Tamale Lovers

This is a late post, but every time I go they never fail. They are the best!!! Omg! Absolutely delicious! Our first time and the food was great and awesome customer service. I’ve never had such a huge tamale full of flavor and just the right amount of spiciness. The rice and beans were really delicious as well. We will be visiting often!!!

I’ve been here twice (so far) and both times I had an absolute delicious experience!
Let’s see, it might be easier to list what I haven’t had. Just kidding! I’ve had poblano and cheese, pineapple and coconut, chocolate and cinnamon, mild chicken, chicken mole, rice, beans, and horchata.
No, I didn’t eat them all in one sitting or even one visit.
I would have if I could have!!!
The gals who work here are warm and hospitable.
I love finding awesome new places to eat through Unilocal and being able to pay it forward to all my fellow Unilocalers.
Go eat tamales you guys!!!

Omg!!! I know that it’s a tamale restaurant but the star of the show are the beans! The beans are worth the 45-​minute drive even without the tamales! Holy crap!!!
I give the tamales 4 stars… the chicken, jalapeño, and cheese tamale was cooked perfectly and had a great texter. The spicy pork tamale was also very good but was a bit dry, overall it was a really good tamale. I also ordered 2 sweet tamales togo, and being the fatty that i am i had to try it before i left. I was a little bummed out that they didn’t have the sweet tamale that I drove out there to get but… I ordered two sweet corn tamales which we’re really good. I had the great idea of taking them home and drizzling some sweetened condensed milk over the sweet corn tamales and sprinkling a little cinnamon on it just to Jazz it up a little bit.
Definitely worth trying if not for the tamales for the beans and rice!!!

Very few choices left for it being dinner time when I went. Very expensive for what you end up getting. Flavor was very mediocre. Wouldn’t go here again. Spent $ 20 for a meal for my husband and I, got three tamales, rice and beans. Wasn’t worth the money.

Yum. Especially on a cold night. Good quality, lots of variety. Love the spicy tamales and sweet ones too.

I love this place! They make amazing tamales, love the chicken jalapeño one and the mild beef. My husband (who is Hispanic) has always said he didn’t like tamales so when we moved here, I figured I’d be going here alone since I LOVE tamales. Anytime my mother in law makes tamales, my husband won’t even touch them. Recently, he had some from Tamale Lovers and he was hooked! I can’t wait to try all the different flavored with him now. Our 10 month old son loves the mild chicken and coconut pineapple ones (as do I). I’m bummed to hear they weren’t selling enough chocolate tamales to make them all the time now, but I’m happy to special order them (you need to buy at least 6, but that can easily be inhaled)! I think people are too scared to step out of their comfort zone and think «wtf is a chocolate tamale?!» I know, I thought the same before I tried it but damn! So good! Hoping to order some soon!

Light, fluffy and delicious is the best way to describe the tamales here!
We purchased the Unilocal deal — $ 30, for $ 20. We wanted to try several of their sweet and savory options. I ordered the family pack (6 tamales with a large rice and beans), plus an additional 4 desert tamales and 2 sides of sour cream. It all came to around $ 46.
All their tamales are GF, except the mole, which is not. If you have a food allergy, let them know at the beginning of ordering to ensure additional measures are taken to avoid cross contamination.
Spicy chicken, poblano and cheese, and jalapeño chicken were the favorite dinner tamales. We also had the mild chicken which was good, but lacked the flavor the others had, particularly when compared to the YUMMY spicy chicken.
Accompanying the tamale were rice and beans. I’m not going to lie. I was expecting the standard beans and rice, nothing special. But no. These beans are really tasty. They had fresh chopped cilantro (or some other fresh herb!) mixed throughout. It had awesome flavor. Their medium salsa was very fragrant and fresh. It was chocked full of garlic.
For desert we nibbled on a little of this and that and enjoyed the chocolate, pineapple/​coconut, pineapple/​raisin, and sweet corn tamales. WARNING — the desert tamales are very, VERY, sweet. Each bite tasted like spoonfuls of sugar. Chocolate was the definite winner with the pineapple/​coconut as a close second.
We look forward to stopping by here again when in the area!

