Chilo Y Chela Restaurant

This place has really deteriorated it’s quality. The tamales were really good four yrs ago but now they’re too dry and salty. I really wanted to continue my loyalty but the final straw was today. My husband brought home what was suppose to be an XL arroz con leche. What I got was sugary milk with a tiny bit of rice at the bottom. I would give this place zero stars but that’s not an option.

I love tamales. And this is the first place that makes them so yummy and so authentic! The corn tamale is addicting!
The pork with red sauce is just so good.
On North Ave. If you live close by then you’ve probably been there. If not, just drive on over and bring your cash, it’s cash only. Oh, and you don’t have to go on a drunkin night. You can also have tamales for breakfast… they open at 6 am.

Come early (especially on the weekends) in order to have a chance to try all the flavors. This little mom and pop restaurant is nothing short of heaven– some of the best tamales in Chicagoland. Full of flavor and meat, you can’t go wrong. Also get some Atole to go hand in hand with your tamales, they all flavors including chocolate, guava, champurrado, and a few others. CASH ONLY.

This place is incredible. Cheese, chicken, or pork tamales wrapped in paper for $ 1.35, melt in your mouth. The salsa verde is so delicious, it’s like they’ve just picked the tomatillos. For another $ 1.35 you can have a sweet tamale for dessert, strawberry pineapple or corn. The staff are so nice, and you pick a seat at these huge wooden tiled tables to eat. It’s like being at a big family tamale dinner.

Once you try these tamales you’ll keep coming back for more. They are so goooooooood… this place only sells tamales! This is a Chicago’s must!

Fabulous tamales and I intend to try every flavor! I tried the pork both red and green, the pineapple, the sweet corn and the cheese with jalapeño all YUMMY! Do your tamale loving self a favor and eat these NOW (or at least as soon as you can)…A special call out to the horchata… wonderful!

Fresh tamales and champurado, yum! Go early in the morning or on Sunday morning/​afternoon to get the moistest, freshest tamale selection.
Tamales come in red or green varieties of pork, chicken and jalapeño & cheese. There are even strawberry and pineapple tamales, which I have not tried yet. My favorite by far is puerco rojo followed by pollo verde. A dozen costs $ 16, half dozen $ 8, single $ 1.35.
Champurado is smooth and rich with a hint of cinnamon. On weekends they offer walnut and eggnog flavor in addition to the typical chocolate. There is also arroz con leche as well as fresh squeezed orange and/​or carrot juice.
Knowing Spanish is helpful. Although sometimes they get someone from the back to wait on me, since my Chicago hueda pronunciation is no bueno.
I will bike to west Humboldt for fresh tamale breakfast any day! Your coworkers will love you if you bring some to the office.
PS — Cash only, so bring your dinero!

This is the beat tamale place in Chicago, the state and the whole of North America (including Mexico). So moist and tasty. Wowzers! I go here at least once a week to cure my tamale cravings. If you are within an 5 hour commute do yourself a favor and stop by.
Yummy in my tummy!

Best tamales ever! Specially reds with pork and strawberry. Also atoles, champurrado is my favorite :)

CORNY WRAP
Have you ever looked at a recipe for making a homemade tamale. It will take you hours and when I say hours I do not mean like 2. I am leaning more towards 5 – 6 hours and that is not including the eating part. I always have a dream where I can whip these up at home but the reality is that this is not going to happen.
Recently a friend decided to bring these to a morning meeting instead of donuts. I thought it was a great idea except for starting my day out with lard. I really made an effort to block the though of lard in my veins and dived in.
As we sat there and ate my friend told a story about his adventure buying these. He arrived at 5am to order them and learned he needed cash. He then went to an ATM and upon his return there was a line out the front door. The moral of this story is to always have cash when ordering Mexican food because you just never know.
We laughed and dove into the tamales and all enjoyed them. I love tamales but I always find the corn to be dry. This has been something I’ve experienced since having my first one over 30 years ago. I found one restaurant in Chicago that made a juicy veggie tamale but they are no longer in business (RIP La Finca). I really wish I had that recipe.
I did not go to this place to pickup the tamales. They were basically delivered to our meeting. I was amazed that they were still warm in the sealed plastic bags they were packed in. Remember it was 9am and he grabbed them at 5:30am. I was just really happy to have an authentic treat for breakfast. I will say it was my first morning tamale.
If I was to judge these with every tamale I have ever had then I would put these on the line of traditional authentic tamales. We had two different flavors to choose from. There was a chicken with red sauce & pork with green sauce. Typically these two are flipped (pork & red and chicken & green) but I enjoyed the different combination. Personally I think most people don’t order those and our dear friend picking them up was not in the know when it came to ordering. The staff basically ordered for him. He will be ready the next time, if there is a next time.
I am giving these tamales a 4 star rating because they are consistent to what a good Chicago Mexican restaurants offers. Now if you have a kick butt tamale then please send it my way. Also I know many places are making yummy topping sauces. Please don’t send me there because I could cover an old shoe in green salsa and it would taste amazing.
So grab your cash and get in line because these tamales are hot out of the steamer. Next time surprise the office at the 9am meeting with these instead of a box of donuts. They will probably be talking about you for weeks. Who knows they may even call you «The Tamale Guy»!

