With a wildly extensive menu filled with standards and a few curiosities, Milwaukie’s Casa de Tamales is the Greek diner of tamale shops. It’s safe to say no other place in the Portland area is serving over 50 (!) varieties of steamed masa, including banana leaf–wrapped versions from El Salvador and Colombia, seafood numbers featuring Dungeness crab, and multiple vegan and vegetarian options using soyrizo, jackfruit, and produce from the family’s farm and other local purveyors. Those with a sweet tooth can choose from 13 dessert tamales like apricot hazelnut and strawberry marionberry, served with a scoop of local Umpqua ice cream. The business offers catering services and bulk delivery throughout the greater Portland area, and takes orders during the holiday season.

Yucatecan standout Ki’ikibáa might be best known for its coal-black relleno negro and Christmas-colored pozoles, but it also makes banana leaf–wrapped tamales, filled with pork and chicken in a ruddy achiote-based sauce. Look out for specials that feature vegetarian fillings (lima beans, carrots, and zucchini) and, occasionally on weekends, brazo de reina, a traditional Yucatecan tamal that incorporates ground pepitas and sliced hard-boiled eggs. Around the holidays, Ki’ikibáa offers preorders, including tamales colados, a unique specialty using strained masa to achieve a creamy, pudding-like texture, which gets filled with spiced ground pork.

This nondescript Cully market isn’t exactly under the radar—local fans know what’s up—but this source for fresh masa, marinated meats, and rendered lard is home to a deli counter that sells Oaxacan-style tamales. Each is wrapped in banana leaves that lend vegetal flavor and luscious texture. There’s usually chile verde pork and chicken in salsa roja available, plus rajas (sliced peppers, often poblano) and sweet corn. On occasion, the market also makes a sweet strawberry tamal, dyed a pleasant pink using hibiscus flowers.

While Mexican tamales are more plentiful—and well known—in Portland, our immediate southern neighbor doesn’t have a lock on steamed masa delicacies. Case in point: Pupuseria Gladis inside Hillsboro’s bustling M&M Marketplace, best known for its Salvadoran specialties, took top honors at the Hillsboro Schools Foundation’s Fiesta de Tamales in 2024. The food stand offers two solid options: chicken and its prize-winning pork. While Salvadoran tamales can include additions like olives, chickpeas, or jicama, this version keeps it simple. It’s filled solely with shredded pork braised in an achiote-based sauce, packed into masa, wrapped in banana leaves for moisture, and served with a mild, tomato-heavy salsa.

Two decades ago, Sara Rodriguez got her start selling tamales at People’s Farmers’ Market, the city’s longest operating year-round farmers market. Since then, she has set up shop at the PSU Farmers’ Market, popped up regularly at events around town and, in 2024, opened a food truck on SE Grand Avenue. She also won over the vegetarian community with her wide selection of meat-free options like maitake, shiitake, spinach, and jalapeño and cheese, to name a few, each drenched in green or red salsa and drizzled with crema. It doesn’t hurt that she uses local Three Sisters Nixtamal masa as the base for her corn husk–wrapped creations.

Likely the best-known tamale spot in the city, this mini-chain settles the corn husk–banana leaf debate with its own question: Why not both? Its Norteño tamales feature fluffy yellow masa filled with chile verde pork, chipotle-rich chicken tinga, or rajas, interpreted here as roasted pasilla peppers, corn, and queso asadero. The Oaxaqueño tamales use a creamier, twice-cooked white corn masa; order them with slow-roasted cochinita pibl, chicken in mole negro, or sauteed vegetables. For a hearty, brunchier take, try the Norteño tamal frito, fried to a crisp and topped with avocado salsa, queso fresco, pickled onions, crema, and served with black beans and two over-easy eggs. Owner Jaime Soltero Jr. started the operation as a catering business, meaning the business has bulk orders down pat, with an online site for everyone’s holiday needs (and beyond).

Keep an eye out for the cheery, lime-green cart emblazoned with a sprinting cartoon tamale in the Aloha Food Carts pod. Crowds make a beeline to this TV Highway mainstay for its hearty tamal plates: two tamales smothered in crema, buried under a snowfall of shredded cheese, and flanked by sunset-colored rice and refried beans. The menu isn’t encyclopedic, just three dependable fillings: green salsa chicken, red salsa pork, and cheese jalapeño. For something unexpected, there’s a dessert tamale, pink from real strawberries and packed with pineapple, coconut, and raisins. Lean into tradition with a warm cup of creamy, cinnamon-scented champurrado to up the cozy factor.

Tamale Factory has been selling its masa-centric treats at different spots in Gresham for over a decade; its current brick-and-mortar spot sits in a strip mall on the east side of the city. It offers classic, Northern-style tamales steamed in corn husks and filled with chicken in red sauce, pork in green sauce, or beef picadillo (spiced ground beef with tomato and onion), plus two vegetarian options: a sweet corn tamal and a jalapeño and cheese version where the ingredients get incorporated into the masa instead of stuffed inside. It covers all bases with three food carts stationed out front of markets around Gresham and Rockwood, as well as a catering operation.

With a bright, grass-green sign and a small, matching interior tucked in a strip mall, the Tamale House functions primarily as a takeout joint. Born as a humble farmers market stall and upgraded to a family-run storefront in 2010, its roster of tamales is tight: pork, chicken, jalapeño and cheese, and, sometimes, a sweet version. Regulars know to call ahead for tamales by the dozen or to snag one of the combos, complete with rice, beans, and salsa—a comfort-food spread that feels like the Mexican answer to a KFC bucket. One of the newest menu additions is a torta de tamal, the carb-on-carb street food that’s essentially a tamale sandwiched inside a squishy bolillo roll.

The food truck at the Core PDX pod serves tamales that approach the size of a small burrito—they’re sold individually, by the dozen, or, popularly, as a tamale box with a choice of two sides: rice, refried beans, or greens salad. The family-owned Oaxacan cart offers a banana leaf–wrapped tamale filled with shredded chicken in a mild tomatillo sauce, topped with crumbled queso fresco and pickled red onions. The standout, though, might be the braised pork tamal in a deep, dark mole that’s surprisingly spicy. For an extra dollar, mole fans can add the complex, velvety sauce to any order.