Tamales catering in Dallas: Uptown offices, Lake Highlands homes

Tamales catering in Dallas means two very different orders for me. One is a team lunch for an office tower along LBJ or the Tollway, where a receptionist meets the driver with a badge and a cart. The other is a house party with cars parked on both sides of the street and a grandmother directing traffic from the porch. I love both, and they need different planning.

The short answer: Yes, with one line to know. Maggie’s delivers across Far North Dallas from our Plano kitchen, open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 9 AM to 2 PM; for Uptown, downtown and neighborhoods farther in, the order is a pickup at the kitchen. Tamales are $60 a dozen or $30 a half dozen; plan two per person for lunch and three at dinner. Order in our online store, delivery or pickup, today or a date ahead, and pay online.

Dallas is the biggest city on my map and the one where the details matter most: which dock, which floor, which side of the street. Below is where the trays go, how the office and home orders differ, the dozens math for the sizes I see most, and how to time a Dallas order so the food lands when people eat.

Tamales catering in Dallas: where the trays go

Most of my Dallas orders sit just south of our Plano kitchen, in Far North Dallas, which is the delivery side of the city for us: the office corridor along LBJ Freeway and the Tollway, the medical and business buildings up Preston Road and Coit, and the neighborhoods north of LBJ, full of the kind of houses that host a party every other weekend.

Keep going south and you reach the rest of the city people picture: Lake Highlands, Lakewood, the M Streets and the neighborhoods around White Rock Lake, the Park Cities, Uptown along McKinney Avenue, downtown and the Arts District, Oak Lawn and the Medical District. Those sit outside our delivery area, and the easy answer for them is pickup: our Plano kitchen is a straight drive up Central or the Tollway, and the address and pickup time come with your order confirmation.

If you are not sure which side of the line your address falls on, call or text (469) 888-8398 before you order and ask; I will answer honestly. The Dallas catering page has the details for the city.

Office towers: docks, badges and the ride up

A Dallas office delivery lives or dies on the building. The towers along LBJ and the Tollway have loading docks with their own hours, security desks that want a vendor name, freight entrances, and garages that charge a driver by the hour if the paperwork is not right. None of that is a problem if it is sorted in advance, so before you order a tower lunch, find out the dock or entrance for food deliveries, the floor and suite, and who meets the driver with a phone that will be answered. If you are picking up for an office farther in, the same list tells you where to bring the food.

Once we are upstairs, the tamale lunch is the easiest food in the building. The tamales arrive in their husks, pork in red salsa and chicken in green tomatillo salsa; plates, forks and serving spoons come from the office. Nothing is carved or assembled, and the conference table is cleared in minutes when the meeting starts again. The office catering page explains ordering for offices by the dozen, and if this is your first time ordering for a meeting, how to order catering for a company meeting is the step-by-step version.

Offices along LBJ and the Tollway are also where a monthly Tamale Day makes the most sense: the same dozens, ordered in the online store each month, and a lunch the team starts to look forward to.

House parties across Dallas

A Dallas house party is where the tamales get talked about. Lake Highlands birthdays, Lakewood graduation parties, a Cowboys watch party in Preston Hollow with the game on two screens, a first birthday on an M Streets porch: the food has to sit on a kitchen island for two hours and still be good at the end. Tamales do that. Open one tray at a time, keep the rest closed and warm, and the last plate is as hot as the first.

Two Dallas-specific notes. If you are inside our delivery area and your street is narrow, with no driveway to spare, call or text after you order and say where the driver can stop for five minutes; if you are picking up, bring an insulated bag or a towel-lined cooler for the drive home. And if the party is outdoors, the trays still go inside, because a Dallas afternoon is not a warming cabinet. For the watch-party version, with the numbers for chips, salsa and drinks, game day party food makes the case for tamales over wings. Birthdays, showers, graduations and family gatherings all run through the party catering page.

How many dozens for a Dallas order

Our tamales are big, so ignore the counts written for the small ones. Two per person is a lunch with sides, three is a dinner, one or two is a snack alongside other food. The table shows the Dallas orders I price most often.

The table prices the tamales only; the delivery fee is shown at checkout. Round up rather than down, because Dallas guests bring guests, and leftovers freeze and steam back beautifully. The arithmetic is the same at every size: $5 a tamal, from a half dozen for $30 to seventeen dozen.

