7 Places to Eat Outstanding Roti in Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago is home to a significant Indo-Caribbean community, and its culinary landscape reflects a captivating blend of South Asian influences. The local curries embody a fusion of traditional Indian flavours and African stew techniques, resulting in robust dishes complemented by the inclusion of starchy vegetables such as yam and cassava. There’s perhaps no better, more convenient way to enjoy these curries than when they are wrapped with soft flatbreads known as roti. When it comes to recommending dining spots in the Caribbean, taste preferences are so intertwined with nostalgia that it can be hard to be impartial. I often suggest trusting your senses and following the enticing aromas rather than claiming anything to be “the best”. Food holds immense cultural significance in the region, which means no matter where you, a vast array of excellent places to eat are never far away. 

Hosein’s Roti Shop

There are lots of different kinds of roti enjoyed in the corner of the Caribbean where Trinidad and Tobago lie but the two most popular are dhal puri, which is a soft wrap encasing a thin layer of ground spiced dhal, and buss-up shut, a kind of flaky, oilier paratha, which you tear up and dip into curries. In Port of Spain, Trinidad’s capital, Hosein’s self-proclaimed “premier roti shop” is a name known by everyone since it has a number of stores spanning the whole town. Because it’s a larger outfit than some of the other roti shops on the island, here you’ll find a bevy of sides such as bodhi green beans, pumpkin talkari (think mashed pumpkin) and bhagi – a spiced spinach that help to bolster all the classic roti fillings like chicken, shrimp, curry goat.

Various locations.

Sylvie’s Roti Shop 

While traditional roti shops are synonymous with dhal puri and buss-up shut, another variety – sada roti – is just as popular; perhaps even more of a daily staple. Simply flour, water, salt and perhaps a drop of sugar or baking powder combines into a stiffer but still soft bread that balloons when applied to a hot tawa. At places like Sylvie’s, to the east of Port of Spain, these are usually eaten in the morning with roasted and mashed vegetables like baigan (aubergine) and tomato. Regular roti programming is still available too with the usual curries and sides, as well as local favourites like liver, soya, and duck late in the week. 

Backchain Street & Calcutta Street, San Juan, Trinidad

Don’s Roti Shop

Trips to the hills of Diego Martin, which sits in a valley of Trinidad’s mountainous northern range, are breathtaking, with views matching the best of anywhere in the world. And after a day of hiking or strolling, bellies need to be filled and Don’s Roti Shop, with its multiple stores in the locale, will enable you to do just that. While again, both dhal puri and buss-up are on the board, the lesser seen, homely dosti roti makes an appearance at Don’s. While dosti may not be as well known or recognisable and is more simplistic (just flour, water, salt and a dash of oil), its result is often far more silky and fluffy than its spiced or flaky cousins. As such it works very well when dunked into the gravy of whatever curry you get, be it lamb, liver or goat. 

Morne Coco Rd, Petit Valley, Trinidad 

Shanty Chulha Queen

A lot of the shops in Trinidad are pretty informal places that don’t really have names and are known simply by the name of the person who runs them, like Shanty in Siparia down in the south west of the island. Shanty, also known as the Chulha Queen, due to the traditional chulha clay ovens she uses to cook everything does a very homely kind of food in a large covered shed not too far from her house. Luckily, due to recent social fame, it’s not hard to find her by asking anyone for directions in the area. There’s no menu in the traditional sense; instead you just call her up and she makes you whatever you want: duck curry, roasted vegetables, rotis, diwali treats – the list of her cooking talents is almost endless. 

La Brea Trace, Siparia, Trinidad

Lal’s Roti shop

Tobago doesn’t seem to have as big an Indo-Caribbean footprint as Trinidad and because it has a much longer history of tourism, you find a lot of hotel, foreign-facing type Caribbean food on the island: rum cocktails with umbrellas in them and so on. But there are also plenty of gems like Lal’s in Scarborough, the capital of Tobago, where the commuter ferry from Trinidad docks. It’s a great pitstop for a roti, when you’re just off the ferry and it’s got a real communal feel, as if you’re in somebody’s house. 

Dutch Fort Rd, Scarborough, Tobago

Zolays Roti Shop

Princes Town is the go-to town for the country-dwelling residents of southern Trinidad. The town is usually visited for its weekly market and the surrounding shops usually feed the market punters. Market street is not bereft of food options, but Zolay’s Roti Shop with its simple menu of dhal puri and buss-up with chicken, goat, beef, and duck, as well as shrimp, or channa, and aloo is a favourite of many (as evidenced by the long queues). Here, it’s not unusual to see customers getting four, five, six or more rotis in one order to take back home to their smaller towns where roti options may not be as plentiful. 

Market St, Princes Town, Trinidad

Nasser Roti

To me, Nasser Roti is the epitome of local food in the Caribbean. Selling out the side of a house on a residential village lane, no shop front, no tags online, not open everyday, no hype and the need to send in your order ahead of time via phone call or WhatsApp if you want to 100 percent confirm your order before everything sells out. With all this, the locality and less need to scale often means incredible food that rivals any. Usually fronted by a single matriarch known locally as Nasser both dal puri and buss-up shot are coupled with simple options of chicken, duck or aloo and big squeezes of hot sauce and/or tamarind sauce wrapped up in a paper bag for you to be on your way. 

La Lune Road, Moruga, Trinidad

Photography by Riaz Phillips.