Before moving to L.A. from Belize in 2015, Gabriel used to set up shop on the side of a major road in her hometown of Punta Gorda. Now that she operates Smith’s Kitchen out of her home, the chef relies on word of mouth. Thankfully, customers are quick to share their praise for Gabriel’s traditionally prepared dishes, including tamales, curry chicken and cassava pudding.
Los Angeles may lack dedicated enclaves for its Caribbean communities, but the influence from countries that border the Caribbean Sea — island nations such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Haiti, as well as Central and South American countries including Belize, Panama, Guyana and Suriname — has been felt for decades and is gaining wider recognition.
In many instances, Caribbean cuisines are at the vanguard of Southern California’s multicultural kitchen. L.A. is home to the only Guyanese pastry program on the West Coast, Bridgetown Roti’s Rashida Holmes was honored as an Emerging Chef finalist in the 2023 James Beard Awards, and members belonging to the city’s growing Dominican community are hosting parties to embed Caribbean culture and food in the local nightlife scene.
“Our house is full of all different people,” Gabriel says of her Saturday lunch and dinner service. “They come and they find a friend sitting here or someone they kind of know and sit down and we catch up.”
“They say, ‘It reminds me of home. You put your foot in it,’” she says.
It’s the same sense of home that chef Holmes tapped into when she and her wife started Bridgetown Roti as a pop-up in their front yard in March 2020.
“It is a very Caribbean tradition to go over to your neighbor’s house,” says Holmes. “Even when you’re in the Caribbean, your favorite roti shop looks like somebody’s house. It doesn’t look like a restaurant.”
In L.A., Holmes found an opportunity to represent Trinidadian and Bajan cuisines, two largely underrepresented groups in the local food scene, but was motivated to adapt traditional recipes with inventive takes on the island’s range of flavors and by integrating local ingredients.
“They’ll say, ‘What you’re doing is not traditionaI.’ I know. It’s intentional, but I guarantee you’ll find a piece of home in it,” she says.
Set to open in East Hollywood in mid-July, Bridgetown Roti’s first permanent location will focus on takeout with the same signature rotis, codfish cakes and macaroni and cheese pie that earned the pop-up a spot on the 2022 101 Best Restaurants list.
Caribbean cuisines are wide-ranging and diverse, blending West African, East Indian, Indigenous and a range of colonial influences depending on where you are. In Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname, where East Indian, or Indo-Caribbean, communities represent the largest ethnic group, that presence is demonstrated in curries, roti wraps, chutneys and more. In Central American countries such as Belize and Panama, tamales and ceviches borrow flavors and ingredients from Latin American neighbors. Across the Caribbean, you can always count on a “1-2-3” plate on the menu, with an entrée offered with a combination of up to three sides, usually rice, beans, a salad or plantains.
With so much to explore, tackling L.A.’s best Caribbean restaurants can be a daunting task. Here, we‘re recommending our favorite dishes at 19 of the best Caribbean restaurants, spanning South L.A., San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys and beyond.