La Pinata Tortilleria

Upon walking in it reminded me on my trips to all over Mexico. The tortillas are extremely flavorful and delicious. The canela tastes so fresh and can be smelled a mile away when I grew at home.

Quality food. Tamales are have a good masa to filling ratio. I enjoyed the red pork, red beef, green cheese, and sweet. Masa is moist. Meat has a nice amount of sauce. Their size is perfect, not giant bricks. I’m a fan!

Great place food is great and employees are great. Except today drove from Palm Springs to Montebello for tamale masa and the cashier with the purple hair was super rude. Even on the phone when we called in the order

I have been coming to this place for 30 years and it never disappoints. The customer service is amazing as well as the food. I have lived all over Southern California and have always come here for tamales… the best I have ever bought.

I had the enchiladas with beef and they were good. I like the red chile sauce on top. I also have been ordering my tamales from them for years. I’ll try them again this year.

we get our tamales from here every year around this time. just picked my holiday order. they are the best! every time i get someone new to try them… they love them! and the service is always the best!

The food is pretty good. I got the enchilada plate and it was really good. The tamales are good as well especially the green chili kind. The only down side is that there isn’t any restrooms.

Ordered Camarones a Diabla. Staff was very nice. For $ 12 I got 5 shrimp and beans and rice. However, most of the plate was covered with sauces. Probably not going to order a $ 12 again. For the amount of shrimp it was a little expensive for the plate. And the red salsa, it doesn’t taste authentic, more like a pace picante.

This place is real pricey and i don’t know why. They don’t treat you special, your just some lame guy. The beans taste so burnt and they make you feel dumb, when you place a special order they’ll stare at you some. Its a family owned business and i guess that’s real cool but nothing can fix them making you feel like a fool. As far as food goes they serve it scorching hot, it’ll burn your poor tongue more often than not. People come to get their masa but id rather have abuelita make it at the casa.

Okay so I stopped by this place today because my usual spot ran out of tamales. Decided to try their tamales since some people on Unilocal swear they are great. Here’s my review: Red beef tamale: too salty, lacking in flavor. Cheese tamales: decent, edible, not the best. Pork tamales: not too bad, a little too saucy for my taste. I think I’ve been spoiled by my usual tamales, don’t think I’d come back. I also wanted to mention that the staff looked lost. There was a gentleman there that was picking up am order that should have been ready an hour ago, and they hadn’t even started working on it. Not sure I’d recommend this place for catering.

I’ll start off by saying that the customer service here is exceptional. I usually come in and order for a big group. I usually order carnitas with beans, salsa, and cheese. The carnitas have a great flavor that I can just eat those by themselves. The beans with cheese taste just like how my grandma used to cook them not like these mexican places where I swear it tastes like its from a can.
So if you’re looking to be a big hit at your companies potluck that is authentic… this is the place to be!
Now I can go for their champurrado… I guess I’ll have to make a stop now.

My three stars are based off of the tamales, not too sure about the other stuff. I can say that the tamales are better than others i have tasted in the area but it is not worth the prices they have listed. Carnitas are over priced as well. Didnt even know this place was here.

I haven’t been here in a while do to my new location but the food, service and authenticity is amazing! I’m a simple person so I picked a sure winner, the Chorizo burrito was bomb and kept my tummy happy for hours. The carnitas are also very yummy and the Chicharon was on point.
Seriously though this is home cooking like mom use to make me. And la Massa is always on demand at any given hour, little old ladies flock to buy it so if grandma approves you know it’s good. Anyway just try it you won’t go home hungry that’s for sure.