Nice to find a good Tamale restaurant in the Brentwood area. The tamales, whole beans and rice were very tasty! Loved it :)

Were looking for a Starbucks (sorry) in Brentwood and parked in front of Tamale Lovers and were happy we did.
After having lunch at Ramen Hiroshi (great) in Walnut Creek, we felt good about experimenting in Brentwood and «why not» try tamales here next? Got six tamales, rice, beans to go and brought them home to Oakland, CA. Really nice meal at home, the tamales were still hot and it’s amazing how simple, yet not simple, and satisfying well done food can be.
Really good corn masa in a classic corn husk wrapper, tried our mild pork tamales first, excellent carnitas pork-​type filling, Not super gourmet, just tasty, tender and beautifully done. The beans were called «spanish beans» and were really good in a dark cumin-​y oregano flavored sauce. Not refried but whole beans to be clear. Mexican or spanish rice — excellent — I loved the rice and couldn’t stop taking little bites afterwards.
Tamale Lovers is in a mall, in a long space with chairs and tables and the two women working there seemed knowledgeable and dedicated. Answered our questions, packed our food and we were on our way. Nice to see big pots of steaming tamales — the real deal.
Nothing spectacular in terms of complexity of flavors, basic simple goodness in Brentwood.

I found this little place on Unilocal and decided that my mother and I would try it for lunch on a Sunday. I am so glad we did. This place had some of the best tamales I have had. They were fresh and tasty. The beans and rice were also very good. This will definitely be a spot on our normal rotation from now on.

Edit: I spoke too soon. The food made me sick
A little Brentwood gem!
The mild pork tamale was excellent, with a generous proportion of meat to tamale. I also got a chocolate tamale– and holy s&:$! Genius! It was like a chocolate croissant in tamale form. I would absolutely go back if I’m in the area again.

Yay! So happy to finally find a place that makes great tamales…
When they say spicy… Hot, more like it!
But, I’m use to very spicy.
My first visit the sour cream was included, like I think it should be.
On my second visit they charged me .75 cents for each sour cream I received.
Four tamales, 2 sour creams and one Coke, was $ 19.55 approx???

Always delicious! My favorite, so far, is the mild pork. The mole chicken is also good.
Be sure to call ahead to see which tamales they have for the day.

Tamales were delicious. They even have two of my favorites from back home. Elote and Mole. However $ 3.50 for a tamale is a really high price.

My dad and I discovered Tamale Lovers really just out of the blue. We were in the Brentwood area and decided to quickly look up to see if there were any gluten free options for future reference as a place to meet my grandparents half way from there house. I searched Unilocal and for gluten free this place popped up. We drove on over and I went inside to talk to who seemed to be the owner. The tamales are all gluten free and they are dairy free except for the dessert ones and the ones with cheese. She even confirmed that the shortening they use just contained soy. Awesome I said I would definitely be back!
The next week we came back to meet my grandparents. Again I confirmed everything she had told me the week before. Everything was the same so we were good to go. I ended up overdoing it a touch and ordering 3 tamales thinking they would be smaller than they were. It ended up being too much food, but I got 2 mild chickens and 1 spicy chicken. Unfortunately the mild chicken had hardly any flavor, but the spicy chicken made up for it and was delicious!
The only reason I am not giving this place 5 stars is because they don’t really have a good place to sit inside, it seemed like more of a to go place. Then that they don’t have all their tamales every day just what it posted on the whiteboard. Initially when you walk in you see the big menu with all the different tamales they make, but unfortunately they don’t have them all every day.
We will definitely be back though and hopefully get to try some different tamale flavors.

