The Tamale Place

I absolutely loved the sweet corn tamale slider and the larger poblano and cheese tamale. Beautiful flavor and the cheese and sweetness were just perfect. I highly recommend this place.

The pulled pork taco special was my favorite. Also tried the tamale sliders — a Cuban (special, not on regular menu) and the sweet corn (was really sweet). Great prices, fast service and delicious food! Thank you!

Do you search for tamales like your adoptive Mexican grandma makes? Than this is the place for you. I grew up in California and the thing I’ve been missing in the Midwest is delicious Mexican food. I especially look for mole and tamales. This is the spot to get your tamale craving taken care of. The chipotle chicken (or beef) are great and only have about a medium spice level. The poblano pepper cheese with green sauce gives you a bright crisp flavor with a low spice level. Get one of each for a great variety of tastes. The only thing missing was someone calling me ¡hijo mío!

The tacos are typically excellent. This location is in need of some quality control, however. Last week my nachos had disgusting chicken meat that tasted like it had expired.
Here’s a rhyme to help the cooks: «Chicken meat gray? Throw it away!»
If that chicken was any older it would be collecting social security.
Also, sometimes the lettuce is brown.
If you can accept that 10% of the time you’re just throwing your money away and you waited in a very long line for nothing, you’ll be blown away by the 90% of the time they get it right. I would just be a lot happier if they simply closed the doors on days when they know the ingredients are bad.

Very rare to find more authentic Tamales a ny where other than their original birthplace (smile). eat anything have no regrets.

These are the nachos that I have been waiting for… my whole life. Seriously, get the veggie nachos. They will change your life.

Wow! I’ve had a lot of tamales, used to live in El Paso and my dear friend from Mexico has brought me amazing home made tamales before on a number of occasions. This place hands down has the best tamales I’ve ever had (got the chipotle beef).

The best! I love this place. We live in St. Louis and every time we come to or through Indianapolis we have to stop. You walk in and there’s a menu above your head but ignore that and look to the right. There is a list of the tamales they have left for the day. I love the green sauce tamales but they are all delicious. There tamale dough is creamy and has nice flavor. This place is an exceptional value for the money. One tamale with or without a taco is the perfect amount of food. They also have coke zero fountain soda. Even if you’re too full to eat it then, be sure to grab a dessert tamale to take home with you, it’s worth it!

Delicious, affordable, filling, delicious. The Tamale Place is an incredible little stand in the back corner of the City Market. Everyone I take there falls in love with this place on their first visit. The people there are extremely nice as well — once bringing in chocolate tamales at the request of me and a friend. Another fantastic City Market option.

When in Indy for an event, we always stop here on our way home. The food is delicious — made from scratch — and served in large portions. We’ve seen lines forming outside not too long after opening on a Sunday. That should speak volumes to the food quality. Everything is good, but our favorite is most certainly the nachos. A tip: order less than you think you want. You’ll end up tossing out half of it when your stomach just can’t take any more. Oh, and in the Spring, you can get Morels by the pound. Love this place!

Saw this place on Unilocal,went to city market and thought this was the best place to try. I’m from Arizona, tamales are hard to compete with there. I ordered one beef and one chicken tamale and a steak taco. The steak taco was pretty good, the chicken tamale with green sauce was the best of all three. The beef tamale was huge but the meat just wasn’t seasoned enough like a tamale should. It almost was like crock pot stew inside, bland flavor.
Tamales are huge though. I would go here again, a lot of people were ordering the nachos loaded. Going to have to try that.

WARNING: It is very very filling!
City Market is a great place for lunch for those work downtown. I have always heard good things about «The Tamale Place». So I figured I should give this place a try today, and turn out to be pretty good. Thou, I only had the Chipotle Beef and Green sauce Chicken Tamale.
These are my pros and cons:
Pros: good price for the food you get ($ 3/​tamale), pretty good tasting (not going to blow your hat off), and bold flavors;
Cons: store in steam pots, not sure how fresh it is.
I probably won’t come back again just because there’s so many other good places to eat within the City Market.

Let me start with this: YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
Allow me to elaborate:
The tamales are awesome… and HUGE. My full-​sized beef tamale was the size of a cob of corn, and I’m used to having a fraction of that. Beef was tender, and in equal proportion to the masa. I was so sad after I had last bite… but then I remembered I had also ordered a «slider size» sweet corn w/​chiles tamale. Now for anyone who’s ever had corn casserole: I found it wrapped in a husk. Just as nice as my beef tamale. Had that been full-​sized, I probably would have eaten the whole thing too.
I’m sorry to hear of these less-​desired reviews, but I had an experience that already has me trying to figure out when I can stop in again. We all need top notch tamales in our bellies!

