Ali’s Trinidad Roti Shop

This is the best Trini restaurant in New York. Period. I have been going here for… well let’s say a long time as I grew up not too far from the shop. The lines are crazy and they run out of food often. My personal favorite ia the vegatable roti. (Mouth watering…) not a fancy place just fantastic food.

Veggie roti with extra pumpkin! The pumpkin is incredible. I’ve been going here for nearly a decade and it has stayed great. Wait on the line for the right window to order, and wait at the left window to pick up and pay.

Ali’s was crowded which to me signals that the food must be great. I purchased 6 Doubles and a Potato Roti. We noshed on the Doubles on our way back home and I was very disappointed. Bara and Channa and the taste of the Roti and Doubles was average. The curry potato and channa had very very little curry. The Doubles were white with no trace of a little saffron for color and flavor. I am Trini born and know my Doubles.

Ali’s was crowded which to me signals that the food must be great. I purchased 6 Doubles and a Potato Roti. We noshed on the Doubles on our way back home and I was very disappointed. Bara and Channa and the taste of the Roti and Doubles was average. The curry potato and channa had very very little curry. The Doubles were white with no trace of a little tumeric for color and flavor. I am Trini born and know my Doubles.

Best roti in new york! Everything spiced moderately and great portion sizes. Expect a long line though but its worth d wait.

Trinidad is a little country with a giant food tradition. Trini food embraces all of its cultures, and the interplay between the culinary traditions of these cultures leads to magic. This is food where the stews and provisions of Africa merge with the curries and spices of India, leading to food that is 100% Trini.
New York City boasts some of the best Trini food in the USA. Debates rage about which boro serves up the best doubles. Many swear by Queens, and just as many swear by Brooklyn.
As far as I am concerned, Ali’s, in Brooklyn, has some of the tastiest food from Trinidad. I had the opportunity to go there with some friends for Sunday lunch. Luckily, we just beat the post church crowd, and so had a chance to relax and really dig into the food.
For the uninitiated, doubles are the quintessential Trini breakfast food. It is basically chickpeas [channa] wrapped up in a bread of sorts [bara], with a variety of condiments [tamarind sauce, pepper sauce, sometimes mango and cucumber]. The version at Ali’s was quite delicious. Bara was thick and crispy, channa spicy and flavorful, and pepper sauce added just enough kick to make things interesting.
Embracing my inner glutton, I also had a buss up shut [sort of like a Trini paratha], with goat curry. Also right on target! Friends had various rotis and raved about them. I also enjoyed my mauby drink, which is made from the bark of a tree, with various spices and sugar.
And just as we were finishing up, the place started to buzz with families filing in after church. We sat there, soaking in the atmosphere for a moment, prior to beginning our walk back to the close in proximity, but distant in every other way Bed-​Stuy.

No need for an unnecessarily long and unfunny antidote. The food is okay. I love the peanut punch here it reminds me of Jamaica, BUT the doubles here are the worst doubles I’ve ever had. The dough is much too thick and the roti was a bit dry. I had the goat roti and it wasn’t at all that satisfying. If you’re Caribbean and know good Caribbean food and want good Caribbean food, perhaps this isn’t the place to go.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR, TIME MAGAZINE
To Whom It My Concern,
It has come to my attention that your esteemed publication has awarded the Person Of The Year award to German chancellor Angela Merkel and not to Ali, proprietor of Ali’s Trinidad Roti Shop in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. I’m sure I am not alone in thinking this is a mistake of the gravest proportions. How many times has Angela Merkel added tamarind to a double she sold you for $ 1.25? How many curry goat rotis has Merkel provided to hordes of hungry Brooklynites at light speed? By all accounts, Merkel has never even thrown in a salmon pie for free to anyone’s order at her roti shop and yet she warrants person of the year?! I urge the staff of Time Magazine to rescind their ill-​informed selection of Merkel and bestow the honor of Person Of The Year to Ali. Every year.
Sincerely,
Carroll

Dry oxtail roti. So many small pieces of bones that we ate half and threw the rest out. Powdery yellow stuff is a major drag.

