Cooked?
El Mercadito
- resultPass
- critical violations0
- last inspectedMarch 4, 2026
- address2815 N Central Ave, Chicago 60634
Is El Mercadito clean?
El Mercadito is currently Pass from Chicago Department of Public Health, from an inspection on March 4, 2026. No critical violations were recorded at that visit. On Cooked's ladder that reads clean 😇.
What did inspectors find at El Mercadito?
Nothing was written up at the most recent inspection on March 4, 2026. A clean sheet like this is the best possible result — no violations of any severity were recorded.
When was El Mercadito last inspected?
El Mercadito has 16 inspections on record going back to May 24, 2017. The 12 most recent are shown below.
| date | result | score |
|---|---|---|
| March 4, 2026 | Pass | |
| March 25, 2025 | Pass w/ Conditions | |
| July 29, 2024 | Pass w/ Conditions | |
| September 5, 2023 | Pass | |
| November 1, 2022 | Pass | |
| June 30, 2021 | Pass | |
| June 17, 2021 | Fail | |
| June 9, 2021 | — | |
| May 26, 2020 | Pass w/ Conditions | |
| May 22, 2020 | Fail | |
| July 19, 2019 | Pass w/ Conditions | |
| November 22, 2017 | Pass |
El Mercadito vs Belmont Cragin
Belmont Cragin runs 60% clean across 787 tracked restaurants — 470 clean, 175 mid, 137 cooked.
Against the 787 spots Cooked tracks in Belmont Cragin, this one comes out cleaner than 43% of them.
Other spots in Belmont Cragin
How Chicago grades restaurants
Chicago does not use letter grades. Every inspection ends in one of three official results: Pass, Pass with Conditions, or Fail. Pass with Conditions means violations were found but corrected on the spot or under a deadline — the restaurant is open, with homework. A Fail means serious violations went uncorrected, and it usually brings a re-inspection within days. Chicago also flags “priority” violations, the ones most likely to actually make someone sick. Cooked reads Pass as clean, Pass with Conditions as mid, and Fail as cooked, and shows the itemized violations behind each result.
Source: Chicago Department of Public Health via Chicago Data Portal. Cooked refreshes this data daily — this listing's most recent inspection is dated March 4, 2026. Inspection results describe one moment in a kitchen's life, not a permanent verdict.