Holiday tamales in Dallas: Christmas Eve at home, December in the office

December doubles my Dallas route. The offices in Uptown and along LBJ hold their holiday lunches, and the houses in Lake Highlands, Lakewood and Preston Hollow fill up with relatives who expect tamales on Christmas Eve, the way Texas families have for generations. Both come out of the same kitchen on the same mornings, and both need to be ordered early, because the weeks before Thanksgiving and Christmas fill first.

For a family, the order is dozens: pick the day, the count and the pork and chicken split in the online store. The holiday tamales page covers the season, and frozen tamales are there for stocking the freezer. For an office, it is the lunch order with a holiday feel and a dozen extra for the late arrivals; holiday office party catering in Dallas explains why the calendar fills and how to order before it does.

Timing a Dallas order

At noon Central is a parking lot from the Bush Turnpike to Woodall Rodgers, and LBJ and the Tollway are no better at lunch. Plan backward from when people eat. If you are picking up, leave early and keep the tamales closed in an insulated bag for the drive. If we are delivering in Far North Dallas, order for the date ahead of time and give the building’s dock hours some room.

Our hours are 9 AM–2 PM on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, so an evening party gets its tamales in the early afternoon and reheats them in a steamer or covered pans when guests arrive; kept in the husk and covered, they lose nothing. For an office tower, the dock hours matter as much as ours, so check them before you order. My guide to scheduling a catering delivery window explains how to set one that lands on time.

And a reminder for Dallas readers who search for a storefront: we are a catering and delivery kitchen in Plano, not a restaurant. There is no dine-in. Every order, small or large, goes through our online store, for delivery inside our area or pickup at the kitchen, with the address and pickup time in your order confirmation.

Ready to order tamales in Dallas?

A team lunch for thirty along LBJ, an all-hands for a hundred, a watch party at home, Christmas Eve for the whole family: with Maggie’s Tamales & Catering it starts in the online store, with chicken or pork by the dozen, delivery in Far North Dallas or pickup at our Plano kitchen, paid online. The Dallas catering page has the city details, and if you are not sure whether your address gets delivery, call or text (469) 888-8398 first.

Frequently asked questions

Do you deliver tamales catering in Dallas, TX?

In Far North Dallas, yes. We deliver there from our Plano kitchen, open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 9 AM to 2 PM, along with Allen, McKinney, Fairview, Frisco, The Colony, Plano, Murphy, Carrollton, Addison and Richardson. For Uptown, downtown and neighborhoods farther in, pick the order up at the kitchen, or call or text (469) 888-8398 to ask about your address. Order in the online store and pay online.

Can you deliver to a downtown Dallas office tower?

Downtown is outside our delivery area, which covers Far North Dallas and the northern suburbs, so a downtown lunch is a pickup at our Plano kitchen. For an office tower inside the area, along LBJ or the Tollway, know the dock or entrance for food deliveries, the dock hours, the floor and suite, and who meets the driver before you order. Questions about your building? Call or text (469) 888-8398.

Do you deliver to Lake Highlands and Lakewood homes?

Those neighborhoods sit outside our delivery area, which in Dallas is Far North Dallas, so the simple answer is pickup at our Plano kitchen; the address and pickup time come with your order confirmation. If you are close to the line, call or text (469) 888-8398 and ask before you order. Bring an insulated bag or a towel-lined cooler for the drive home.

How much is tamales catering for 100 people in Dallas?

For a lunch with sides, plan two big tamales per person: 200 tamales, ordered as 17 dozen for $1,020 (about $10 per person for the main dish). For a dinner where tamales are the meal, plan three per person and the count rises accordingly. Plates, utensils and sides are yours; the delivery fee is shown at checkout when you order online.

Can you deliver to South Dallas or Oak Cliff?

Not as a rule. Our delivery area in the city is Far North Dallas, so South Dallas and Oak Cliff orders are a pickup at our Plano kitchen. If you want to ask about a specific address, call or text (469) 888-8398 before you order; I will tell you honestly rather than guess.

What time can you deliver for an evening party in Dallas?

Our kitchen hours end at 2 PM, so an evening party gets its tamales in the early afternoon. Keep them in the husk in a closed tray or the refrigerator, then reheat in a steamer or in covered pans with a little water shortly before guests arrive; they come back hot and moist. My reheating guide has the method. Many Dallas hosts prefer this anyway, because the food is in the house before the doorbell starts.