Tamales Jovita — Local services in Escondido

Everybody and their cousin advertises the sale of Tamales. Fast foods, Restaurants, Street Vendors, online and who knows where else, but the fact of the matter boils down to this question: who makes a superior Tamal, not just a half aceptable version, that most likely than not, lacks skills, finesse, quality ingredients, etc. With this pressing desire in mind, I started another serious search for that elusive, hard to find, quality Tamal. Started with Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, all of those Counties, and cities in between. Search engines seemed to comply, and some Tamale places appeared promising, but drive that far just to satisfy a Tamales craving? Enter Tamales Jovita in Vista, CA. 40+ miles from Menifee, 5 Stars from 50 reviewers on Yelp, enough to consider this the next place to buy, so I did today, on a mild and pleasant 15 freeway drive, arriving a couple of minutes before opening time. Yes, I can be quite compulsive when it comes to preferred food. The team, Cecilia and Jovita, daughter and mother, looked good together. Nothing nicer than a small business ran by sober, well mannered, and without a doubt, a step above than previous Tamales purchased. 30 Tamales purchased, did not want to run out in case they were as good as fellow reviewers had stated, Beans and Rice largest offered containers, Red Salsa as well. Pork, Chicken, in red and green variety, Cheese with Jalapeño, or some kind of chili 🌶. Grand total $80 plus, but felt it was a fair deal, specially after returning home, gathering the hungry troops, and tasting them to the delightful Oh Ah, mouthful endorsements of my tribal members. Moist, superior dough, and even though I would have been happier with about 30% more chili/raja in the particular kind, the votes were unanimous: a winner tamal. They certainly deserve the positive recognition that brought me to their place, reviews not exaggerated, just honest, very easy to devour Tamales. Gasoline had climbed up to $4.20+ a gallon, but how many times have I purchased below average, mediocre tamales? Too many to remember, that is for sure. Here wising both ladies, Jovita and Cecilia, Happy Tides, and hey!, keep up the good work! For the best in a long...

I have been looking for great Tamales from long as not only I really like Tamales but it also brings back old memories from my childhood specially if it was in another country 1000's of miles away from Mexico. While growing up my mom and her mom use to prepare something very similar to Tamales that is a specialty of eastern India and we call it "Gojha". Gojha is made up of wheat flour dough and heavily stuffed with fresh yellow chickpea paste flavored/mixed with Indian spices, rolled into fine thin muslin cloth and thoroughly steam cooked. Definitely tasted great when fresh steam hot but heavenly when eaten next morning with tea. I have been seriously looking for great tasting Tamales from long specially chicken and vegetarian one as most of the time it's pork Tamales which I don't eat. As we moved to SD, Jovita's Tamales a family run (Mom and Daughter) restaurant in Escondido was introduced to me by one of my Spanish colleague with high recommendation. So no time wasting we showed up at Jovitas Tamales and got family pack which comes with 12 Tamales + rice + beans costing around 29$-30$. Definitely a great bargain for fresh home cooked food. It's a small restaurant with inside as well as outside seating. They were warm and welcoming. You can get the sense of home cooked and family run eatery as soon as you enter. Of the 12 steaming hot Tamales we got 6 Vegetarian (cheese + bell pepper stuffed) and 6 chicken Tamales (3 red sauce + 3 green sauce) rolled in corn husk. It was just awesome and we were taken aback with the taste and freshness. Both chicken and vegetarian Tamales were delicious specially the Vegie one awesome. Texture was perfect thought they can better up the chicken. Nothing much to select for rice/beans but definitely Tamales were outstanding. Don't miss their red hot sauce. It surpassed all my expectations bringing back old memories. My family who have never tried or know Tamales/Gojha were impressed too. We will keep going at Jovitas Tamales for long and glad we found them. Mostly my search for delicious, fresh chicken/vegetarian Tamales ends at present at Jovitas'. Thanks to Mom and Daughter for bringing this family cooking...

Kid friendly, nice staffsolid variety of Tamales, low prices and an AMAZING chocolate tamale.

We came an hour before closing and they had sold out of a few flavors including the dessert one. There was only one lady on staff and she kindly volunteered to steam one of each, although she did mention that it would take 30-45 minutes.

The place is sparse and little chilly, which will be great for summer. It had at least one high chair and the middle table looked just right for wheelchair height but I'm not 100% sure. I didn't get a chance to check the bathrooms because kids were acting up.

Good the family plan. The red pork was easily everyone's favorites while the green chicken was not bad but not as popular. My kids kept pressing the darn service bell but the nice girl running the counter let them play with it. Later when one of them made a break for freedom out the front door she was fine with us closing the front door.

There were two hot sauces, green and red. Both were too strong for my husband but he's from Midwest stock so it can't be helped. The drinks were water and a small fridge of glass bottle soft drinks.

The prices were very fair but the place was kind of...sparse and the tamales were solid but nothing out of the ordinary. I was prepared to give this 4 stars until dessert.

Currently on the menu is a Chocolate tamale.

Get it.

I have never seen one before but basically it tasted like a heavenly chocolate molten lava cake. Just divine. To think we wouldn't have gotten it if they hadn't have volunteered to steam us up some! It's sure to sweep a bunch of awards at next year's Escondido...