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Food guide

How to find good tamales

Tamales are labour, which is why they are traditionally made in large batches for holidays and why the best ones are frequently sold from a cooler outside a church, a laundromat or a market rather than from a restaurant.

What separates a good one from a bad one

  • Masa that is light, not dense — Properly beaten masa with fat whipped through it is almost fluffy. Dense, heavy masa means it was not beaten enough — the most common failure.
  • Real lard — Manteca gives the flavour and the texture. Vegetable shortening makes a tamal that is technically correct and tastes of nothing.
  • A thin layer of masa — The masa is the vehicle, not the meal. A thick wall with a teaspoon of filling is a bad ratio.
  • Steamed, still hot — Tamales are steamed and should arrive hot and moist. Reheated in a microwave they go rubbery.
  • Regional variety — Oaxacan tamales are wrapped in banana leaf and flatter; Mexican-American ones in corn husk. Both are right, and a place offering several is cooking a tradition.

What to order

  • Rojo and verde — Pork in red chilli, chicken in green. Buy one of each the first time.
  • Rajas con queso — Poblano strips and cheese. The best vegetarian option.
  • Oaxacan mole tamal — Banana leaf, mole negro. A different dish and worth finding.
  • Dulce — Sweet tamales, often pink, with raisin or pineapple.
  • By the dozen — They freeze and steam back perfectly, which is most of the point.

Where to find tamales

Tamales is mostly found at Mexican restaurants, so that is where to look. Open listings put 72,844 of them across the US, and these are the cities and campuses with the most.

Cities with the most

Chicago, IL 1,002 Los Angeles, CA 927 Houston, TX 924 San Antonio, TX 900 New York, NY 844 Dallas, TX 578 Phoenix, AZ 514 Las Vegas, NV 510 San Diego, CA 472 El Paso, TX 452 Austin, TX 428 Denver, CO 384

Campuses with the most within a mile

NYU 164 The New School 152 CUNY Graduate Center 135 Touro University 131 FIT 125 Baruch 123 Jefferson 69 BMCC 67 City Colleges of Chicago-Harold Washington College 67 John Jay 66

A few to start with

Counts are listings in Overture Maps open data (September 2026), counted by the town in each address. Independent places only in the examples above, and they are a starting point rather than a ranking.

How Savor Scout looks for it

Tamale searches include markets, bakeries and non-restaurant listings, because that is where a large share of the best tamales are sold. The matcher reads for masa and lard language and for weekend or holiday availability, which is a signal of a batch made properly rather than held all week.

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Looking in a particular city?

Each of these opens Savor Scout with the location already set, so you can say what you want and it searches from there. It covers 1,000 US cities in total — these are simply the largest.

All 1,000 cities →

When you might want this

Where to eat when you're broke Where to eat with a big group What to eat on moving day