Maria’s Bakery

First time here. Bought a dozen tamales (4 green, 4 red, 4 cheese) for my always-hungry-but-too-lazy/busy-to-eat-but-won’t-stop-yelling I’M HUNGRY coworkers to celebrate cinco de mayo. Currently, I’m back at the office and hearing, «OH MY GOD!» over and over again and thinking that maybe the lord Jesus Christ, Shangdi, Vishnu, or Lilith herself appeared or some sh*t. Nope, just people who can’t handle their taste buds waking up so early in the morning. Even the Mexicans and the wannabe Mexican (white dude) in the office are saying, «these are the best tamales I’ve ever had.» «The masa is sooooooooo good!» Thanks Maria’s Bakery! I think I did good today!

these are the best tamales en bolillo ive tasted the red pork is my favorite there salsa is delicious and the staff is really nice the only bad thing is you have to go super early because the tamales sell out really fast

I love their tamales. The red ones are my favorite but I’ve had green and cheese which are tasty also!
My coworkers request that I bring them all the time, and everyone I’ve shared with LOVES them.

Not open! So don’t bother driving over there. The phone is not off the hook they are out of service. Try Liliana’s Tamales in East LA

We just went yesterday and it was closed until further notice?!! Does anyone know why?
This was our go to place for tamales…
Came back the next day and still closed!
What the… guess I’m headed to East LA

******Well this is information only Phone are off the hook for November & December they don’t take orders first com first serve they are normally sold out by 8 am … Wish they would had done this so we didn’t have to drive there… But I guess they are busy enough that they don’t see the need to keep people informed…

My wife and stopped in to try the tamales here at noon on a Friday. This is a bare bones operation, which is ok, so we ordered ½ dozen of the red (the only ones available). The tamales were large, moist and delicious! Now to try the green ones for Christmas!

Tamales. They are the Mexican equivalent of fruitcake. I won’t make them, but I give them at Christmas time. It just seems right. I have been buying Tamales from Marias for about 4 years now. They have red and green pork and cheese. Don’t know if the cheese is vegetarian because there may be lard in the masa. You must get here early because when they’re sold out they’re out. Always a line. friendly people. huge steaming tamales, i like the red, green are more picante. A dozen tamales is a little less than $ 20 this year. they will make a mixed package for you. The ones I bought at 9 am were still warm at noon.

Best tamales I’ve ever had! The green tamales are my favorite!

This place was highly recommended and when i got here 9am they had no tamales. So i bought some bread and champurado… if i wanted wayer flavoed milk w watered down champurado I could have gone to the market. Lol.

Ok I’ve been coming here for five years. And honestly they have got too expensive and the quality has gone down. Last year for Xmas they were small and dry. Last week I gave them a try and again dry. I would expect this during Xmas since I know they are working hard, but for everyday they should go back to five years ago. When service was friendly and the tAmales were juicy meaty and tasty.

The green tamales are the best. Our friend brings them to work for us. Highly recommend

Tamales are absolutely amazing!!! Tamaltortas (tamale inside a torta with salsa) are even better!!! Masa is of perfect consistency and they add generous amount of meat/​cheese. I’ve never has a better tamale.

I am a fan of tamales… and therefore a fan of Maria’s Bakery. This place very basic, no signage indicating that they sell tamales, in fact they have a case of pan dulce on the side of the shop. We ordered a half dozen – three verde and three rojo – all pork for $ 1.65 each.
Tamales were hot, fresh, and awesome! Will be back for sure.

I believed the Unilocal reviews and I got up early to make sure that they had tamales, as other reviewers said that they run out quickly.
Well, no need to get up early, or to rush to buy any ;these tamales are not great.
Mediocre at their best.
The place is bare, no menu, signs or price list, it says bakery outside but there’s no pan dulce at all before 8:00 am!
just 3 grouchy women working.
NEXT!!! That was their greeting! In Spanish no greeting, no Good morning!
I asked for both red and green to try, both .
The woman was rude and it was in a rush to get the money from my hand.
NEXT! She said, as I left the store thinking I hope the tamales taste better than their hormonal bad attitude but they were just meh! I left half of tamal on my plate no worth the calories.

