Carnitas Ramirez
Carnitas Ramirez scoops every cut of one pig out of bubbling fat behind a pea-green counter, chops it to order and puts it in a corn tortilla: shank, snout, tongue, skin, ribs, rump, ear and brain among them.1
Why go
Tania Apolinar and Giovanni Cervantes already had Taqueria Ramirez in Greenpoint doing suadero and al pastor. Here they narrowed to carnitas alone and went nose to tail, and Eater NY gave it Best Counter-Service Spot at its 2024 awards.1 Ligaya Mishan put it in the Times' hundred for 2026: creamy brain secured inside a fried tortilla with toothpicks.
3 The James Beard Foundation made Cervantes a semifinalist for Best Chef: New York State in 2025, and in 2026 he and Yvon de Tassigny went a round further and were nominated.4 You finish the taco yourself at the salsa bar, where The Infatuation says a chunky salsa verde and fresh oregano-laced onions add a crucial acidic note to the carnitas.
2
Order this / avoid
- Order: one surtida to start, which The Infatuation calls
the best of the best, with a little bit of every kind of meat,
then build out with a mix of lean and fatty cuts for contrast. Oreja for the crunch, trompa for the texture, lengua because both reviewers name it. A Topo Chico alongside.2 - Avoid: loading up on fat alone. The Infatuation's own caveat is that
the flavors can be a touch one-note, but it's an excellent note,
and the mix is what fixes it.2
What locals & experts say
- Eater Awards 2024, Best Counter-Service Spot (Eater NY, 3 December 2024): Robert Sietsema, on the succession from Greenpoint,
a successor, Carnitas Ramirez, has opened in Alphabet City, one-upping the original by featuring a nose-to-tail selection of pork.
1 - The Infatuation (16 September 2024, 9.1):
From ears with just the right amount of cartilaginous crunch, to iron-y tasting lengua that melts at the mere suggestion of teeth, and snout that could pass as pork custard, it's incredible how much variety there is within a single animal.
2 - Ligaya Mishan, The New York Times (11 May 2026):
You never forget that you're eating a once-living thing, whose muscles bristled as it walked the earth.
3
Good to know
- Timing: counter service, and the weekend lunch is the busy one.
- Booking: walk in. Seating is a counter over 3rd Street and a few overturned paint buckets.
- How it works: the meat is cut in front of you and dropped into the tortilla; you take it to a sideboard and add what you want.1
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: Eater award 2024, don't miss
Verdict
should-visit — One pig comes out of cauldrons of fat behind a pea-green counter, cut to order, and you finish the taco yourself at the salsa bar. Robert Sietsema counted the cuts through the glass for Eater: shank, snoot, tongue, skin, ribs, rump, ear and brain. Eater NY gave the shop Best Counter-Service Spot at its 2024 awards. The Infatuation rated it 9.1 and went cut by cut: the ears carry the right cartilage crunch, the lengua goes at the suggestion of teeth, and the snout eats like pork custard. The range of flavor is narrow, which is what happens when the whole menu is one pig. Tania Apolinar and Giovanni Cervantes built it after Taqueria Ramirez in Greenpoint, and it is the rare second restaurant that narrowed instead of copying.