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Mole, rajas, and verde tamales are arranged on a stainless steel tray.
Red, green, and mole tamales from Evelia’s Tamales.
Clay Williams/Eater NY

13 Mexican Tamales Good Enough for the Holidays but Perfect Year Round

Stuffed with pork ribs, pumpkin seeds, mole poblano, and more

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Red, green, and mole tamales from Evelia’s Tamales.
| Clay Williams/Eater NY

Here in New York, tamales have never been as popular as their flattened, masa-made cousin the tortilla, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find standout versions of the dish. A number of Mexican chefs are now making tamales by importing heirloom corn or nixtamalizing grains. Their tamales come steamed in corn husks, wrapped in banana leaves, stuffed between slices of bread, and filled with an array of meats, cheeses, fruits, and moles. Plus, they keep in the freezer for months. Your move, tortilla.

It’s well understood that the best tamales come from the steaming stainless steel pots of food vendors across the city, sometimes as early as 6 a.m., often only on weekends. Their hours, locations, and availability have been harder to pin down during the pandemic, which is part of why this guide also includes a handful of Eater’s favorite brick-and-mortar restaurants. Some of the businesses listed here only serve tamales as weekend specials, while others sell out early, so set an alarm or call ahead before making the trek.

Health experts consider dining out to be a high-risk activity for the unvaccinated; it may pose a risk for the vaccinated, especially in areas with substantial COVID transmission.

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Yolanda’s Tamales

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The owner of this longtime Harlem street cart sets up shop near the entrance of the 145th Street subway station around 7 a.m. most mornings, selling tamales stuffed with black beans, red and green mole, chicken, and cheese until they’re sold out. A standard tamal costs about $3 here, while a plump Oaxaqueño, with chicken or pork, is a dollar more.

A hand clutches a tamal that’s wrapped in a banana leaf and overflowing with bits of chicken.
A Oaxaqueño overflows with chicken.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

City Tamale

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A short distance from the Bronx’s Hunts Point market, owner Israel Veliz has been making savory and sweet tamales with a variety of toppings since 2016. His recipe comes from his mother, who moved to the Bronx from the Mexican state of Puebla and incorporates a little bit of baking soda for hefty but delicate tamales priced around $4 each. Try the simple rajas version, made with epazote, jalapeno, tomato, and onion.

Inside of City Tamale, a tamale shop in the Bronx neighborhood of Hunts Point.
Customers consider their options at City Tamale.
Carla Vianna/Eater NY

Tamales Lupita

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This bright orange restaurant in East Harlem makes flautas and picaditas, but those aren’t the dishes that gave Tamales Lupita its name. Served with a side of chipotle dipping sauce, the chicken and cheese tamales here combine two regional recipes, says co-owner Catalina Jacinto, whose mother and father come from the Mexican states of Guerrero and Puebla, respectively.

Seven types of tamales are offered.
Tamales come with a side of chipotle dipping sauce.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Evelia's Tamales

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Evelia Coyotzi, a street vendor who sold tamales for roughly two decades under the tracks of the 7 train in Queens, opened this standalone restaurant in March. With more room, the menu has grown to include menudo, barbacoa, and other dishes that weren’t practical to serve from a street cart. They’re delightful, but let’s be real: The place is called Evelia’s Tamales, and at $1.50 each, the ones sold here are still some of the absolute best around. Don’t miss the larger Oaxaqueños for $1.50 more, especially the ones filled with soft chicharron and bone-in pork rib.

A Oaxaqueño tamal overflows with pork ribs against a colorful background.
Pork ribs overflow from a Oaxaqueño.
Clay Williams/Eater NY

Taqueria Restaurant Oaxaca

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This companion taqueria to its market two blocks down offers tamales all day. But since they’re not on the menu, you’ll have to ask. A spicy green chicken or the red pork versions are exceptionally large for $3 a piece.

Two tamales in a takeout container.
Red and green tamales cost $6 for the pair.
Melissa McCart/Eater NY

Los Tres Chilitos

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This Oaxacan sit-down spot in Jersey City Heights has an extensive breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu and tamales year-round, including verdes, rojos, mole, and chileajo, each for $2.75. If you’re not there by 10 a.m., chances are they’ll be sold out, a server confirms.

The exterior of a Mexican restaurant.
The exterior of Los Tres Chilitos on Central Avenue in Jersey City Heights.
Melissa McCart/Eater NY

Torta Truck

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This relative newcomer to the Central Avenue stretch of Mexican markets, taquerias, and bakeries (a standalone location that started as a truck), sells birria tamales and a rotating selection of others, weekends only from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. They’re $4.

A sign saying tamales are for sale.
Tamales are for sale at the standalone location of Torta Truck, weekends only.
Melissa McCart/Eater NY

Factory Tamal

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This small storefront on the Lower East Side churns out tamales in a half-dozen fashions, most priced around $5. Proprietor Fernando Lopez is one of a handful of tamal makers in the city to nixtamalize his corn, whereby kernels are soaked in food-grade calcium hydroxide for hours before being milled into masa. The painstaking process is the reason for the rightly popular tamales here, filled with chipotle chicken and a mole poblano that claims to be made with at least 20 different ingredients.