Ali’s roti game is on point! This Trini roti is very good for the area. To my surprise their channa was also amazing. I highly recommend these two dishes from this spot. It’s cash only so $ 7-​$ 14 bucks will fill ya up with some Ting to drink! Order to the left and pickup food to the right… Y’all understand when ya get there =).
A couple months back mi lady and I was in the Stuy, craving some Caribbean food. Our normal go to’s are Jamaican and Guyanese spots but we didn’t feel like venturing deeper into BK.
With that said, we ordered curry chicken and oxtails. One with cabbage and the other with channa. 1 plain roti and 1 roti with daal.
The food and pricing was good. We wasn’t blown away with the seasoning for curry chicken and oxtails, but it was good food. As mentioned earlier our taste buds are trained for Jamaican and Guyanese seasonings. BUT that roti though… Roti was amazing. Channa was amazing! Those two dishes alone are worth the trip to Ali’s! Don’t forget to grab a Ting. It’s a lovely citrus grapefruit soda.
So to sum it up, head on over to Ali’s with some cash and enjoy some roti and channa! The ladies behind the counter are lovely and amazing! Parking is tough, weeknights and other Unilocalers states it better during weekends.
We will return when that craving calls!

For the best of authentic, flavorful Trinidad cuisine go no further than Ali’s in the heart of Bed-​Stuy. The aroma beckons you in to their Fulton St store front. And the customers patiently waiting for the food is proof positive that this food is worth the wait. While the chicken roti is tender and well seasoned, the doubles are the best deal on the menu. At only $ 1.50 each, this curried chickpea wrap is not to be missed. Takes me back to happy times spent in sweet sweet T$T

Food was really good! My girlfriend ordered it and brought it home and take out. I think she paid something like $ 6 a plate. And the portions were pretty good. I Highly recommend this place if you like Caribbean food.

I suggest calling your order in ahead of time otherwise you will be waiting for awhile. The roti skins were soft and warm each time I had it (I personally like to add tamarind sauce on mine). The pholourie is amazing! I also suggest calling ahead to make sure they have what you want. I wanted pumpkin and callaloo on two occasions and they didn’t have any.
Note: They are cash only

A co-​worker introduced me to this Trinidadian spot when our job was re-​deployed to Brooklyn during Hurricane Sandy. We must have ate here every day and after my first experience with the «doubles» I fell in love. At lunch time it gets reall busy in there and you should have an idea of what you want by the time it’s your time to order.
I am not a huge fan of the Roti because its takes so much work to eat. However, I did try the curry goat roti and it was yummy in my tummy. I forked up the meat and cut up pieces of the bread and it worked. I tried a few of their baked goods and they were good. However, my favorite items were the doubles with the various sauces that you can add to them for additional flavor. Parking is limited and the lines can get long but they move quickly.
This is definitely a spot you need to check out if you’re in the area.

Tatyana Ali had a love child with Muhammad Ali, and they named him Ali Ali. He went away to University in the «Trin Cities» of Minneapolis-​St. Tobago, and learned the culinary arts of the Caribbean. He then headed for the Small Apple (they have much bigger apples in Trinidad, hence the alteration of the nickname) and opened this Roti shop.
What to get: Doubles, Salmon Bake
What else: This is my 2^nd ever Brooklyn review! And my first ever Brooklyn food place review!
So? What else: It’s cheaper than my mother was when she was a teenager.
I came here just once, when Royal Bakery (my fave in the area for all things Caribbean — with the best Saltfish Pie and Doubles imaginable) and A & A Bake & Doubles Shop were both out of what I wanted. I stopped by and picked up a Doubles (yes, they are singular even though they sound plural) and a Salmon Bake, the latter was recommended by the lady working there.
Both items were absolutely fantastic, earning this place a hands-​down ⁵⁄₅ Unilocal rating, and causing me to offer my sexual services to all of the employees, which promptly got me kicked out, but not before I managed to snag my SB and my Ds, and they were excellent. The Salmon Bake was fishy, salty, tasty, crusty, hot, steaming and doughy on the inside, with plenty of flavour. The Doubles were everything you expect doubles to be. Wet, spongy, spicy and so different to anything you’ve had before, if you haven’t had doubles before.
So if you want to Ali-​viate your hunger, or you just took some Ali-​eve for your headache, or you’re being screwed over with Ali-​money payments and need some cheap eats, then this is your place. All-​i know is that the food here is damn cheap and damn good, and if you’re in Broke-​lyn and are, understandably, broke… this is a great choice for your dirt cheap nomariffic noms.

