Mom's Tamales

Mom's Tamales
3328 Pasadena Ave
Los Angeles
323-226-9383

Mom's Tamales has been featured in the Food Network show; Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.  Now I can't stand that loudmouth jerk host of the show.  Him yelling at the camera and playing a clown, just drives me up the wall.  Most of the time the food looks great on the show, but honestly some of the other restaurants in LA that have been featured on show have been underwhelming.  This is a list of the restaurants I've reviewed that have been featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives; some of the restaurants I went to long before there was a bleached blonde loudmouth jerk, yelling at people on The Food Network.

Restaurants I liked: Don Chow Tacos, Brats Brothers, Polka, and Fab Hot Dogs.

Restaurants that I was underwhelmed: Jaybee's BBQ, Baby Blues Bar-B-Q, Chili John's, Mac's Fish and Chip Shop, and Oinkster.

Well add Mom's Tamales into another underwhelming restaurant featured on the show.  Located in the Lincoln Heights area of LA, Mom's is really the covered patio of a house.  It is surrounded by other houses and easy to miss when driving by.  There is a good sized seating area, but I got my tamales to go.  All tamales are $1.84.

Spinach and cheese, fresh spinach, stir fried together with tomato, onions and spices topped with monterey jack cheese.  The first thing I noticed after cutting into the tamales was the terrible masa to filling ratio.  There was way too much masa compared to the filling.  While the masa was soft and moist, there was just too much of it.

The filling was very good.  Lots of flavors going on with the spinach, tomatoes, and cheese.  This was by far the most flavorful and best tasting tamale that I ordered.

Pork-  Again that terrible masa to filling ratio.  What little pork in this tamale was cooked in a red sauce that was too bland and lacked flavor.  The pork was a bit tough and chewy.  This was my least favorite tamale.

Green chicken. I normally do not fix any photos. I just place The New Diner 2's watermark and post them. I was an accurate picture of the food. But, the picture for the green chicken tamale was too bright. So I darken the picture. Again, the masa to meat ratio was terrible; way too much masa. The chicken lacked flavor and the green sauce, a tomatillo jalapeno sauce wasn't spicy at all.

Service is overall was good until I got my order.  I was greeted by a nice older man when I walked in, who promptly got a server to take my take out order.  The young lady who took my order was nice and friendly.  But another young lady who brought my order lacked people skills and should not work in customer service.  She didn't take my order, so she doesn't know who I am.  But, she handed me a bag and said very rudely, $5.52.  When she got my change, all she said was "Here you go."  No thank you for coming?  No, "Come back soon?"

The tamales here are pricey and not worth the prices because it's about 80% masa and 20% filling.  There is no reason for me to come back here again.  Another underwhelming restaurant on Triple D.