Roti King: Where to Eat in Brighton (4.8★)

Flatbread, curry and a Ship Street address

The name is the menu’s thesis. Roti King started as a London restaurant known for Malaysian roti, and the Brighton branch carries the same idea to Ship Street. This is one of the oldest streets in the city, running between The Lanes and the seafront.

It is consistently well rated and well known in town, so don’t expect to have it to yourself. Prices sit in the mid-range. That makes it one of the more affordable sit-down meals this close to the pier.

The roti canai ritual

Roti canai is the reason to come. It is a thin, layered flatbread, stretched, folded and cooked on a flat griddle. It arrives crisp on the outside and soft and pulled in the middle. In Malaysia it is street food, eaten at breakfast or late at night with a small bowl of curry or dhal for dipping.

The eating is the point. You tear a strip, drag it through the curry and repeat until the bread runs out, usually before the sauce does. If you order one thing here, make it this. Then judge everything else on the menu against it.

Some things to know before ordering:

• Roti is a side and a main at once. One plate with curry makes a light lunch. Most tables share a couple of rotis alongside other dishes.
• Ask about sweet versions. Malaysian roti stalls often fold in egg, banana or condensed milk. Check the menu for what this kitchen offers.
• Spice varies. Malaysian curries range from mild to properly hot, so ask staff which ones bite.

Filling out the rest of the table

Malaysian cooking pulls together Malay, Chinese and Indian kitchens. A menu built around roti usually sits alongside noodle and rice plates. The dishes worth looking for on the board are the national standards:

• Nasi lemak: coconut rice with sambal, peanuts, anchovies and egg, often treated as the national dish
• Char kway teow: flat rice noodles fried hard in a wok
• Mee goreng: spicy fried yellow noodles
• Laksa: noodle soup in a rich, spiced broth
• Teh tarik: sweet milky tea, “pulled” between two jugs to froth it

Treat that list as a guide to the cuisine rather than a promise of the menu. Ask what is on today. For two people, two rotis plus one rice or noodle dish is a sensible starting order. You can always add another roti later, and people often do.

Finding 57 Ship Street

Ship Street runs north to south from the Duke Street end of The Lanes down to King’s Road and the seafront. The restaurant is at number 57, postcode BN1 1AF.

From Brighton railway station, walk straight downhill along Queen’s Road and West Street toward the sea. Then cut left into the lanes. It takes roughly 15 minutes on foot and it’s all downhill on the way there. The return trip is the uphill one, which is worth knowing after a big lunch.

Driving into central Brighton is slow and parking around The Lanes is limited and expensive. Train or bus is the easier choice. Many city bus routes stop around Churchill Square and North Street, both a few minutes’ walk away.

Working with the opening hours

The kitchen runs straight through the day without a mid-afternoon break. That makes timing easy.

• Monday to Thursday: 11:30am to 10pm
• Friday and Saturday: 11:30am to 10:30pm
• Sunday: 11:30am to 9:30pm, the earliest close of the week

The all-day schedule means you can come at an awkward hour, say mid-afternoon after a morning on the beach, and still get a full meal. On Sundays, plan to sit down well before 9:30pm. Kitchens rarely welcome a party walking in at closing.

Brighton’s centre fills up on weekends and sunny days, especially with day-trippers from London. Arriving soon after the 11:30am opening is the safest bet if you want a table without waiting. A weekday visit is usually calmer than a Saturday.

Tearing, dipping and settling up

Roti is finger food, and nobody will think twice if you eat it that way. In Malaysia people tear the bread with the right hand. Cutlery is fine for the rice and noodle plates. For the roti itself, hands are the honest method.

Some practical points for the meal:

• Booking: check the restaurant’s own channels before you go to see whether they take reservations or work walk-in only. A popular place on a weekend evening is where this matters most.
• Paying: card and contactless payment are standard across Brighton restaurants. You will rarely need cash.
• Tipping: in the UK a discretionary service charge is often added to the bill. Read the bill before tipping again. If none is added, around 10% for good service is the usual habit.
• Sharing: order dishes for the table rather than one each. That is how this food is meant to be eaten.

If you are unsure what to order, tell the staff what you like and how much heat you can take. It works better than guessing from dish names.

What surrounds the meal

The location is a big part of the appeal. You are a few minutes from almost everything a first visit to Brighton involves.

• The Lanes: narrow twittens of jewellers, antique dealers and small shops, right on the doorstep
• The seafront and Brighton Palace Pier: down the bottom of Ship Street and east along the promenade
• Brighton i360 and the West Pier ruins: a short walk west along King’s Road
• Royal Pavilion: George IV’s Indian-domed palace, about ten minutes’ walk east
• North Laine: the more bohemian shopping quarter, across North Street toward the station

A good shape for the day is a morning walking the pier and promenade, then roti for lunch, then an afternoon in The Lanes and North Laine. The route ends close to the station for the train home.