Delia's Specializing in Tamales — Restaurant in San Antonio

17 Dec 2024, 7:00 am Update: There's something very off about this restaurant from a business perspective; allow me to elaborate. I was standing in line at 7am and the restaurant still wasn't open. At about 7:10 am one of the police officers came over to the line of 15 customers to determine whether or not we had pre-ordered. No one in line had. About five minutes later they let about five customers in and were serving only one at the counter. Fifteen minutes later they had still only served that one walk in customer. I had already been standing in line since 6:40 am, so 40 min already! I was looking around assessing this disaster and I saw customers with ice chests (loaded with tamales?) loading them into their trucks. I then understood why Delia's wasn't serving the walk in customers. All of their service was going to customers who had pre-ordered in bulk. The line had not moved in 20 minutes since the first 5 entered. Delia's was deprioritizing their walk in customers to NO SERVICE! I then understood the reason the POLICE WOMAN, who is not an employee was orienting customers, it's because she was TRANSLATING as probably none of the employees speak English. Delia's doesn't operate like a legitimate business! It's very "back yard in the bario" or food truck like, but not like a business that values customers. I ENDED UP LEAVING with NO PURCHASE! I have my suspicions that this restaurant is not concerned about customer loyalty or increasing its profits because it's probably a front for money laundering like all of those Italian restaurants in New York City owned by mobsters. I wouldn't be surprised if it's cartel money that it's laundering! Read the reviews here and see if any have been responded to!

30 Nov ‘22, 1:30 pm Poorly managed, poorly staffed and poor service! I Stood in line for ten minutes at the counter with only three customers in front of me, mind you all of the tamales are pre-made. When I ordered a dozen tamales the employee refused to INCLUDE MORE THAN TWO CONTAINERS OF SALSA WITH THE ORDER!!! I asked for the manager and he said the same! I said “really, are you going to lose business over salsa?” I walked out, made no purchase and won’t be returning! Also, they have three registers and one dedicated to online orders only where there was almost no one picking up orders, so they wouldn’t serve walk in customers at that register causing long wait times. Most of the employees can’t speak English further increasing wait times so it’s BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE ALL THE WAY AROUND!!! I’m on my way to a place called Reuben’s that a customer told me about! Hopefully...

It is such a good product, but their website ordering and site management make getting their tamales a headache. It is a meat market--wait on long lines, order, pay, dont ask questions, and don't expect any courteous service. Don't expect to order and pick up your tamales from the website--delivery of four or more dozen only. Don't expect to call them because their phone sits by the front register, unattended, blinking wildly with the ringer turned off. I called 13 times in three days in early December, trying to order, only to have busy signals or endless ringing before the connection was terminated. So, I drove over and tried in person. When I asked a manager about the phone issue, the only response I got was a curt, "We get a lot of phone calls," while pointing at an unattended phone that was lit up like a Christmas tree.

You have to drive to the restaurant and stand in a hefty line to preorder and then again to pick up. Or you can order online and get them delivered for a fee. Trust me: just get them delivered. Don't go there.

Don't expect to get a receipt when you preorder unless you know to specifically ask for one. Just hope they get the order and pickup appointment right.

Their busiest time is at Christmas, but their website doesn't publish their Christmas hours, nor is there a sign at the restaurant. This is so sad and avoidable. I tried to tell two different managers at two different times after I waited in line, but they both blew me off.

The staff is terribly short with customers because of the demands on them required by management. No wonder three sheriff deputies are always standing guard. Customers are not treated well at all, and upset incidents are regular. Oh well! Excellent tamales. But next time I get a hankering, I'm...

In November, we preordered Christmas tamales with a pickup day of December 24 at noon. We arrived at 11:30 on Dec 24, and needed to wait in a line that wrapped around the restaurant -- for 2 hours, even though we preordered and arrived early! When we finally made it inside the building to pick up our order, we could see that the staff was slow, unmotivated, and inefficient. There are plenty of fast food restaurants (like Chick-fil-a) that have just as many customers, but are able to process customers in a few minutes. Not only was the wait time extremely long, but we weren't given any communication about the wait times, any confirmation of the order, and the staff does not pick up the phone. (We called many times leading up to Dec 24 in order to confirm the order, but never could get through to speak with someone.)

Someone in the line beside us had not preordered, and was told by staff that he could wait in line along with the rest of us for 2 hours to purchase tamales. When he made it to the checkout, they told him he couldn't purchase anything because he hadn't preordered, and he was furious!

Another person waiting in line beside us said their pickup time was noon, and that they arrived at 8:30 AM in order to optimize their day. No one was in line at that time, but the staff refused to give them their order, and told them they needed to come back at noon. They did, and had to wait in line for the 2 hours. It's not clear how that was a benefit to the customer, the staff, or anyone.

The tamales are good, but they need to fix the communication with customers, and fix the extremely inefficient service. They need to address their customer experience. I wouldn't recommend ordering Christmas tamales for...