After years of slinging patties and roti from commercial kitchens, pop-up events, and even her own home, chef Rashida Holmes opened a proper Bridgetown Roti storefront in July 2024, along with business partners Malique Smith and Joy Clarke-Holmes. Now, after more than a year of getting the lay of the land, the chef has hit her stride in East Hollywood. While Caribbean cooking can be found in pockets across Los Angeles, no restaurant in town quite captures the heart and energy of Holmes’s distinctly biographical approach that spans Barbados, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles. If a roti shack were to be transported from the sunny shores of the Caribbean and reborn in the middle of Los Angeles, Bridgetown Roti would be it.
Whether seated inside or out, the mood at Bridgetown Roti is perpetually vibrant, filled with rich Caribbean colors, iconography, and textures. The restaurant’s upbeat, genre-defying playlist is curated by Holmes’s wife, Shanika Honeycutt.
Aunt Vie’s cod fish cakes, a staple dish since Bridgetown Roti’s earliest days, are no longer on the menu due to the increased cost of ingredients (thanks to Trump’s tariffs). Fans of the bite-sized, crisp-golden bites can still get their fill by placing a catering order.
Years in the making, Eater 2021 Best New Restaurant Bridgetown Roti has finally opened its permanent location in East Hollywood with a full complement of paratha-style rotis made with Grist & Toll flours and vegan butter. They’re filled with chicken curry, green curry shrimp, and roasted red pepper goat melding the influences of Southern India in the Caribbean. Chef and owner Rashisa Holmes prepares an array of Caribbean-inflected dishes like doubles on the weekend, oxtail and pepper patties, and cod fish cakes. Just be prepared to wait as the place has been crushed since opening a few weeks ago. — Matthew Kang, lead editor