Yucatán · Est. 2019

Slow-cooked stories from Yucatán to your table

Hand-pressed tortillas, achiote-rubbed pork braised underground for twelve hours, and citrus-marinated pickles pulled from our abuela's recipe box. A taco room, a mezcal library, and one open kitchen that doesn't hide a thing.

Reserve a table See tonight's menu

Scroll · 7 courses await

12 hrs

Underground pit cook

38

Heirloom seeds milled in-house

4.9 ★

Average across 2,400+ reviews

21

Small-batch mezcals on the shelf

"We buried the pork at sunrise, served it by sunset, and the neighborhood showed up with folding chairs."

— Doña Lila, head of pit · founding family

Featured story

A pit dug in a Brooklyn backyard, a recipe kept on a paper napkin

Cochinita began as a Sunday cookout in 2017 — six folding tables, a steel drum buried in the yard, and a recipe for cochinita pibil that our co-founder's abuela wrote on a paper napkin in 1974. We never expected the line down the block, but the smoke told the story before we did.

Five years later, that same napkin is laminated and pinned above the pass. The pork is still achiote-rubbed, still wrapped in banana leaf, still slow for twelve hours over a hardwood fire. The only thing that changed is the dining room got a roof.

Heirloom corn Milled daily, nixtamalized overnight

Pasture pork Heritage breed, single farm in the Hudson Valley

Open kitchen Watch the masa hit the comal, every order

Read the full story

What we do best

Six reasons the walk-up line moves anyway

From a 12-hour underground pork to a mezcal flight that takes an hour to read, every corner of the menu is built around a single idea: slow food, told honestly.

Signature

Cochinita Pibil

Pork shoulder rubbed with achiote and bitter orange, wrapped in banana leaf, and buried in our underground pit for twelve hours. Served on hand-pressed tortillas with pickled red onion.

See on the menu

Heirloom Corn Tortillas

Bolita, chapalote, and olotillo corn nixtamalized overnight, pressed to order on a wooden tortilla press, and cooked on the comal in under a minute. No preservatives, no pre-made masa.

How we make them

Pairing

Mezcal Library

Twenty-one small-batch mezcals, organized by agave species and producer. The flight comes with a printed card explaining the village, the roast method, and the smoke level of each pour.

Build a flight

Open-Fire Cooking

Most of the menu meets hardwood flame at some point — the molcajete salsas, the charred avocado, the plantains glazed in piloncillo. The kitchen is the dining room's best seat.

See the kitchen

Tasting menu

Chef's Counter

Eight seats, one menu, three hours. A monthly rotating tasting menu cooked in front of you, with wine and mezcal pairings chosen by our sommelier. Sold out weeks in advance.

This month's theme

Private Events

The mezcal den seats up to 22 for a long, family-style dinner. Whole-pig roasts available in the courtyard on Saturdays. We close the room for you; you bring the reason.

Plan an event

Why Cochinita

A short list of things we don't compromise on

A restaurant can be a thousand small choices, made in the same direction. Here are the four we hold tightest.

No shortcuts on the proteins

Pasture-raised pork, line-caught fish, and chicken from a single farm forty miles north. We name the farm on the menu because we'd rather you ask questions than not.

Made fresh, made daily

Salsas ground on the molcajete every morning, tortillas pressed to order, masa nixtamalized overnight. The walk-in has a clock on it — if it's older than today, it's not on the menu.

Recipes that travel home

Every dish is built on a recipe we've tested, broken, and re-tested. The cochinita comes from one abuela's napkin; the sikil pak, from a friend's Mérida kitchen. The lineage is in the menu notes.

People who are paid like people

Full health, paid sick leave, a share of tips pooled across the whole house, and a kitchen that closes at 11pm. We staff to a sane number so the food and the team both come out ahead.

How it works

From the pit to your plate, in five unhurried steps

A meal here is a long arc. Here's the part you don't see, and the part you do.

The night before

Corn is nixtamalized in cal water, pork is rubbed with achiote and bitter orange, and the pit is fed hardwood and banked low.

Sunrise at the pit

The pork goes into the ground wrapped in banana leaf, the lid goes on, and the cook walks away for twelve hours. Slow is the recipe.

Pressing all day

Tortillas come off the press in rounds of twelve. Salsas get re-ground on the molcajete. Pickles are pulled from the brine in small batches.

Service begins at 5

Doors open. The pork comes out of the ground, falls apart under a fork, and meets the tortilla that was pressed ten minutes ago.

What people say

A few words from the people who came back

We've been lucky to host a lot of opinions. These are the ones we kept.

"I've eaten cochinita pibil in Mérida, Valladolid, and three times in this kitchen. Cochinita's version is the one I think about on the train home."

Maya Reyes Food editor, Eaten Magazine

"We came in for two tacos and stayed for three hours. The mezcal flight came with a hand-written card explaining each pour. That kind of care is rare."

James Thornton Regular since 2021

"Booked the chef's counter for an anniversary. Eight courses, three hours, and our server remembered the exact mezcal we liked from two visits ago. Magic."

Sarah Aldana Chef's counter guest

Reservations

A table, a Tuesday, a very long lunch

We seat 48 inside, 18 at the bar, and 12 on the patio when the weather cooperates. Reservations open 30 days out. Walk-ins get the same tacos, just a longer wait and a stool.

Open Tuesday – Sunday 5pm to 11pm kitchen · bar until 1am Friday & Saturday

143 Havemeyer, Brooklyn Two blocks from the Bedford Ave L stop · street parking after 7

Call for parties of 7+ The online form caps at six — anything bigger, talk to a human

Book a table View the menu

5:00 Doors open tonight

Last seating 10:30