Emilio’s Grocery

Beef tacos were good but the gordita was top notch. If your eating there order in the back pay at the store counter and the food will be on table waiting.

Ok tacos. The El Pastor was by far the best. Staff wasn’t just exactly super friendly. The place was clean and is really a smaller but nicely stocked grocery. Some of the other dishes I saw people get looked good also and I would stop in again.

All I can say is there were tiny bones + chicken skin in the meat. «Big» burrito did not have much meat in it at all, and the meat that was on it was very low quality. May have just been a bad batch but I will never be back.

Yet another very happy review of their tamales. Moist, well proportioned meat to cornmeal ratio, not to mention the flavor! A really delicious snack or side dish. We will be back, wonder how they freeze, they are well packaged.

I asked a new Mexican amigo where his favorite restaurant is — he said Amelio’s. We tried it tonight. Very busy — they were out of all meats except pastor and barbacoa, and out of sopes. We tried tacos, a gordita, and a burrito. All very good; $ 15 and we had to bring food home. The place was teeming with Mexican families — the folks working there were very nice, with not much English. I highly recommend.

Si está buscando comida auténtica, vaya a ese supermercado pequeño y magnífico. La comida es fresca y los dueños son muy amables. He probado casi todo con gusto. También, hay una selección de productos mejicanos muy grandes.
If you were looking for authentic food go to this small and magnificent supermarket. The food is fresh and the owners are nice. I have happily sampled almost everything on the menu. FYI, there is a large assortment of Mexican items to choose from.

Excellent Mexican food at the deli. Decent grocery selection and awesome marinated meats

Good quality, fresh, authentic Mexican food at reasonable prices.
So good. I will be back

Native to Texas (now in Alabama), I’m just your regular cowgirl lol just kiddin’. Not all texans are cowgirls. Anyways I did grow up eating authentic Mexican food. When I read about this place from my fellow Unilocaler, Shaun, I decided to try this place out!
Shaun did not led me astray! Although I didn’t try what he had but my experience was just the same. It was one of the best tasting tacos I’ve had in a long time!
Don’t be afraid when you first walk into this grocery store. Steer ahead and walk to the window. The menu is obviously in Spanish.
I ordered three (steak) beef tacos and one beef quesadilla. It’s not ground beef of you are wondering. At first glance, the tacos seem small but (fanfare sounds)…it had plenty of flavor. What lacks in size, makes up in flavor! Squirt your lime on them, add a small amounts of hot salsa/​verde salsa mixture and have at it! The first bite is just as good as the last bite! It had fresh cilantro, and white diced onion on flour tortilla. They run about $ 1.69 a piece
The quesadilla was pretty good. My husband loves quesadillas! It had authentic queso fresco, same flavorful diced steak, shredded lettuce, tomato and cilantro on flour tortilla. It was about $ 5.00.
You can’t bet these adorable meals.
When you are done, make sure you check out the grocery! I bought a big ol pack of blue corn tortillas for a whopping $ 3.00.
Hope you will come and support this little store!

Having moved here from Southern California, I have been hard-​pressed to find Mexican good that comes close to the quality and taste of back home. However, last week I was working at an apartment complex and the leasing staff was eating what appeared to be legit Mexican food. I asked what the location was and made sure to visit this place asap.
Upon arrival, I was a little surprised it was a grocery store, but I made my way to the vending window and ordered a carne asada burrito. While I waited, I noticed they have weekly specials which makes it more of a draw for me to come back. I got the burrito and was very pleased with what I saw. Upon taking the first bite, I legitimately felt like I was eating at a Mexican food establishment back home. The carne asada actually had taste to it and all the proper ingredients were there. It was exceptionally affordable to; $ 6.54 for the burrito! Speed of service was also superb. Needless to say, I’ll definitely be back!

Went for lunch today. 3 chicken tacos for $ 4 includes drink, good price. Tacos were very small, smaller than those on Hispanic food trucks outside some markets around town. At least 1 had potatoes in it? Granted, larger individual pieces of chicken vs the food trucks, but potatoes on a taco? Flavor was good, had some salsa on the side and on the tacos.
I’ll go back, curious about other items I saw.