I came here for a quick bite after a long morning so I got here around 1:45 after everyone’s lunch break. They don’t have as many tamales as the location on Rockville, which is the original. Totally understandable but I was hoping for a bit more. I felt like everything was priced, including cilantro… really? Weird. That was the reason I went for a tamale instead of a taco. I’m not going to pay for a taco plus everything else I feel like putting into it… not my thing. The tamale was fine, I’ve had better at their other location but that’s because that space is bigger and there are more varieties of tamales.

Love the food and it’s just as good as their stand alone locations. Menu here is a bit more limited than other locations obviously due to space restrictions. Sad I can’t get chorizo & egg tacos here.

I’ve heard about the Tamale Place and was ecstatic to learn they had set up shop in the City Market. Am I glad they did!
I went in on a Saturday, around 11. We were one of the first, if not the first, orders for the day. The staff was nothing but pleasant. I wasn’t familiar with «elotes», and they were nice enough to explain it to me. I’m so glad I tried it! I was expecting a cold corn salad, but it was warm. The salad was perfectly seasoned! Try it, if you’re looking for something more exciting for a side than rice or beans!
The beef with red sauce was tasty and lived up to expectations. My meal was less than $ 6. You can’t beat that. If it is a nice day, why not take it outside and enjoy the sunshine?

I love the food at The Tamale Place, and I’ve been going to the one on the west side for several years. As previously written, I was excited when the City Market Location opened, but I’m beginning to have my doubts about its long term future, and it all hinges on the customer service that I’ve gotten the past two times I’ve stopped in. Again, let me clear. this review is based completely on the service, not on the food.
Let’s focus on the last trip, which was a quiet Saturday afternoon just before 1:00 pm. I arrived and patiently waited in line behind someone while they ordered. While the person was ordering, the person taking her order kept stopping and yelling instructions back at the person cooking. Instructing? No. Yelling. «Do this» or «don’t do that» every 10 seconds. Very annoying. I actually felt sorry for the guy working, and remember thinking that I hoped this wasn’t his on-​the-​job training, because I would have walked out.
When I finally ordered, it went something like this:
Me: «I’d like the lunch combo with –
Her (interrupting): «What’s your name?»
Me: «Jon»
Her: «Okay. What ‘chu want?»
Me: «I’d like the lunch combo with the chicken and green sauce and mild salsa please.»
Her: «You want black beans or rice?»
Me: «Rice»
Her: «Okay. Go stand over there»
Me: «Do I need to pay?»
Her: «I told you go stand over there»
Me: «Okay.»
She walks to the other register and looks at me.
Her: «You gonna pay? It’s gonna be $ 9.81»
Me: «Well, I didn’t know not paying was an option, so I’ll go ahead and pay this time»
She just stares at me.
Kidding? Nope. Sadly. The food is filling, it’s well prepared, and I love the tortilla chips, but if the service continues to be this shitty, I suspect I won’t be the only one walking to one of the other businesses in City Market.

Way better than most places with vegetarian options! If you’re a fan of amazing, awesome, fresh salsa– this is your place to get it! The chips are homemade from thick tortillas. The regular size tamales are ½ a pound, but they also have 3 minis for sampling purposes. Tacos and other stuff on the menu as well. If you like spicy, you will love the spicy version of the salsa. Haven’t tried the mild, but frankly, I think I could put the salsa on just about anything and love it.

I often find myself having an imaginary interview in which I am asked the following, «Brittany, tell me your top five favorite eateries and eats in the Circle City.» Well, Mr./Mrs.InterviewerPerson, I’m glad you asked. On my imaginary list you’ll find The Tamale Place. Maybe it’s the homemade chips and salsa along with the made fresh daily tamales and often overlooked tacos topped with cilantro and onions (simplicity at its finest) or the fact that ordering is semi-​stressful knowing that the menu is based on availability. When it’s gone, it’s gone.
You can only imagine my excitement when I heard The Tamale Place would be a second location in City Market only only a few blocks from my house. The best part is their hours go beyond those of any of the other vendors within the market. My typical order consists of one tamale along with chips and salsa and an order of the unsalted black beans. I’d also like to give a special nod to the poblano and queso tamale. I’d pick this one any day over the also tasty meat options
For those of you who can only make the tamale pilgrimage once every few months, I highly recommend stocking up and popping those bad boys in the freezer. When the time comes to eat them, wrap each tamale in a wet paper towel before microwaving to retain moisture.

The best news I’ve heard in a long time was when I saw that The Tamale Place was opening up a stand at City Market. The quality of the food is exactly the same as their west side location. I don’t know out they make their tamales here or shop them in from the west side, but I don’t care. Nothing beats a good tamal (the proper terminology for just one) from The Tamale Place.
Like the original location, they will run out of some varieties so check the big board to see what they have at the time.
The unsung star here, in my opinion, is the homemade salsa. Chunky, spicy, and flavorful, you can put it on just about everything here.