These tamales are a good size compare to what you would expect at a church sale or your Tia’s (aunt) house. At first, I was a little surprised at the price for a dozen tamales but after seeing the size, I think it’s fair.
The flavor variety they have is great. My favorites thus far are the spicy pork and the sweet corn. There’s plenty of meat and sauce inside each tamal that you don’t really need the complimentary side order of sauce but it’s a great add on. I’ve also tried the poblano & cheese and they were ok; yellow cheese on Mexican food is not my idea of traditional but the poblano pepper have it a nice flavor. The mild pork flavor is good for anyone not used to hot peppers, but I definitely recommend the spicy level otherwise.
I’ll definitely return.

The 2 young girls are always so polite and friendly. Who says we have to wait till Christmas to have some tamales.
My favorite so far is the poblano & cheese. But everything else is still really good. I would suggest calling before going because they do run out of the different kinds quickly.

I am a fan. I thought the quality was great. For the price though, at $ 3.75, I would say this is not an every day eating occasion. Three tamales set me back over $ 12. Ouchies. But they tasted very very good. I had the mild chicken (delish!), the spicy pork (kinda dry, i will pass next time), and the spicy chicken super yum. Definitely will have to come back and try the dessert tamales. I can see why people drive from the Bay Area to Brentwood to pick up tamales. Very good but also quite expensive.

I have visited this place in the past and I was very impressed with the quality and quantity of the food. I ordered for pick up and the first thing that I noticed when looking at the online menu on their website was the price went up. No problem that happens so we ordered. When I came to pick up the food there was a couple of young girls working there and she basically told me I paid already and I told her no I didn’t and I also had a coupon. She then proceeded to tell me that she needed to call the owner to see if I paid. DIDNT I JUST TELL HER I DIDNT!
She comes back and grills me on who took my order, she asks if I knew her name and what day did I call. I told her I don’t remember.
I finally pay and go to the restroom while I wait. I turn on the light and two cockroaches go scurrying about. I come out and tell the girl at register she might want to tell the owner about that. The girl nonshlantly says, ok I will.
I then look up and notice that there are pieces of paper covering the board and they have new prices. The prices are now different then they are on the website, so that’s twice that they have went up since I have been there. I mention it to her and she just says, Sorry.
Rising prices, cockroaches, bad customer service, I don’t think I will be returning and its too bad because they food was actually pretty good.

Holy Tamales! This place is remarkable! Who’d have thought, ‘lets just serve nothing but tamales’. Well this place sure did just that, and what a fine concept it is! Now, I didn’t actually dine-​in here, but the place seemed fairly simple with a lot of décor displaying why this place is special. It was small with a few tables, but the feature was seeing the large traditional steamer pots.
Here’s the Family Meal I ordered. 6 tamales for $ 24.50 including one large order of rice and one large order of beans:
~ Jalapeño and Chicken: Hot hot hot! These were piping good at first, then had a nice little kick a few minutes later. I had fun eating this one.
~ Mild Chicken: An exceptional choice! Can go wrong ordering a couple of these! Really packed with flavor.
~ Chicken Mole: Mmmm, the best! Probably my favorite of all!
~ Spicy Pork: This too had a nice spicy after-​kick. Probably my second favorite.
~ Mild Pork: Everyone enjoyed this one. If you don’t know what to get, then try these!
Although I wanted to try the Pineapple Coconut tamale, the ran out :(
But the nice lady let me sample a Chocolate Cinnamon tamale on the house! Yippee! :) Thank you thank you I shall be back again someday! Now this was somewhat what you’d expect and quite different. You can pretty much imagine the taste of chocolate chips within cornmeal. It was kinda like eating a chocolate protein bar only more moist!
Now the only negative thing is, I drove right past this place and didn’t notice it until I Unilocaled the area. It’s almost hidden within that strip mall, but sits between all the shops. You know the quote where Ferris Bueller says, «Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.» Well let me transcribe just how that’s related: «Don’t let this place pass you by; Stop and inhale the corn and meaty aroma. Look carefully for this place, and give them a try or you’ll be missin’ out!
~ One last recommendation, go online and get the: $ 20 for $ 30 Deal. More bang for your buck!