For many diners who grew up eating at Chi-Chi’s, Chevy’s, or El Torito, the sweet scoop of corn pudding wasn’t just a side dish. It was the reason you ordered enchiladas in the first place.
Imagine the best cornbread you’ve ever had. Then combine it with the creamed corn you wished that your grandma could make. The delectable result would be that corn pudding. Soft, but not crumbly. Sweet, but not saccharine. The perfect contrast to the spicy salsa verde on your enchiladas.
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The side dish that stole the show
Its name varied by chain. At Chi-Chi’s and El Torito, it was called “sweet corn cake.” Chevy’s dubbed the dish “corn tomalito.” Doled out with an ice-cream scoop, it was my favorite part of every meal at the Tex-Mex chain that for me, a child of the boringly functional northern Virginia suburbs, represented culinary escape. Proust had his madelines, but to me, childhood nostalgia has always come slightly sweet and baked in a casserole dish.
Despite my love of corn pudding, and repeated attempts to replicate it at home, I hadn’t had it in years. That is, until one February, when my wife and I visited Austin. Ostensibly, we were there to run the city’s annual marathon. Truthfully, though, we came to eat as much Tex-Mex food as humanly possible over three days.
A friend had recommended El Alma, a quaint spot near Butler Park in South Austin, where we went on our first night in town. As we scanned the menu, I was astonished to see one of the sides was “Mexican corn pudding.” As the waiter came to take our order, I could barely contain my excitement. It was then that my wife said, “I don’t know what else I’m getting, but I’m ordering the Mexican corn pudding.” That’s when I learned that it’s possible to fall even more in love with a person.
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My wife, who grew up with a Texan father in Bakersfield, California, ate Tex-Mex three to four times a week during her childhood, mainly at El Torito, a California-based chain that served corn pudding with its entrées. Her family loved it so much that they regularly bought El Torito’s boxed version that was sold at grocery stores at the time.
Though we’d grown up on opposite sides of the country, we’d been united by corn pudding. We just didn’t know it until that night in Austin. We made up for lost time and got three orders of it. I’m sure the staff at El Alma thought we were slightly unhinged.
The corporate connection
It turns out that our childhood experiences were more similar than we knew: Chevy’s and El Torito were owned by the same company: Xperience Restaurant Group. According to Joshua Becerra, chief marketing officer at Xperience, El Torito has had sweet corn cakes on its menus since its first restaurant opened in Encino in 1954. Chevy’s, also founded in California but with locations in the Midwest and East Coast, added the dish once it came under Xperience.
My wife and I are not alone in our love for it. Becerra says that corn pudding is one of the most popular items at both chains: “People ask for the recipe, and people come to experience this dish specifically all the time, whether for the first time or the hundredth time.”
According to Becerra, the corn cake recipe is an interpretation of traditional Mexican pan de elote, a dish with pre-Hispanic origins.
Authentic — or something else?
Is corn pudding authentic? Not exactly. But that’s not the point. While it would be easy to dismiss the chains’ versions as ersatz, I would argue that they are the perfect embodiment of what Tex-Mex gets right — amalgamating cultures in a way that creates something different from the original (in this case, something sweetened with lots of sugar and served by scoop), but that’s still altogether delicious.
“I can’t help but think of the sweet corn puddings you find at Tex-Mex chains to be an American reinterpretation more than a fusion,” says Adam Chandler, a journalist and author of Drive-Thru Dreams: A Journey Through the Heart of America’s Fast-Food Kingdom. “You can tell it’s sugar and margarine, which is so far afield from anything similar you might have in Jalisco. What’s funny about it though, is how much the adulterated version ultimately becomes something that diners not only embrace, but crave. Who doesn’t look forward to that sweet heap on your plate?”
A whole lot of us do, if the recent return of Chi-Chi’s tells us anything.
In October 2025, two decades after Chi-Chi’s shuttered all of its restaurants and filed for bankruptcy, Michael McDermott, son of original Chi-Chi’s co-founder Marno McDermott, re-launched the chain with a single location in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Initially, there was no corn pudding. That changed after months of customer requests. Now the sweet corn cake comes free of charge with the chimichangas, the burritos, and combo plates.
And if you want to order a bowl of it, you can do that, too.
Where to try it
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El Torito: At its 24 locations in California, El Torito’s sweet corn cake is included (along with refried beans and rice) in combo platters, as well as many of the chain’s taco, enchilada, and burrito plates. A boxed mix is also available, and copycat recipes abound.
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Chevy’s: At Chevy’s nine locations across the U.S., the side is called a corn tomalito, a nod to the use of masa harina for tamales. It’s available as a standalone side, and it’s also served with several entrées that include baby back ribs, Chevy’s Burrito, and the chain’s Enchilada Trio.
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Chi-Chi’: Chi-Chi’s sweet corn cakes are available in boxed-mix form, and at the newly reopened flagship restaurant in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. They are included as a free side with the chimichangas, burritos, and combo plates.
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