The Happy Tamal

I stopped by by accident, it’s not very visible from the main street. I was greeted by the owner who explained the menu to me and was very very helpful. My food arrived quickly and the portions are good. The beans that were on the plate were great some of the best that I’ve had in a while.
If your headed to downtown Rockwall and are wanting mexican food you will not go wrong with this place. Give them a chance you’ll not regret it.

I ended up at The Happy Tamal because the restaurant we were looking for was out of business. I ordered the Chicken Enchiladas Verde which came with a flavorful rice and a nice portion of beans. Overall I thought the meal was satisfying. My mother ordered the quesadillas with chicken which also came out crisp and tasty, she literally ate every piece of food off her plate. Guess that meant it was good, cause I know the portion was right on! We also tried a chicken tamale! It had great flavor and was a little dense but not dry which is how I like them. The owners were very pleasant and gave my kids the largest cookies free of charge! I would say if you are looking for traditional style Mexican food and not the normal Tex-​mex you find in the area, give it a try. The prices are reasonable, the food comes out full of flavor and very important the owners seem very nice!

I saw an ad for this place and decided I would give it a try since I love tamales. They advertised their tamales as freshly made (not frozen). I consider myself somewhat of a tamale connoisseur so I looked forward to trying out their tamales. When I walked in, I met the owners and they asked how I heard about the place and said they had been open for five months. I explained that I was really picky about tamales and didn’t want to order a full dozen (or even a half dozen), without first trying one to see if they were mostly masa. (I’ve had some very disappointing experiences with sub-​par tamales!). Anyhow, the owner was gracious enough to let me try a tamale (free of charge) to see if I would like it. I found it to be just «OK». The masa was too thick and dry for my preference but it was still tasty, so I felt obligated to buy a ½ dozen. I also ordered a «limon» drink that was also just so-​so (I could taste the artificial sweetener aftertaste). They also gave me some hot sauce with my order. I’m not a big hot sauce person when it comes to putting them on tamales (when they’re done right), but to my surprise, this hot sauce was actually pretty good and «helped» with the dryness of the tamales.
Here’s what turned me off about the place — when they tallied up my order it came out to $ 11.35. I gave the owner $ 12 expecting to receive change back but she didn’t offer it — just closed the register. I’m the type of gal that will pick up a penny off the floor or the street so I don’t like it when I don’t get my change back but I guess that was the price I had to pay for the «free sample» so I didn’t say anything — just figured I would not be going back.
If you are super particular about tamales and can discern great tamales from just average ones, I would recommend buying tamales at Central Market (yes, they have excellent tamales with the perfect type of masa exterior that melts in your mouth!) I would also recommend the brisket tamales at The Slow Bone.
Aside from my disappointment with what I had purchased, the owners seem to be very nice people and I hope that their family business is successful.

We were headed to another place and found The happy Tamal… I am so glad we did! The owners are sweethearts, not able to understand the menu (its in spanish) he took the time to explain what was in every item we pointed at​.lol​.So we ordered, plz forgive me on my spelling of these dishes! The chicharone– it is a BIG pork skin, deep fried with a cabbage slaw on top. it was tasty, we tried the quesadilla which in Mexico is more like a fried taco. It is 3 corn tortillas filled with chicken then fried, topped with lettuce, crema and cojita
was delicious! We had the corn 2 ways, one was off the cob in a cup with all the fixins and the other was on the cob with all the fixins, so very tasty too! When we finnished our meal, we ordered some of their homemade sweets and tamales to go. Haven’t tried either yet. But I will let you know how they taste when we do :)