Chicago, ILTamales

The Infatuation rates this Dunning counter above every other tamal in the city, calling the masa smooth, buttery and fluffy enough to make cumulus clouds jealous. You eat it at a long diner-style kitchen counter. Order the pollo en salsa roja, shredded chicken in a spicy guajillo sauce, which the review names as its favourite of the lot, and take the rajas y queso with poblano, caramelized onion and melted cheese alongside. Finish with the tamal de fresa, cake-textured under dulce de leche and powdered sugar.

Where most Chicago tamale shops reach for a corn husk, Time Out reports that Yvolina's steams every tamal in a neat cocoon of banana leaves, which leaves the masa shell moister. The fillings run from chicken with salsa verde or rojo through tofu with green tomatillo and quinoa with lentils, and many of them are free of meat and animal products. Order whichever end of that spectrum you prefer and ask for the shop's mole sauce over it, which is how Time Out says to eat them.

A Little Village room The Infatuation files under Mexican breakfast plates, with tamales and chilaquiles carrying the morning menu. Order the tamales with a cup of atole or champurrado, the thickened corn and chocolate drinks that sit on the same board. Weekends bring pozole and menudo as specials. The Infatuation lists the spot without having eaten there, so treat the entry as a pointer rather than a verdict. The city inspection register recorded a pass at this address in August 2026.

Time Out describes a sunny Pilsen cafe painted bright purple, yellow and orange inside and out, sitting next door to one of the city's most successful makers of corn and flour tortillas. Employees put those tortillas to work on chicken legs in mole rojo and slow-cooked beef in a rich tomato sauce. Order the tamales, which Time Out calls satisfying and recommends as the portable option, though the room is the part you cannot take with you.