I was looking for a place that had really good enchiladas for lunch. I mean I was REALLLYY craving it! So I Unilocaled and found this restaurant. I read all the great reviews and I decided to try it! It’s got so many good reviews how could I go wrong. I got the macho chicken enchilada combo with a chicken tamale. I was totally looking forward to devouring these enchiladas! I sunk my teeth Into the first bite and… I was wondering what happened to the taste. I was like ok… This kinda sucks. I kept eating and still no taste. It was odd cause there was a lot of cheese, the chicken was nice and tender. There was just not much of a taste to it! The woman who worked there was really nice though. She was very friendly and kind.
I don’t know if I’d try it again… Maybe on a random day. I don’t know if I would recommend it…

From the reviews of this place, I was really looking forward to some good ol’ home made food. Not sure if I should have taken the emptiness as a sign from the food gods, but nonetheless I opted to try it out. Upon walking in you can see the kitchen, and alongside are the windows stocked with carnitas, chicharron, and traditional guisados. Homegirl at the counter seemed to be new as she kept asking others around her for help. Thanks lady behind, she provided better service than homegirl. Food was bland. Salsa needed salt. Chicharron was hard, despite being drenched in salsa. Champurrado was expensive for a cup full of cinnamon. Husband joked around saying best part of our meal was the can of coke. Unilocalers you failed us. Until next time!

In the USA there is what they call «Mexican food» and then there is also REAL MEXICAN FOOD!
La Piñata is the real deal!
Love the Carnitas!

So good.
Worth the drive for me, as its quite far from work, but the co-​workers love it.
Carnitas are delicious, and the new Torta Ahogada was really tasty too. I wish I had three or four right now.
I think I will go there tomorrow. Chili Verde at L.P. is absolutely on my favorite list, too.
Tamales for Xmas, tamales for life.

I came in here for to check it out today and as I was walking out my neck did a double take as I walked by the chicharron display window. I hesitated for a second but decided that I needed to part take in this cuisine adventure.
Needless to say I was NOT disappointed! The carnitas just fell apart and were so delicious! They melted in your mouth and didn’t have that nasty burnt crust around the edges that I hate some much from other places.
If you haven’t tried them I highly suggest you do! The food is amazing and the owner Christina is just as sweet as can be!

My wife, son, and i decided we wanted tamales this morning. We had been meaning to try this place for some time and decided today would be it.
We parked in front of the store on Whittier, but there seems to be a lot in the back. We noticed quite a few patrons walk in from the back door.
First off, this place isn’t a restaurant. For those looking for waiter service and having their water glasses always filled, look elsewhere. They have tables and chairs for people to eat, but it’s a Tortilleria first.
Since we walked in on a rainy Saturday, I saw the specials menu and went for the Albondigas. My wife ordered the Huevos Rancheros. We also ordered two tamales to try: Pork w/​Red Chile and Cheese & Green Chile. The Albondigas comes with a small cup of rice and a choice of flour or corn tortillas. The Albondigas soup was well seasoned and had a good amount of carrots, onions, and zucchini, and three good sized meatballs. The flour tortillas were good. Rice was so-​so. If the rice was better, it’d have been perfect. My wife thoroughly enjoyed her plate noting that the salsa was very tasty.
The tamales were good. Masa was nice and fluffy, but we both thought it lacked a bit of flavor. They’re also smaller than what i’m used to, but the filling to masa ratio was a perfect ⁵⁰⁄₅₀.
We also tried the Champurrado and the Jamaica, which were both homemade as well. Wife thought the Champurrado was good and i really liked the Jamaica. Very good/​strong Hibiscus flavor and very refreshing.
Can’t wait to come back and try their other food, especially the carnitas!

My buddy frequents this place so I decided to give it a try. He’s always posting pics and the photos of the food looks very authentic.
I have driven by this place SO many times… I have to pay closer attention to my surroundings even with my Smoky’s Navi I had passed it.
They have plenty of parking in the rear.
The staff is very friendly.
We met Alejandra, she was very helpful in helping us decide from all the great food. The choices… each dish looked so amazing
I had tacos de Carnitas, Tripitas, y Chicharron seco aka sauce on the side. One thing to remember the tortillas are FULL size… order carefully… lol.
I did also get a tostatda de ceviche… very fresh tasting.
Wifey was in the mood for some HUEVOS… so huevoes she GOT the Asada y Huevos with spanish rice & beans con salsa Ranchera.
Wifey wanted to get a coffee… NO Café de Olla here… but they do give you a canela (cinnamon) stick to stir your coffee.
too cool.
Next time I’ll try the tamales.
Do tell Alejandra you saw it on Unilocal