The authentic, juicy & mouth watering tamales. I love it here and the tortas! I ask for extra extra chile. I love them all. The puerco verde, rojo and queso. The softest, freshest, most moist tamales I’ve ever had in my life. They don’t open all day so run in early and get your share before it runs out. They normally run out before 3 or even noon sometimes. Give it a shot. If you end up loving it like I do, you’ll find yourself tempted to order by the dozen. Plus, they’re always nice to me and they know exactly what I want as soon as I walk through the door.

I have been dying to find «Homemade» tasting Tamales for a looooong time and in my search I came across Maria’s Bakery. So I tried 3 of the 4 types they have available: Red Pork, Green Chile Chicken and Cheese. (I didn’t try the sweet pineapple and raisin ones, cause I’m not a big fan of raisins) anyways, here’s the break down:
Green Chile Chicken– 2 thumbs up! Yummy! This one could pass for homemade! It was flavorful and balanced perfectly with meat and masa.
Red Pork — hit and miss. Some were balanced with meat and masa and some were not. They taste better than «ok» but not anything I’d tell my Mexican Grandma about, lol!
Cheese– I miss having the «rajas”(slice of green chile) in them. They were dry… No sauce in them, no flavor :(big bummer.
So I would DEFINATELY buy the Green Chile ones again but that’s about it…
Oh, and the parking is bad, go early (they open at 5) and Parkin the CVS parking if can can.
As for me, my Tamale search continues or I’ll have to make my own

I discovered Maria’s Bakery a few years ago when I was on a quest to find the best tamale in LA. I remembered driving to 5 different tamale places (which took me through interesting LA neighborhoods) and getting a total of 12 tamales. I was creating my own taste test and wanted to compare the tamales side by side.
The verdict? La Mascota had great cheese tamales (they ran out of all other tamales) but their tamales are much smaller in size for a similar price as other places. Maria’s Bakery stood out as being a tasty & hearty tamale with a good amount of pork filling drenched in sauce and wrapped up in a moist masa.
I have enjoyed going to Maria’s Bakery and ordering dozens of tamales at a time for potluck get-​togethers or just to bring home since they freeze well. It’s a rather busy & small shop so you must go early before they run out of the tamales you want. As far as I know, there’s 3 tamales varieties they offer:
— Pork w/​tomatillo green sauce (slightly spicy)
— Pork w/​with red sauce (non spicy)
— Cheese tamales
It’s strictly a to-​go type of place, no seats inside just people lined up to order tamales. You can see the ladies in the kitchen rolling out masa and making tamales. Maria’s Bakery sell some pan dulces but they usually look unappetizing so I just go for the tamales. Parking can prove to be a struggle since there are few slots right in front of the bakery and to leave you have to back up into a busy street, Peck Road. I usually park in the CVS lot next door and run into Maria’s since it doesn’t take long to get your freshly made tamales to go.
I usually stick to ordering the pork tamales and have enjoyed both the green sauce ones and the red sauce variety. However, the 3 stars is for my recent visit. The tamales have increased in price to $ 1.65/each which is understandable but the tamales are considerably smaller than what I remember them to be, the taste was a bit bland, and there wasn’t much sauce in the tamales. I really hope it was an off day otherwise I’d have to do another tamale taste test to find one where I can reliably get my tamale fix.

Two stars for decent masa. The masa was moist and not too dry. I got the cheese tamale and there was no cheese. What gives? Also it was $ 1.50 each!!! I will need to continue my search for the great tamale.
They only have green pork red pork and cheese (but there is no cheese in it). Why did the chicken cross the road? Cuz they don’t sell chicken tamales here.

Every time I’m in town Maria’s is a must stop. Aside from serving the absolute best tamales on the planet, they also serve delicious pan dulce that is fresh and the flavors change out regularly allowing for a chance to try different things on every visit.
I can’t recommend this place highly enough.