I think I found my new favorite place for tacos.
You step to the back counter to order, receive a ticket, and pay at the grocery register right behind you. The seating is self service, but they’ll bring the food out to you. There’s red and green salsa on the table, and both are above average.
We went on a Saturday and they didn’t have several of the items on the overhead menu. They had all of the meat choices, but only tacos were available. Good thing they’re amazing.
We had barbacoa, carne asada, and al pastor. I’ll have to say the al pastor may be the best I’ve ever had, anywhere. It’s cooked perfectly with nice chucks of fresh pineapple.
The tacos themselves are very good, but what made this trip standout was the nopal cactus salad. Their version is almost like civiche with cactus instead of fish. It comes with a little chunk of cotija cheese. The salad is in the little refrigerator in front of where you order your food.
We also had Jamaica Aqua Fresca from the bubbler behind the register. Good. They also had horchata.
As stated in other reviews, Emilio’s offers a wide variety of Mexican groceries, including an extensive meat case with sausages and seasoned meats.
We were also able to find products here that we’ve never found in Memphis, like dried mango with chili and multiple tamarind products. Those alone will keep us returning.

Fellow Unilocaler Rob turned me onto Emilio’s tamales and I couldn’t thank him enough as these truly are some of the best tamales I’ve ever had.
I have a weakness for food wrapped in leaves. In fact, wrapping food in leaves and cooking it over a heat source was one of the greatest ancient inventions, right up there with the wheel and the compass. Archeological evidence indicates at one point or another, culinary pioneers in different parts of the world finally had enough of food falling apart or being burnt by the open flame, or losing moisture and flavor during cooking, and turned to whatever leaves readily available to them for the rescue – stuffed grape leaves in the Middle East, zongzi in China, and tamales in Maya, etc.
Where was I? Oh, Emilio’s makes two kinds of tamales: pork and chicken, and each sold in a triple-​wrapped (corn husk, then plastic wrap, finally tin foil) six-​pack ($ 5.99). You will find them on a warmer along with some whole roasted chickens, directly facing the entrance. The pork filling (cooked in red sauce) is spicier than the chicken filling (cooked in green sauce). I love both kinds, though the chicken tamales might taste a little healthier, ha! The meat to masa ratio is great – actually there might be more meat than masa in their tamales, just ridiculous. They are made fresh daily. I once went around 5PM and they were sold out, so the best time to snatch these babies is lunch time.
As the name indicates, Emilio’s is a grocery and a compact one that is. They don’t have a printed menu and seating is limited. Besides tamales, they offer tacos (around 6 – 8 kinds?), tortas, gorditas and quesadillas, all of which are prepared to order in a semi-​open kitchen (you order at the window), but I have yet to try anything other than the tamales.

I am going to come back and add more to this review, but I wanted to get on the record as informing the world that the tamales, especially the pork tamales are as good as they get at Emillio’s. They make them fresh around lunch time every day, and when they’re gone… they’re gone.
Go early for lunch and buy a dozen and take the rest home for dinner; they are NOT sold individually. I am not sure they are even on the menu, but they have them. What makes these so good is that usually tamales have too much corn meal, or the filling is dry, or the entire thing is too bland to eat on its own without a myriad of hot sauces. These tamales however are perfectly proportioned, cooked in a corn husk, then wrapped in cellophane to lock in the moisture.
PERFECT tamales… I’ve never had better.

As soon as I walked into Emilio’s, I was sold. It’s a small grocery store that carries Hispanic staples and has a hot food counter in the back. The menu is fairly basic — tacos, tortas, quesadillas, burritos. They’ve got daily lunch specials, and I was barely able to stop myself from ordering the 12 tacos for $ 10.
I decided to go with two tacos — one chicken and one asada.
Normally, when you order a taco at a taqueria, there’s some kind of meat topped with shredded cilantro and diced white onion on a corn tortilla. Simple, but good. Emilio’s tacos, though, were like regular tacos that had levelled up.
The chicken taco had huge chunks of spicy marinated chicken (I think it was in a tomatillo-​based sauce). The asada had tender slices of beef that had been cooked with bell peppers. The tortillas were small, but they were thick and sturdy.
I picked up a canned iced tea from the cooler (they also have a ton of Mexican and American sodas), and my total bill came out to $ 4.50.
As a bonus, they sell their prepared meats by the pound, there are tables if you want to eat in the store, and the staff is small, but very friendly.

My favorite place in Memphis for a barbacoa, chicharones, or chicken burrito/​taco. This is a small grocery store, with a lunch counter inside. For a helpful tip, they also sell their cooked meats by the pound, to-​go, so one can have a nice meal at home. Order, grab a drink, sit at one of the tables at the front of the store, and wait for your great meal. Love this place.