A chipotle with chicken tamale unwrapped from its corn husk.
A chicken tamale unsheathed from its corn husk.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Sobre Masa

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Diana and Zack Wangeman, the owners of Bushwick tortilleria Sobre Masa, serve extremely delicious costras — tortillas blanketed in large, leathery sheathes of cooked Oaxacan cheese. But get to the restaurant before 3 p.m., and some truly excellent tamales await. Husks of masa stuffed with pork in salsa verde and creamy poblano pepper start at $8 each. They’re the most expensive on this list by a few dollars, but they’re also quite large: For Eater’s chief critic Ryan Sutton, a single tamal here is a proper lunch in itself.

A yellow tamal sits on a corn husk on a white plate
A lunch tamal from Sobre Masa.
Louise Palmberg/Eater NY

La Mesita

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In a corner of Bushwick better known for its Dominican restaurants, this Mexican restaurant sells corn husk tamales and Oaxaqueños filled with mole and red and green salsas. Tamales stuffed with pork aren’t as common at street carts in New York — chicken, cheese, and poblano pepper seem to reign supreme — but at La Mesita they’re the reason for coming. For about $4 each, these dense tamales come packed with stringy and deeply flavorful meat.

Two Oaxaqueño tamales, unsheathed and perched on their banana paper wrapper.
Pork tamales are the star at La Mesita.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Xochitl Taqueria

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Xochitl, named after the Aztec goddess Xochiquetzal, is a very good and inexpensive taqueria in Cobble Hill, where tacos and burritos form the majority of the menu. While restaurants of its size often list tamales on the menu but don’t always sell them, Xochitl offers two on a regular basis: one stuffed with chicken mole, and another with roast chiles and cheese smothered in a thick and chunky red salsa.

A tamale in a corn husk smothered in red gravy.
Rajas tamales come smothered in thick salsa.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Tamales La Guelaguetza

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This tamales spot near Prospect Park has leveled up considerably during the pandemic, from a makeshift stand sheltered by an umbrella to a semi-enclosed cart: shelves lined with empanadas, churros, flan, and tres leches. Expect tamales in the usual styles, along with púlakles, a vegan tamal from Veracruz that’s stuffed with green bean, zucchini, black bean, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and more. The cart sets up shop at the intersection of Eastern Parkway and Flatbush Avenue around 1 p.m. on Sundays, and earlier on Saturdays.

Customers line up at a tamales cart, called Tamales La Guelauetza, on a blistery New York day.
Find Tamales La Guelaguetza on the corner of Eastern Parkway and Flatbush Avenue most weekends.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Reyes Deli & Grocery

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It’s understood that some of the best Mexican food in the city is only available on weekends, as these tamales from Reyes Deli & Grocery go to show. The bodega on the edge of Park Slope and Gowanus sells burritos, breakfast tacos, and barbacoa by the pound — all are great, but for some of the city’s top tamales, show up early on a Saturday or Sunday. Rajas, chicken mole, and pork tamales start at around $3 each.

A tamal soaked in green salsa next to a white plastic fork.
A pork tamal bathed in salsa verde.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Yolanda’s Tamales

The owner of this longtime Harlem street cart sets up shop near the entrance of the 145th Street subway station around 7 a.m. most mornings, selling tamales stuffed with black beans, red and green mole, chicken, and cheese until they’re sold out. A standard tamal costs about $3 here, while a plump Oaxaqueño, with chicken or pork, is a dollar more.

A hand clutches a tamal that’s wrapped in a banana leaf and overflowing with bits of chicken.
A Oaxaqueño overflows with chicken.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

City Tamale

A short distance from the Bronx’s Hunts Point market, owner Israel Veliz has been making savory and sweet tamales with a variety of toppings since 2016. His recipe comes from his mother, who moved to the Bronx from the Mexican state of Puebla and incorporates a little bit of baking soda for hefty but delicate tamales priced around $4 each. Try the simple rajas version, made with epazote, jalapeno, tomato, and onion.

Inside of City Tamale, a tamale shop in the Bronx neighborhood of Hunts Point.
Customers consider their options at City Tamale.
Carla Vianna/Eater NY

Tamales Lupita

This bright orange restaurant in East Harlem makes flautas and picaditas, but those aren’t the dishes that gave Tamales Lupita its name. Served with a side of chipotle dipping sauce, the chicken and cheese tamales here combine two regional recipes, says co-owner Catalina Jacinto, whose mother and father come from the Mexican states of Guerrero and Puebla, respectively.

Seven types of tamales are offered.
Tamales come with a side of chipotle dipping sauce.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Evelia's Tamales

Evelia Coyotzi, a street vendor who sold tamales for roughly two decades under the tracks of the 7 train in Queens, opened this standalone restaurant in March. With more room, the menu has grown to include menudo, barbacoa, and other dishes that weren’t practical to serve from a street cart. They’re delightful, but let’s be real: The place is called Evelia’s Tamales, and at $1.50 each, the ones sold here are still some of the absolute best around. Don’t miss the larger Oaxaqueños for $1.50 more, especially the ones filled with soft chicharron and bone-in pork rib.

