Tamales Liliana’s; Dry and Drizzled

I had high hopes for Tamales Liliana’s since they were one of last year’s contestants on NBC’s “Today in LA Tamale Contest” but these tamales typify everything I dislike about most tamales… too dry and “where’s the beef??!” Rosemary is a tad more generous than I so read on…

Rants, Raves, and Reviews

Rosemary
We haven’t been on a Safari for a couple of weeks, so I was really looking forward to hunting down our next great tamale. Liliana’s sounded good and Magda opted for the Caeser Chavez location because of the freeway proximity off the 710. So upon arrival, I was surprised by the size of the building and the expansive but full parking lot. This was no “fly by night” tamale stand, these people were tamale serious. And so were we.

Magda snagged a table out front -a good tactical move because the line waiting for an inside table was long. The service was good and friendly and we ordered the spectrum -the raja con queso, the pollo con veggies, the rojo con carne and pork.

The Tamales came fairly quickly, but they were varying degrees of warmth…not hot and some were lukewarm. The paper wrappings looked a little funky & greasy but they were decent size. The tastiest was the Raja con Queso -The warm melted cheese was delicious and made up for the dry masa, which we found consistent in all the tamales. The chicken tamale was tasty as well, with veggies supplying the rich texture that the pork and beef tamales lacked. The good news though is that these people make a killer salsa. So the dry and crumbly texture of the masa was countered by copious amounts of salsa verde and everything tasted pretty good.

Ok, maybe not at the top of my tamale list, but I’d come back just for the hot sauce. I also ordered a half dozen to go (the family perk for my obsession) and they were steaming hot. Oh well.

Rosemary Rates

Masa: Dry, a bit crumbly.

Filling: The Meat was dry as well, stick with the cheese & green chili – I’m going to upgrade this category from 3 to 4 stars because if you throw enough salsa on them, they are pretty darn good.

Presentation: No imagination here but no real complaints….plastic dishes & rickety tables. Tamales are plain wrapped and stacked.

Location: Easy parking in the very crowded lot. Those parking guys are good!

Magda
When I arrived, the line to get into Tamales Liliana’s resembled the lines you see at the Apple store before an iPad launch. Fortunately this was only the line to eat inside the restaurant. There are a few tables outside the restaurant which more than suited our needs on this typically beautiful Southern California Sunday. I snagged one and waited for Rosemary to drive into the lot. They have valet parking and she joined the table immediately.

I’m just going to say it, these are the driest tamales I’ve had in ages. They are almost unedible. Fortunately, their excellent green and red salsas saved the day. After you drizzle some of this magic elixer on the tamales they had pretty good flavor. The masa is spiced properly but there was far too much of it and wow, so dry.

We sampled chile cheese, chicken vegetable, beef, and green chile chicken tamales. Frankly only the chicken veggie were easy to distinguish. There was so little filling in these masa balls, the filling doesn’t really matter. They also have sweet tamales and “elote” which we passed on. Clearly the draw here must be the other items on the menu because the restaurant was packed. But I am mystified that the word “Tamales” is in the name of the restaurant. Maybe “Menudo Liliana’s” is a better and more truthful approach.

Magda Rates

Masa: Dry. Masa gets dry when tamales are overcooked so this also explains the bland filling. I only give this one star because it did taste good with the salsa. Cornmeal is hard to ruin completely.

Filling: Pretty flavorless and very little of it. I couldn’t tell if I was eating chicken, beef, or pork.

Presentation: The service was excellent. Paper plates and plastic forks were usable.
I am giving this 3.5 for the nice waiter.

Location: Great location right off the 710 or 60 freeways. Lots of valet parking and plentiful street parking on Sundays.

Tamales Liliana’s has two locations in East Los Angeles. The restaurant on Cesar Chavez is the original location and also houses their “tamale factory.” Tamales are reasonably priced at $1.50 each and can also be purchased by the dozen for $18.

Tamales Liliana’s
4629 E Cesar E Chavez Ave, Los Angeles, CA.
and 3448 East 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA