, Missouri catering and food truck, “since 2014”). Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: a separate, unrelated business with a similar name; no connection to 900 Southwest Blvd. ↩

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On the record — ks.city/registry/lillys-cantina · record updated 2026-08-28