Carnitas Don Rafa

There have been some references to this place but no dedicated thread I can locate. It came to my attention when we were looking for a Mexican catering place. In the course of negotiating with them for tonight's event we've been there several times in the last few weeks, and I am very, very impressed.

My co-worker and I went there for lunch a few weeks ago to explore the possibilities for the catering, we had lunch and conversations with one of the staff about catering. The lunch was terrific, I had enchiladas suizas and my co-worker steak tacos. There was a complimentary lentil soup with ham as an amuse bouche, very tasty. Chips were made in house served with a great red salsa and pico de gallo. Both the tacos and enchiladas were made with home made tortillas which really hit the spot. I'm getting particular about homemade tortillas, if a restaurant doesn't have them I don't want to there. Reasonable prices too.

The pitch for catering went well, the prices were reasonable. Then the following weekend Mrs. Trpt and I stopped in for a Sunday lunch, tampiquena for me and barbacoa for her. The setup is that there is a restaurant on one side, take out (carnitas, tamales, menudo, pozole, etc) on the other. Again really good meal. Steak tender and juicy, done just right, enchilada right on the mark, barbacoa stellar. The next week we ordered take out over the phone, two dozen tamales, a pound of carnitas, about $24 with home made tortillas. Again pretty impressive. The carnitas were above average, but the tamales ruled. We tried red, green, queso with rajas and sweet. All were the best we have found since La Guadalupana went under.

So with the catering order we decided to include ten dozen tamales, evenly distributed between red, green, and queso con rajas (a nice vegetarian option). For $6.95 a person we got pork in green chile, chicken with mole, beans. rice, tortillas, nopale salad, chips and salsa, pico de gallo. For another $195 they included set up, tear down, and all pans and sterno and two servers, including Don Rafa himself. They delivered on time, food was right on the money. We had 90 people and there was plenty for everyone, and it was a gigantic hit. Very, very impressive. This is new on my radar but we will certainly be going back and will definitely use them again for events.

Carnitas Don Rafa
4619 South Kedzie Avenue
Chicago, IL 60632
773-847-8342