Kansas City, MOTamales

The James Beard award-winning tortilleria keeps several tamale fillings in its West Side retail shop, and Kansas City magazine's food editor lists beef barbacoa, pork, chicken, peppers and cheese, and butternut squash with pineapple. Order the butternut squash and pineapple, which is the one filling here that has no equivalent elsewhere on this list. If you would rather make your own, the counter sells ready-made masa mixed with shortening, baking powder, sea salt and vegetable broth, or a bag of fresh masa to work yourself.

Kansas City magazine credits this bakery off Independence Avenue with one of the most extensive tamale menus in town, and it sells them all year rather than only through December. Tamales are two dollars each and orders go in by phone for pickup. Order the pork with red sauce and the chicken with salsa verde, then take a jalapeno and cheese for the vegetarian at the table and a strawberry with raisins to finish.

A no-frills self-serve panaderia on Kansas Avenue where you pick up a cafeteria tray at the door, load it from the display cases and pay at the register. Kansas City magazine says the tamales are in stock year round and come in pork only, and calls them excellent. The Pitch warns that the counter sells out and that the posted hours are loose, so arrive before 1 pm. Order a dozen of the pork, then add conchas and the pig-shaped marranitos on the way past the cases.

A butcher and tortilla shop a block up Kansas Avenue from Reyna's, and the second reason this stretch of the Kansas side is worth the drive. Kansas City magazine reports the tamales are sold by the dozen and are mostly classic pork. Order them that way and freeze what you cannot eat, which is the magazine's own advice about the quantity. The two shops together make one stop rather than two.

Chef and owner Alejandra Fuentes runs this Santa Fe Drive kitchen in downtown Overland Park, and it is the one entry here that sits well out in Johnson County. Kansas City magazine reports her tamales come in chicken and pork, and notes that in 2025 they landed the week after Christmas rather than before it. Order either filling and plan around her schedule rather than the calendar, because the run is announced rather than standing.