Key West Update, Please
 

Restaurants being considered for an upcoming week's visit to KW - do you have any other ideas - our focus is on trying NEW places (thus, omitting Alice and some others)- any reactions?

Already reserved at: Seven Fish and Cafe Marquesa.

Anybody tried: Pices (FKA Cafe des Artistes)? Seafood suggestions? Others? Price is NOT a consideration.

Blue Heaven, Mangia Mangia for Italian. Pepe's for breakfast. Half Shell Raw Bar for seafood.

We love Seven Fish - very good choice. Have you tried Square One? It is also very nice.

I didn't think Cafe Marquesa was new. Pisces has been received well on another travel board. A couple other new places we noticed on our last visit were The Catch, A&B Lobster Bar and 915 Duval.

and there is a new place at the Ocean Key Hotel. It wasn't opened when we were there and I haven't seen anything really about.

Just came back from Key West last Saturday. It was a blast (our first time there). Restaurants we liked besides the ones you already mentioned included -

Michaels for Steaks, Abondonze for Pasta & Seafood, loved Half Shell Raw bar(as above poster did) and liked Turtle Krawls (think owned by same people as Half Shell). A & B lobster house was also good but I was lead to believe the atmosphere would be nicer. It was just ok.

Avoid Duffy's steak house. Steaks were
bland and mine was overcooked.

A laid back rib restaurant that we found and liked was located on Stock Island, called the Rusty anchor. Nothing fancy but cute, good food, good prices and nice servers, lots of locals.

Hope you have a great trip. I know that I would really like to go back again soon.


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Thank you all so much for replying - I am printing a copy and taking it with me, and will use many of your ideas.

I appreciate your help. Chaz

Antonia's for Italian! Loved it, great atmosphere also.
Don't know about it being new, but wonderful food!

You also might want to check out chowhound.com for suggestions.

chaz-we were there a week ago. Mangia,Mangia good for homemade pasta dishes, good prices too.

Pepe's on Caroline St. is something else! Breakfast a must there-great local color too.Tacky looking little hole-in-the-wall with inside and outside dining-locals bring their pets to lounge under their tables outside while enjoying their bountiful meals.

El Mason de Pepe-located right on Mallory Square-excellent Cuban food. Their fried plantains are great, and go in the evenings for the music. They have inside and outside dining available.

El Siboney-on Caroline St. offers authentic Cuban food-this is where many local's dine too.

We visited 5 restaurants just to try their versions of Key Lime Pie. Although Blonde Giraff was good, the best we had was from the bar on the water down at Ocean Key Resort, while watching the sunset.

La Trattoria is the best for Italian....actually it was the best place we ate at while in EYW.

El Soboney and El Meson de Pepe are both excellent Cuban choices...Siboney is more of a "down-home" Cuban experience while Pepe is touristy.

Wanted to eat at Blue Heaven...but it was closed for vacation.....I actually enjoyed Margaritaville

Seafood is good no matter where you get it in the Keys....We did the Conch Republic Seafood..and enjoyed it, but it was very typical and nothing out of the ordinary..I did like the open seating on Key West Bight

DO NOT under any circumstances go to Crabby Dicks....we were caught late one night close to there and were hungry so we tried it....Overpriced and horrible service...even if price is not a consideration, you want something good for your money. We sat out on the Balcony above Duval...which you would think would be a great location....apparently a little too far to travel for our waitress...The food was just OK....

Should have known better....always steer clear of double-ententre named establishments....unless your a college-aged drunk who wants the t-shirt.

Bigred-I agree about Crabby Dick's-highly overated.
Here's another definite NO-Rooftop Cafe. It may be in a good location right across from Mallory Sq. but service was terrible-SLOW and UNINTERESTED, to be sure. And to add to the frustration, they seated us outside in the heat. So when you order a tall glass of iced tea, you don't want to wait and wait and wait for it!Don't waste your time or money there.(Go across the st. to El Mason de Pepe for good Cuban food in a funky-decorated, air-conditioned cafe instead).

You saying that prompted me to remember we stopped for a glass of tea at some seafood/open air place that between Mallory Square and the Custom House. It was very dark (for an open air place, anyway)...I can't remember the name. But service was horrible....it was the middle of the afternoon.

Loved: breakfast (keylime hollandaise!) at Blue Heaven, fabulous service and food at Michael's, the food and local-watching at Half Shell Raw Bar (the license plates make for great reading!).

Disappointed in: the ice cold atmosphere of Seven Fish. Perhaps it was because we had our 70-something parents with us (great folks who can talk to anybody) but we all felt like the Gen-X staff was busy laughing at an inside joke - us!). Fish WAS fresh though!

have to agree with the attitude of staff at seven fish. if you want the freshest/best fish, go flats/wreck/or reef fishing on morning (half day is good enough-we go with 'almost there'charters) tell them you want something for dinner and the will clean and fillet some of your catch. bring it the the half shell raw bar and for $5 per pound they will prepare it any way they do any of what they sell and add potatoes/corn and slaw. last october we caught some mangrove snapper and it was the best dinner we had all week (half fried and half blackened).

I 100% agree with the comments in the first few posts...I used to live in key West and if I was going back I'd eat at 7 Fish, Mangia Mangia, Cafe Marquesa, Blue Heaven, and Finnegan's Wake (try the Fish and Chips or Shepherd's Pie). While they're not new, there's a reson that they are still in business!

we also loved Louies backyard when we were there 2 years ago. great food, service and atmosphere.

If you feel overloaded with seafood, I can recommend the Meteor Smokehouse in the Green Parrot bar on Southard Street. Ribs I had were excellent, as were the onion rings. Not sure how new this place is.