The Tamale Guy

we got some chili and cheese tamales from this guy at the temecula farmer’s market. they were delicious! they taste homemade and were the perfect portion of filling to masa. the guy was super nice and apologized for not having more options (just a couple of days before christmas and his pot was full of special orders). i don’t know what the carlsbad location looks like, but his stand at the farmer’s market is clean and organized.
i was actually on here looking for the address to the carlsbad location cuz they are totally craving-​worthy!
we’ll definitely be going back!

Came to this place before our appointment at Lens Crafters. Getting our order taken was painful and ultimately pointless. The one girl at the register was constantly asking the other about every detail of our order like it was the first 10 minutes of the first day of her first job ever. The other girl was on her phone at the time of our order (and no, it was not a work related call, as she told the person on the other end that she was at work). This place says they take cards but all they have is a sketchy iphone card reader, which wasn’t working at the time of our order. They tried to blame it on our card (which worked just fine at the Robek’s Juice next door an hour earlier). At that point we gave up and left. Normally I’m a believer in second chances, but with a place as sketchy, cheap-​looking, and unprofessional as this, I firmly believe that The Tamale Guy will go belly up in no time, so I don’t see the point in giving it a second thought. One star… because Unilocal won’t let me give zero.

I love that there is some decent food in the Westfield mall now.
I love tamales but since I don’t know how to make them I have been getting them here.
They have a variety of flavors such as carnitas, chorizo, chicken and beef. I love their sweet tamales such as sweet corn which taste like mushed up cornbread in a tamale shell. The pineapple raisin is good too.
Prices: $ 2.25 which is a little steep since their tamales aren’t huge but they are freshly made. They do have a lunch special for $ 5.00 which includes rice and beans and a drink! Their rice is phenomenal and has lots of spices and their retried beans don’t taste like canned. They also have happy hour from 5 – 6 where you can get $ 1.00 tamales and tamale Tuesday where they are $ 1.25
Service is exceptional and David is also very gracious and friendly.