This place always serves up a hot, filling meal. I’ve been here on several occasions, and I can confidently say their food never disappoints! The chicken and shrimp roti have juicy meat. The dinners are my favorite, warmed pureed pumpkin, steaming spinach, melt-​in-​your mouth chickpeas, curried potatoes with your choice of bread. They are so filling and satisfying, I could never finish in one setting. Their doubles and pholourie are terrific as well! Check it out, I recommend!

I’ve had many a roti and double during my trini days. It was nice to find a taste of those days in Brooklyn. Too bad it wasn’t trini prices. A goat roti set me back 8 dollars. Good amount of meat with equal amount of potatoes. I felt the spices were lacking. It wasn’t as flavorful or tender as I had hoped. Also nice to see spicy chana sold here-​7 bucks. FYI no bathrooms, no sinks and no hand sanitizer. So true trini cart food I guess.

I will preface this review by saying that I have never had a Roti sandwich before, so I don’t have a true basis for comparison. The food here was amazing!!! It feels very authentic, from the cash only line (would have been helpful to know before hand), to the way that you yell out your order to the man preparing it. The expectation is that you know what you want before you get in the line. Trust me, the local new yorkers that frequent the establishment will give you very dirty looks.
I ordered the veggie roti, stewed chicken roti, and an order of the doubles. Yes, it was all for me, and yes I ate it all. In retrospect, I would have been satisfied with just one sandwich, but with food that smells and looks that good, I couldn’t resist!
The sandwiches are stuffed with potatoes, veggies and meat. The roti is light and flavorful. My only critique would be that it can be a little dry. I think that was my mistake though because I didn’t order any sauces to accompany my order.
I am a DC resident and was just visiting Brooklyn for the weekend. I will definitely be going back to Ali’s next time I am in the area.

I’m back beaches!
Feels like home. It’s raining and all I want to do is crawl up under a comforter with this bus-​up-​shut goat roti (yes I’m stuck on the goat) but alas, work beckons so no bed for the EYE.
Traffic and parking situation to get to Ali’s Trinidad Roti Shop hasn’t changed so be prepared to do a few drive bys before actually finding a spot.
At 1:30pm on a throw back Thursday the wait is a tad long. Also, don’t come hungry, get the real taste.
Hope y’all Unilocalers are having a wonderful, productive day!
The End.

I can’t imagine what happened with the doubles. They asked if I wanted spices, I said yes, and the finished product was nearly flavorless. O.K., perhaps chick peas count as a flavor but there wasn’t much going on here.
But Ali’s redeemed itself with a knockout chicken curry dinner. The sauce had an intriguing mix of ingredients that I couldn’t determine. The rice had enough going on that this would have been a worthwhile dinner even without meat.

Omg… I’m so pleased with my food! I decided to try this restaurant after finding it on Unilocal and checking out the customer reviews. I had been yearning for a curry chicken roti for a long time but didn’t want to just go anywhere for one. Someone told me that the best place to go for a roti would a Trinidadian spot so when I scroll upon this spot, I had to check it out for myself. I decided to try the boneless curry chicken roti based on the reviews and also because I haven’t had one before. I have found my new Trinidadian roti spot and I’m so happy.

I was watching a YouTube video on doubles (don’t ask me why. lol). I saw that in Trinidad, there’s a doubles shop with the same name as this location, and they have different locations around. I should have checked to see if this is the same chain as the one back in Trinidad, but I got lazy. lol
This shop was on our doubles to-​try-​list but we arrived soon after they opened and the doubles weren’t ready yet. We ended up getting pholourie. After my first experience with pholourie, I wasn’t too thrilled about eating it. I think I may even said I’ll pass on it but I saw they ordered two and wondered why they ordered so much, so I ended up eating one. I was shocked at how soft and fluffy it was. I asked my sis if this is how it’s supposed to be and she said yea. I ended up happily eating the rest.
I will have to return to try their doubles… will update this review soon, hopefully.