Veras Tamale Express

Vera — please come back! We now have to hunt you down as you were missing from the SOCO Farmer’s Market in Costa Mesa. Our entire family enjoys not just the savory tamales that are moist — a perfect balance of masa and stuffings — we also drink up the home made salsa! Oceanside is a bit of a drive but you are so worth it!

I bought at Temecula Farmers Market. Bad, just simply bad, dry, all masa, no flavor. The cheese wasn’t real. Yucky! Nothing personal against the owners, just NOT good! I’ve eaten tamales all my life. If you are eating these and thinking they’re good… You haven’t experienced great, melt in your mouth, flavorful, authentic tamales. It’s heartbreaking to see what people are being served and thinking they’re getting the best tamales ever, so wrong and untrue. That’s my opinion and my 7 kids opinions. There was absolutely no love at all in this food, and we sampled everything. All FLAVORS, all salsas. I used to believe CARDENAS were the worst, not anymore.

Bought some tamales and the habanero salsa at the Vista Farmers Market. The young woman that sold us the goods told us how proud she was of her «Tia Vera». We agree. The tamales are delicious and the salsa has serious kick!

Shady about pricing! I visited this tamale stand at the Friday Kaiser Anaheim Farmer’s Market. Sign clearly states tamales are $ 3.50. The man working there said they had them hot as well, but waited until I was handing him money to tell me the hot tamales are $ 4.00. No thanks.
I don’t want to feel like I’m dealing with a car salesman when all I want is a nice hot tamale.

Hours say 12 to 6 I have stopped by 3 times between 2 – 3 never open. Bad way to run a business.

I tried this place for the first time. I had the beef and chicken tamales. They come frozen and take 20 – 30 min to cook via steam pot. They were great and based on taste alone this place deserves every one of their 5 stars they are rated. Tyvm for the quality authentic
Tamales & next time I will try a homemade salsa.

The best tamales I’ve ever had in my life. OMG I was crying while eating them they were so good. I went right back and got 6 togo. The lady is such a sweet person too. All I gotta say is if ur looking for the best tamales, look no further. A must visit!

The best Verde salsa in the world!!! A big statement I know, but just try it and you will see… Vera is a love !!! Such great people…

Good.

Walked in just to get a menu. Met Vera and she was very friendly. I am from El Salvador and these mexican tamales are BIG. Not like the standard size at all. I had the spinach feta tamale and it was loaded with the filling. Not skimpy at all. Very satisfied and impressed. Im looking forward to ordering some asap! Yummmmm

Best packed tamales, with above average amount of filling. We had Chicken and Beef. Price was not in accordance with the taste, which was plain average, nothing special. Price was high, and really not warranted for what we received. We bought these at Temecula Farmer’s Market. Must get there early if you want selection. Each Tamale sold at $ 3.50, and like I mentioned above they were well packaged, filled with meat, but the overall taste left much to be desired. Reason I wanted to purchase these was the overwhelming 5 Stars across the board, which incited curiosity as to, what if this is the best tamale that ever was? Shattered expectation, not a bad product, but there are less expensive and tastier tamales. Still, I realized is a seller’s game, and it appears that some are more than willing to pay top dollar for this tamale. 3.5 Stars

My husband and I finally had Vera’s tamales today after wanting to try them for a long time. We ordered the jalapeño and cheese and beef fresh (ready to eat) and also took their pineapple raisin frozen. We were highly impressed, to say the least. Now, we grew up eating legit mom-​made/​grandma-​made tamales so we have high expectations. It’s always hard to find yummy tamales. Our favorite flavor is jalapeño and cheese so we ordered a dozen of those and then also some beef and pineapple raisin. First impression – we loved the presentation! They are each individually wrapped in wax paper printed with what kind they are. They are pretty big, too. We couldn’t wait to get home to eat so we started eating in the car, bad idea since these are kind of messy! We weren’t expecting the jalapeño kind to be saucy so we kind of made a mess but they were DELICIOUS! You can taste the effort put into their food. The sauce is delicious and spicy! The masa was perfect – not dry and very flavorful. The beef was also messy but very delicious! Eat these on a plate with a fork or else it will end up on your shirt and hair and hands like it did to me –_​–
Overall, we love the food and will be back whenever we’re craving tamales!
Oh! Bring cash because they do not accept card. It took my husband 20 min to cross the busy street, go to the bank, get cash, come back, and pay. Save yourself the hassle.

Homemade fresh flour tortillas yummy. If you’re looking for an authentic homemade Mexican place for salsa flour tortillas and tamales Yum Yum tamales and flour tortillas THIS is the best place to go to. Especially the habanero salsa it’s really good I recommend it

Love her tamales and now the salsas too. I get her tamales at the Farmer’s Market — either the one at SOCO or the one in Tustin. She’s a really nice lady and her tamales are the real deal. I get them frozen and keep them in the freezer for a quick easy meal. I also bought the red salsa and the salsa verde. Both great. We love Vera’s! She accepts Square!

Vera’s salsas are as good as it gets. Especially the habanero salsa. Vera is a nice woman who makes quality food for a fair price. I buy my salsa at Hollywood Farmer’s Market on Sundays. Vera’s salsa = great taste + great value. Whoo hoo! I wrote an equation!
Six stars.

Our family has been buying Veras tamales and salsa for years, think it’s been close to 15? No joke. Not only are they the best, so is she! We wouldn’t dream of ever eating salsa from the grocery store ever again. You can can’t go wrong with anything from Vera.

Yummy authentic tamales. We took home some chicken, veggies, pork flavored tamales, only took 20 minutes to steam. They were well flavored and the masa was light and fluffy and stuffed with plenty of filling. The chicken and pork were meaty and shreded to perfection. Fresh salsa’s and sauces sold in pint containers for only $ 5 bucks. A great little find in an Oceanside strip mall. They also have other unique flavors such as spinach feta.

Sweet baby Jesus, these tamales are amazing.
I had a few of these tamales w/​salsa & chips this weekend and I was blown away. Everyone working at their stand was so awesome and friendly, it made the experience just that much better.
I tried the salsas, marinated carrots and Habanero marmalade they all were very good, the flavors are so interesting, there is something for everyone. Some salsas just have heat and no flavor. these have both.
I got one pork and one chicken, they were so good, moist, the flavor and a surprise olive inside each one it was awesome!
I could rave about this stuff for at least an hour, but why would I do that? if you see Vera around town, try ‘em out — I’m sure you’ll love it.

OMG, my friend at work told me about this place. Today I ordered 4 tamales — beef, chicken, jalapeño cheese and pineapple. It’s really hard to find moist tamales anywhere, but I ate 2 tamales tonight and I never eat more than 1, since I am so picky. Vera was so nice and I will be back for more tamales for the holidays and bring all my friends! These are the best tamales I have had since I lost my nana years ago.

I went to their actual store, as opposed to visiting them at the local farmer’s market, and picked picked up six vegan tamales for $ 14. It was pretty chill: I got to talk with the owners for a bit about how they felt were the best ways to prepare the tamales. This is an Express store – so, no places to sit-​down. As a whole, I highly recommend this place. :)