Alamo Tamale & Taco

Expect a line, if you come here early in the morning. Tacos, tortas, etc. Good Food. Cheap. No Frills! Sit outside and enjoy your tacos in the sun and bounce. Very Good!

I was in the area for lunch and stopped in for tamales. I have been eating Alamo tamales since about 1965 or maybe before. Today I was very disappointed in the quality, taste, and temperature of my tamales.
They cost $ 7.50 per dozen when steamed for ready to eat. They were machine made, spicy pork. The temperature was just barely warm. Several were so dry they fell apart when opened. Very little pork and really very little spice. I ate 5 tamales and threw the remainder of the dozen in the trash. They were not worth bringing home. I do not recommend these tamales for human consumption.

FYI: Cash only and it is not a place to dine in.
I had been craving tamales for the longest and decided to give this place a go since it has such great reviews on Unilocal.Speaking for this location, I was not impressed with the quality of their tamales. They have machine made and handmade tamales. With the handmade ones being about $ 12 the dozen. Now, as a person who has had some of the best handmade tamales from family, I can say these are too small and «so-​so» in taste. Nothing that you will throw up, but it is not worth the money. Next.
However, I was let in on that the other location to Alamo Tamale is better than this one. With that said, I have yet to try it and find out for myself.

This «gem» of East End has been in place as long as I can remember, yet I have never eaten there until today at the behest of my father. He wanted the «handmade» tamales, and not knowing what I was getting myself into, I went in and was astonished to see a dozen handmade tamales were over $ 12 a dozen! I’ve never paid that much before, but since my father insisted, I purchased them. It was bad enough the person taking my order didn’t understand me, and when I tried to speak spanish, I felt like she was laughing at me because I couldn’t speak it as well as she did. That irked me, but I let it go.
Boy was I surprised when I opened these tamales up! I literally paid $ 12 for grease. My father, who swore this was the best place for tamales stated «Whoever made these tamales messed up a good thing.» WAY too much chili powder and did I mention grease?! I’ve had better tamales at the Estrella on Harrisburg, where the tamales have FLAVOR and those good pieces of pork fat and NO GREASE. I refuse to ever venture into Alamo again and wonder why so many insist these are the best. For the service and food, the least you could do is take credit cards.
Never again.

Bad parking. Burnt refried beans. Tamales so-​so.

Wasn’t impressed. The pork tamales were mediocre. The masa was fairly thick on the dozen I got and there seemed to be no seasoning of the pork.

So happy! ;)
Happy to have finally been brought here!
It’s so delicious!!!
Had pork tamales, chicken tamales, rice, beans, cinnamon cookies, and Mexican bottled coke.
After I ordered, the person in line after me was told there were six pork tamales left. He said excited and anxious, «I’ll take them!»
*****Best pork tamales ever!*****

The food is delicious! The best Barbacoa I have ever had! The parking is terrible and it’s a Cash only too… Which is so inconvenient for those of us that don’t carry cash. Other than that, it’s amazing.

The people who work here are friendly and the jalapeño and cheese tamales were tasty and moist but the hand-​rolled chicken ones were dry as a bone.
Someone in front of me in line ordered machine-​rolled and opted out entirely when they were told those had sold out so maybe machine is the way to go?

If you got the cash, they got your tamales.
These tamales are AWESOME!!!
They have hand made tamales that are so good I had to check to make sure my grandma wasn’t moonlighting!
They offer hand rolled and machine made, they are both amazing but spend the extra bucks on the hand rolled… WORTH IT!
Heck you more than likely just stood in a crazy line to get them, you deserve them!
If you go before a holiday expect a long wait, a LONG WAIT!
I waited in line for 45 minutes with a ton of other people who didn’t want to get up on Saturday mornings and make tamales with my grandma… I wanted to watch cartoons.
Well where did that get me?
Back of the line baby… but soooo worth the wait!

I love Alamo, I get their tamales probably once a week. Their tamales are the best I have found in the city. They have a great selection of tacos also and they are pretty great too. Do yourself a favor and grab a dozen of the handmade cheese and jalapeño (my favorite) or pork tamales and whatever else catches your eye on your way through the line.

Moist delicious tamales! This is the place to be.
Chicken, pork, beans and jalapeño cheese to choose from. If you want some for a holiday event come early to beat the crowds, easily a 10 minute wait and they won’t take togo orders in their busiest time of year. Just stand in line like everyone else. Truely authentic everything.
PS. They don’t take cash, however they offer an ATM inside :/

DELICIOUS TAMALES and CASH ONLY!
My food buddies and I LOVE tamales! We’re always looking for new tamale places to try out. We saw them at the Tamales Festival in East Houston. Prior to this, I use to get my tamales at Handmade Tamales off of S. Post Oak, but I was extremely impressed by Alamo Tamale & Taco’s Tamale. They were moist (like the Mississippi style), had good masa texture, full in flavor, and the meat was tender. It melted in my mouth! We ordered a dozen at the festival and we each ordered a dozen to go because it was DA BOMB!
The staff were really friendly that day and offered us their takeout menu, a list of their locations, and a company calendar.
I will definitely visit the next time I’m in that area to try more of the items on their menu! Can’t wait!

