Inocencio "El Güero" Carbajal and Marcos Carbajal
This year, the Chicago Tribune’s Critic’s Choice Awards recognized restaurants judges saw “as a collective of their people who have inspired us with their extraordinary culinary achievement through dedicated ethical work.”
el Restaurante congratulates these two Mexican outposts in Pilsen – a neighborhood especially vulnerable during the ICE raids that rocked Chicago last year and continue to threaten this community — that were among the establishments honored:
Cerdito Muerto. This Mexican-American restaurant and cocktail bar that opened on June 26, 2025, in the space that once housed his parents’ taquería and pool hall draws on owner Emidio Oceguer’s roots in Jalisco, Mexico. “Sustaining a business in the immigrant, working-class neighborhood that raised him and capturing modern Pilsen through food” is what fuels this chefs passion, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Las Carnitas Uruapan La Villita. Marcos Carbajal is the second-generation owner of Carnitas Uruapan — the restaurant founded by his father, celebrated Chicago Food Icon Inocencio "El Güero" Carbajal— who credited the Critic’s Choice award “to the tenacity of his team, the loyalty of the community and of course — the carnitas.
“I'm incredibly respectful of what my father has built,” Carbajal told the Chicago Tribune. ““It’s just really humbling and something we’re really thankful for,” Carbajal said. “Our food is the building block, we’ve stayed true to the tradition of our food — never veered too far from that — and what holds everything together is our teams and the way each location has become a part of that neighborhood.”
The judges noted that the taqueria met the benchmarks for this year’s award because of its role as “a safe haven for both its workers and diners, most notably during the height of Operation Midway Blitz in the fall”…when the business “picked itself back up after economic woes and significant blows to foot traffic as customers were afraid to eat out, while employees hesitated to come to work.”
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