A Oaxaqueño tamal overflows with pork ribs against a colorful background.
Pork ribs overflow from a Oaxaqueño.
Clay Williams/Eater NY

Taqueria Restaurant Oaxaca

This companion taqueria to its market two blocks down offers tamales all day. But since they’re not on the menu, you’ll have to ask. A spicy green chicken or the red pork versions are exceptionally large for $3 a piece.

Two tamales in a takeout container.
Red and green tamales cost $6 for the pair.
Melissa McCart/Eater NY

Los Tres Chilitos

This Oaxacan sit-down spot in Jersey City Heights has an extensive breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu and tamales year-round, including verdes, rojos, mole, and chileajo, each for $2.75. If you’re not there by 10 a.m., chances are they’ll be sold out, a server confirms.

The exterior of a Mexican restaurant.
The exterior of Los Tres Chilitos on Central Avenue in Jersey City Heights.
Melissa McCart/Eater NY

Torta Truck

This relative newcomer to the Central Avenue stretch of Mexican markets, taquerias, and bakeries (a standalone location that started as a truck), sells birria tamales and a rotating selection of others, weekends only from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. They’re $4.

A sign saying tamales are for sale.
Tamales are for sale at the standalone location of Torta Truck, weekends only.
Melissa McCart/Eater NY

Factory Tamal

This small storefront on the Lower East Side churns out tamales in a half-dozen fashions, most priced around $5. Proprietor Fernando Lopez is one of a handful of tamal makers in the city to nixtamalize his corn, whereby kernels are soaked in food-grade calcium hydroxide for hours before being milled into masa. The painstaking process is the reason for the rightly popular tamales here, filled with chipotle chicken and a mole poblano that claims to be made with at least 20 different ingredients.

A chipotle with chicken tamale unwrapped from its corn husk.
A chicken tamale unsheathed from its corn husk.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Sobre Masa

Diana and Zack Wangeman, the owners of Bushwick tortilleria Sobre Masa, serve extremely delicious costras — tortillas blanketed in large, leathery sheathes of cooked Oaxacan cheese. But get to the restaurant before 3 p.m., and some truly excellent tamales await. Husks of masa stuffed with pork in salsa verde and creamy poblano pepper start at $8 each. They’re the most expensive on this list by a few dollars, but they’re also quite large: For Eater’s chief critic Ryan Sutton, a single tamal here is a proper lunch in itself.

A yellow tamal sits on a corn husk on a white plate
A lunch tamal from Sobre Masa.
Louise Palmberg/Eater NY

La Mesita

In a corner of Bushwick better known for its Dominican restaurants, this Mexican restaurant sells corn husk tamales and Oaxaqueños filled with mole and red and green salsas. Tamales stuffed with pork aren’t as common at street carts in New York — chicken, cheese, and poblano pepper seem to reign supreme — but at La Mesita they’re the reason for coming. For about $4 each, these dense tamales come packed with stringy and deeply flavorful meat.

Two Oaxaqueño tamales, unsheathed and perched on their banana paper wrapper.
Pork tamales are the star at La Mesita.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Xochitl Taqueria

Xochitl, named after the Aztec goddess Xochiquetzal, is a very good and inexpensive taqueria in Cobble Hill, where tacos and burritos form the majority of the menu. While restaurants of its size often list tamales on the menu but don’t always sell them, Xochitl offers two on a regular basis: one stuffed with chicken mole, and another with roast chiles and cheese smothered in a thick and chunky red salsa.

A tamale in a corn husk smothered in red gravy.
Rajas tamales come smothered in thick salsa.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Tamales La Guelaguetza

This tamales spot near Prospect Park has leveled up considerably during the pandemic, from a makeshift stand sheltered by an umbrella to a semi-enclosed cart: shelves lined with empanadas, churros, flan, and tres leches. Expect tamales in the usual styles, along with púlakles, a vegan tamal from Veracruz that’s stuffed with green bean, zucchini, black bean, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and more. The cart sets up shop at the intersection of Eastern Parkway and Flatbush Avenue around 1 p.m. on Sundays, and earlier on Saturdays.

Customers line up at a tamales cart, called Tamales La Guelauetza, on a blistery New York day.
Find Tamales La Guelaguetza on the corner of Eastern Parkway and Flatbush Avenue most weekends.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Reyes Deli & Grocery

It’s understood that some of the best Mexican food in the city is only available on weekends, as these tamales from Reyes Deli & Grocery go to show. The bodega on the edge of Park Slope and Gowanus sells burritos, breakfast tacos, and barbacoa by the pound — all are great, but for some of the city’s top tamales, show up early on a Saturday or Sunday. Rajas, chicken mole, and pork tamales start at around $3 each.

A tamal soaked in green salsa next to a white plastic fork.
A pork tamal bathed in salsa verde.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

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