Tamales are becoming harder to find on Mexican restaurant menus across the United States, as the labor required to make them collides with diners’ expectations of low prices.
Tamale entrées have dropped 7.8% from menus over the past five years, according to Technomic’s Ignite Menu data comparing the second quarters of 2021 and 2026.
Robert Mahon, director of operations for Mahon Hospitality Group, runs Amor Loco and Toro Loco in New York City. Neither restaurant serves tamales, though Mahon said the option has come up in internal discussions. He enjoys the dish personally but said the economics of putting it on a menu are difficult.
“Even though the ingredients might not be so costly, it’s more the labor,” Mahon told Fox News Digital. “It’s so labor-intensive.”
That labor is on full display at Taquería Picoso in Alexandria, Virginia, where executive chef Elio Gomez still makes tamales the traditional way. Gomez said the process takes about three days from start to finish. His restaurant sources corn from Mexico, then runs it through an overnight nixtamalization process before grinding it into masa. Fillings and banana leaves are prepared separately, and the masa itself must be mixed with fat, broth and salt, then aerated to get the right texture before the tamales can be assembled, wrapped and cooked.
Training a cook to do that work well takes time, too. Gomez said he spent months working alongside the employee who now makes the restaurant’s tamales, teaching them how the masa should feel and how to wrap each one so it doesn’t dry out during cooking.
Despite that investment, tamales don’t draw the customer demand that other Mexican staples do.
“No, definitely it’s not the same demand as a taco, for example,” Gomez said.
Mahon said the same holds true at his own restaurants.
“They’re not walking out of our restaurants if they don’t have a tamale,” Mahon said. “It’s not expected as a staple anymore.”
Pricing adds another layer of difficulty. Gomez charges $6 per tamale, which he considers reasonable given the labor involved, but some customers remember paying far less in the past.
Still, a shrinking presence on restaurant menus doesn’t mean the tamale itself is going away. Gomez, who grew up in Mexico City, recalled tamales as an everyday breakfast food sold by street vendors each morning. In the United States, he said, they’re treated more as a special occasion dish tied to holidays and family gatherings.
Asked what he’d tell someone trying a tamale for the first time, Gomez described the masa as fluffy and the dish as rich and comforting.
“You feel like you’re getting a hug when you’re eating a tamal,” he said.
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