Lopez Tortilla Factory

Tamales are too small and do not taste good. I bought chicken and pork ones. The chicken tasted really old.

The red sauce was good but the tamales were not tasty at all. I tried the chicken, pork, and green chile tamales, they did not have enough meat in them. They are the size of a rolled taco and are super greasy. I was disappointed and regret making the drive.

Talk about hidden treasures. Here’s how I found this place: Got up Sunday around 10 a.m. and «got hungry», so we decided to head out for doughnuts. Living in the Asian Trade District you learn quickly Sunday mornings are a no go for business. Every shop was closed so we kept driving around looking for something. BAM! Cardboard sign taped to a tree limb poked into the ground: «TAMALES THIS WAY». Normally I would laugh, make a comment about tape worms and drive off, but being in the state of mind that I was in and growing increasingly hungry I turned my bloodshot eyes down the yellow brick road (actually it was just asphalt but yellow bricks add to the mystique). We drove… and drove… and drove some more without seeing another sign and not knowing the address. I was thinking something along the lines of a cute lil’ old lady who couldn’t speak english shelling out 10 $ dozens.
Then I saw it. Call it fate or chalk it up to a half-​assed ability to read Spanish: «LOPEZ TAMALERIA». It’s in a «semi residential/​kinda industrial» area so you’ve gotta keep your eyes open to find this place.
We could smell it with the windows down and started drooling immediately. If you’ve never been to a tortilla factory VISIT ONE. 99.9% of the time they’ll have a jammin’ little side café dishing out authentic Mexican food as was the case @ Lopez.
In our half-​baked state of mind we realized we had left our wallets at home and only had $ 7. Hell, that should buy us enough tamales to get us back to the house and grab our wallets right? We walked in and immediately saw how great this place was going to be. First there was a group of old men chowing down on a Barbacoa breakfast (old men are always a sign something special is lurking). Second, while the tortilla ovens & conveyors were cranking out beautiful tortillas, the clerk at the front desk was chopping fresh onions, cilantro, peppers and tomatoes for god knows what heavenly salsa. The last and final sign of real Mexican food greatness? NOBODY in the room spoke ANY ENGLISH what so ever and the clerk had to go away for about 10 minutes to find someone who did. When we explained we only had $ 7 on us and would like to get whatever we could we where handed 1 dozen chicken and 1 dozen pork tamales still pipping hot wrapped in foil, with a pint of super fresh salsa. Normally a doz sells for $ 9 so they had majorly gone out of their way to feed us. Long story short: we made it about half way through our 5 mile trip back home before we ran out of food.
As a native Texan I’ve had my fair share of tamales in all different shapes and sizes so when I say these were BADASS take it with some clout. Usually, if you aren’t careful, you’ll catch places churning out tamales that are more like flavorless jelly filled doughnuts with the greasiest, cheapest, fattiest meat you could find south of Larry the Cable Guys man boobs. Not so here @ Lopez. Hand pulled meat, lean, cooked to a juicy perfection wrapped in a mild (but flavorful) corn cake. Chicken & pork both Grade «A» ingredients throughout.
The staff is friendly and are apparently dedicated to 1 upping the local taco shacks with flavor and quality coupled with a competitive price. They went out of their way to make sure two lost white boys had full bellies and they ended up making a life long customer. If you’re a fan of the corn husk wrapped tubed delights (or just kickass authentic Mexican food in general) then Lopez Tortilla Factory is a must. No Spanish required, just point and drool.

I brought some tamales home to my Mexican/​Puerto Rican family yesterday, and they were among the best «authentic style» they had ever had. My mom kept raving about the vegetarian tamales, (cheese and jalapeño) usually they are just beans. They are one of the few that actually make the masa from scratch, and have delicious homemade salsas. I wish I could have tried the avocado cream salsa, but it was sold out by two p.m. :(This is definitely a no frills, to go order style restaurant versus a sit down fancy place, but well worth it!