Tamale Hut Café

Sheesh, Riverside-ians -- I'm jealous that not only do you have a dedicated empanada shop, you have a dedicated tamale shop! A tamale shop with lots of vegetarian options on the menu, which never happens at suburban Mexican places!

Since we'd just eaten at the aforementioned empanadUS, we only had room for one tamale each. My mushroom tamale was filled with fresh portobello mushrooms. It was surprisingly spicy and so very delicious paired with the chilled green salsa they give you. For some reason, I don't see mushroom on the online menu, so it may be a special, but they definitely also have cheese, bean, spinach, broccoli, and special-order mole tamales.

I loved that they displayed fine art on the walls -- wouldn't have expected that! The owner was friendly and happy to chat with us.

We ordered 18 tamales from this place on a Friday night shortly before they closed. We ordered a dozen of chicken tamales and half dozen pork tamales. Since it was quite a wait (they close at 7pm, so they prefer you have takeouts when you arrive 640pm and after) they gave us an extra salsa for free. When we got home to eat them, they were tasty. My husband and I like the pork tamales more than the chicken ones. Although his co worker makes it better. It was hard to compare to her homemade recipe. Anyway this is a good place to order lots of tamales. They said they make theirs fresh everyday.

This is a place I've been searching for, for years! A tamale place where you don't have to go to a guy in the back alley!! They also have elotes!

I tried their pork and pork tamale. Hands down, the pork tamale was good. They also have a cheese, bean, corn, crab etc.

I guess it's pretty new so they have a $5 minimum on credit cards. They prefer cash.

I went during lunch so I ordered to go but it looks like a nice place to sit down.  

The only con about this place is it's at an intersection that is hard to get in and out of depending on which way you're coming from. If you are going east on Cermak, it is hard to get in but easy if you are going west and hard to get out of if you are heading back east if that makes any sense.