Great Take Out at Ti-Kreyol Restaurant in Naples

Stevan Stanisic
Jan 13, 2019
3 min read

Ti-kreyol (TK) is a food truck in East Naples that serves Haitian cuisine. They stay permanently on the 11000 block of Tamiami Tr. E., in the parking lot where Garibaldi Bakery and Mexican Restaurant is located.


Ti-kreyol Restaurant

Ti, in Haitian Creole means tiny and kreyol is the proper Haitian Creole spelling of Creole, which is both a language and cuisine. I have blogged about Haitian food before and thought I would recycle the next two paragraphs.

What exactly is creole anyway? Linguistically, it developed from the interactions of people whose languages are totally different, most notably in agricultural or trading interactions as a consequence of colonization. It starts off as a rudimentary common language known as pidgin. Over time, it becomes creolized, or a primary native language based on a hybrid of an indigenous and non indigenous language. The most common creole, that of Haiti, has over 10 million speakers and is a mixture of French and a former native Haitian language. Other variants exist including Portuguese- and Arabic-derived creole.

The development of regional cuisines can also follow language. Creole foods of the Caribbean are culinary “mutts” derived from different cultures settling in the region. The Spanish initially colonized Haiti, but diseases brought with them killed off many indigenous residents on the island with no natural immunity. Slaves from Africa supplanted those lost and the French also colonized part of the island. All of these early influences, and cultures settling later in the region, contributed to the development of contemporary Haitian cuisine.

Their menu is simple but very authentic. The owner, Camelo Etienne, is a Haitian who learned many of the recipes he uses from his mother while growing up in Haiti. As an adult, he was in many restaurants acquiring experience in both the back and front ends. TK is his first solo venture, and they have been open since August of 2018.

The food offerings are simple, and consist of a very generous side of rice, fried plantains and a main.

Menu, Ti-kreyol Restaurant

The first time there I ordered the fish, which was priced at $16-$21 dollars depending on the size of the fish.

Fried snapper and plantains

The fish was delicious, fried and expertly cooked. It was served with sauteed onions and peppers, fried plantains and Pikliz, that wonderful Haitian condiment of cabbage, onion, scotch bonnet pepper and carrot in vinegar base. It works very well with fried plantains, as it was meant to.

Beans and rice with sos.

This also came with a very generous serving of rice with Sos (sauce). This is a gravy meant to pour on rice made from tomato paste, cloves, thyme and other Haitian spice bases.

I went for the larger fish which was about 1 and 1/2 pounds. With the serving of rice (about 1 and 1/2 cups) this was enough for two people. All of this food was a bargain at $22.00. Most highly recommended.

On a second visit, my dining companion and I tried a couple of other offerings. We ordered the turkey and goat dishes.

The turkey was cooked Tassot style, braised then fried before serving. This is a very traditional Haitian dish.

Tassot turkey

it came with the requisite plantains, pikliz and salad with dressing. It was quite good.

My dining companion ordered goat, also cooked Tassot style. It too was very good.

We also ordered a couple of traditional Haitian fruit drinks, Komosol and Grenadin, drinks made from soursop and passion fruit respectively. In both cases the fruit pulp is blended with water and sugar and vanilla extract. Condensed milk is added to the soupsop, then both mixtures are strained and served cold. Really delicious and a unique treat to those of us not consuming these wonderful beverages regularly.

Komosol and grenadin (left and right) fruit drinks

The food at TK is very good and will not disappoint. The food though is take out and really meant to be consumed elsewhere. Fortunately, there are nearby spots that are pleasant to eat at such as Rookery Bay, one of the last few remaining mangrove estuaries in the U.S.