Best tamales in Houston and the breakfast tacos are very good … I like to get the chicken tamales

My boyfriend tool me here for a couple of lunch tacos. When you walk in you will find a steam table with a variety of meats that can be used for either flour or corn tortilla tacos.
We ordered in Spanish and were treated warmly but I can’t say that it would have been different if we had ordered in English.
I had one carnitas taco and one barbacoa, both on corn tortillas. My boyfriend had the beef on flour. The flour tortillas are made from scratch right behind the steam table.
All three tacos were stuffed with our selected filling and were hot and fresh.
We will be back!

I have a high standard for tamales given that my family and I make some pretty awesome tamales for the holiday’s. This place is on point! Good masa texture, flavor, and balance of meat and masa. Keep up the good work!
Suggestion to the business: Make the place more inviting inside and out.

Small place, and most of the people who work at Alamo do not speak English… or choose not to.
I have had Alamo tamales in the past through fundraisers, so I knew what to expect for the great tasting tamales. These are some of the best tamales I have ever eaten.
We were in the area, so stopped by. There was a cafeteria-​like line inside, and most folks were ordering various types of tacos. Different meats are available. There are a few stools by the window, no tables, so is mostly takeout.
We didn’t want to eat in the car, so decided to order some tamales. There are two types of tamales: frozen and handmade. The frozen were $ 5 a dozen, while the handmade were at least twice as much. Pork, Spinach/​Cheese and Chicken tamales are available.
For the next couple of minutes, we tried to order two dozen frozen tamales… one dozen pork and one dozen spinach/​cheese tamales. The first server in line could not understand what we wanted… the next server then joined in and finally between the two of them, we were able to get our order in. Two servers later in line, we were asked in perfect english if there was anything else we wanted. WHAT THE HELL???
So we found that the frozen tamales are just as good, but about half the size of the fundraiser tamales. This leads me to believe that fundraiser tamales and handmade tamales are the same thing.
5 stars for the tamales, but minus two for making us feel like we were in a remote part of Mexico. No bueno!

TAMALES!!!
I’ve been looking for a decent place, and this is it! We came in the other morning, and wanted to get our hands on some handmade tamales.
Well, I always get a little overwhelmed when I go to places that are so authentic, the workers don’t really speak English… So, we only ended up getting/​paying for about half our ordered… lol but that’s ok, it actually worked out better this way. I knew I wanted a dozen chicken tamales, that was easy. But then I saw some tamales in the counter, I asked what it was. The lady said «elote» OMG. I remembered my spanish! Corn! I love corn! So I asked for 1. Big mistake. I should’ve asked for like 20 of those amazing things.
Oh well =(We also got a carne guisada taco with beans. mmmm =)
Unfortunately, we didn’t get 3 of the other tacos we ordered. We kind of realized it when they just handed us 2 bags but it was so busy there and we were so overwhelmed that we just took what they gave us and ran… lol.
We’ll be back soon though, and we’ll be prepared! Make sure you bring cash though!

I love tamales. Alamo makes awesome tamales. Therefore I love Alamo.
If you’re craving some tamales, go for the handmade tamales. I’ve never tried the machine-​made so I can’t really say whether or not it’s good. But handmade is the diggity bomb! I usually get a couple dozen of chicken tamales and I eat them all within a week. Just throw them in the fridge and when you’re craving some tamales, just put them on the skillet for a few minutes to heat them up, and voila! Hot tamales!
This place is tiny. There’s only one cashier and they take cash only. They do have an atm for those of you who keep forgetting to bring cash here.
The tacos are pretty good also. And best of all, they’re cheap. And BIG! One taco could fill me up pretty good here. A couple of tacos, and I’m full for a good few hours (hey, I have a big appetite!)
The people that work here are meh. Some are nice. Some are whatever. The first time I ever came here, the dude that was helping was super cool. But I haven’t seen him since. The last time I came in, the lady that was helping me either was having a bad day or she just didn’t know how to smile. Very grumpy!
Anyway, I don’t come here as much as I would like because it is kind of far from where I live. But every chance i get when I come to this side of town, I usually make it a point to swing by. If you’re looking for some good tacos and/​or tamales. Try this place out. I think you won’t regret it.

TAMALES, TAMALES, TAMALES!!!1 Omg, and we can have tamales anytime we want; they’re not even a mile from our loft. the tamales are fantastic (the handmade ones); the pork and the chicken both are tender, juicy, flavorful and have a great meat to masa ratio. the masa is even moist and tasty. you can buy containers of fresh guacamole that is also very delish along with their crispy chips (good for when you’re in the mood but to lazy to make some at home, lol)