Pretty good tamales! Having made tamales from scratch before I know how much work is involved and how easy it is to get them wrong. This place churns out hundreds a day so they must be doing something right.
chicken and salsa verde were my favorite but the cheese and pepper ones were ok just not as flavorful. Horchata was on point and great compliment to the spicy tamale. Not a fancy place (counter service) but they do have tables for dining in.
Cash only!

Cash only but great tamales. I had the green chile and chicken, corn and peppers and cheese. Very tasty, the thing with tamales is you need to be careful there isnt too much masa and not enough filings. THese were filled nicely, a bit stingy on the fillings but not much. They sell atole and champurrado, didnt have it but I will when i come back.

Just a reminder! This place doesn’t accept credit cards… CASH ONLY! But absolutely worth the trip to get some cash and head over west. They were the warmest, fluffiest, green salsa was right on. Strawberry was the best dulce i’ve ever had, and even tried and elote tamale. Delicious. The arroz con leche was so yummy. I order champpurado, and she gave me a small arroz con leche for me to try. Very friendly, clean and all in all a great experience. And yes I won’t be drivng to 47^th anymore to look for a vedor. This place is a shop, they open at 6 a.m. and open late.

SO, woke up early morning and had a crave for chicken soup. Couldnt find it anywhere! So i see a tamale lady on the corner an I decided to see fi she has any chicken green tamales. She was out. So I ask does she know where they sell fresh tamales, and she pointed it this way. Ironic huh?
So I go inside, its pretty small with like 3 or 5 tables. but they have atoles of different flavors and big hoyas of tamales with different types of meat or style. I was in heaven at that moment.
I decided to order 1 ½ dozen of tamales.
1 dozen of green chicken and the half of rajas con queso.
The green chicken tamales were decent, could be better if they added more sauce to it so it wont be too dry.
The biggest disappointment was the rajas con queso, they only had one big slice of rajas across the tamale an sometimes the cheese was on one side of the tamale.
The pricing wasent bad either. $ 12 for 12 tamales or i think it was 1.35 per.
Would come again when im craving some tamales though an skip the corner lady.

Place is so good, they run out by the end of the day.
Only tried Chicken and the strawberry flavor and they were awesome. Lots of chicken inside and the spiciness hit the spot for me (I love spicy).
I was a bit hesitant ordering the sweet tamales but it was pretty tasty.

Try to forget about the lard used to create these masa covered masterpieces. The tamales are just wonderful.
You can get a variety at $ 1.14 per or get a dozen for $ 11. My personal favorite is the cheese and jalapeño tamale, but the pork, chicken, and beef are also excellent. They even have a couple of dessert varieties, sweet corn and pineapple/​strawberry. Yum!
A trio of tamales with their delicious Horchata (sweet drink made with almonds, rice, and cinnamon) for under $ 10 makes me happy on so many levels.

I love tamales! so when I wake up too late to go to my favorite tamale lady I come here: D
Its great to know you can satisfy a tamale craving any hour of the day
:D

Tamales were tasty and nicely priced. We called ahead and made the drive. We tried the pork and chicken. The chicken tamales were kind of small. Overall, they were as good as I heard. Parking on a Saturday on North Ave. wasn’t bad either. I’d go again, although we bought enough for a while.

best tamales i’ve had in chicago. really well made, the meat is not too fatty and they have a good balance of filling and masa. worth the drive!

I had their tamales for lunch at work. They where very cheap and very tasty i suggest any chicagoan bring themselves and any outsiders to this hidden gem. I have had many tamales in this town, these are the best so far.