Best Food in Key West 🌴

evanbillups
Jan 14, 2022
5 min read

Most of us can agree that January weather in the top half of the U.S. sucks. Christmas and New Year's have passed and thus the charm of the cold has too. To escape the January dreariness of the Pacific Northwest/New York, my mom and I took a vacation to Key West! We spent 6 nights in Key West at the Best Western Hibiscus Inn (highly recommend for a nice, affordable, and conveniently located place to stay).

We had a great time poking around town, going on boat rides, lounging on the beach, exploring Dry Tortugas National Park (definitely go here if you can!), and just chilling by the pool.

And of course, it's vacation so we ate very well! Here are my favorite foods that we had in Key West.

Key Lime Pie

Gotta start with the obvious - key lime pie. There is a reason the Keys are famous for this pie. I was not super familiar with it before this trip. In college it was sometimes served in the dining hall, at which point my friends from Florida would comment on how you haven't had key lime pie until you've had key lime pie in Florida.

I must say, after trying Key West key lime pie, I see the hype. We had key lime pie at multiple different locations, but the classic is from Kermit's Key West Lime Shoppe. They sell classic slices as well as a chocolate dipped slice on a stick. Both are great, but I must say that the chocolate dipped was my favorite. I am not a huge whipped cream person and I am a big dark chocolate fan, so I loved the dark chocolate shell. It felt like a refreshing dessert, but a satiating one.

The tanginess of the lime is wonderfully bright and makes you feel like you're really somewhere tropical. I had something key lime flavored almost every day we were there.

Nine One Five - 915 Duval Street

Nine One Five was recommended to us by one of my mom's friends. It's clearly a popular spot, as all of the tables were full pretty much every night we went. We were lucky and snagged the last reservation on Wednesday night. I am so glad we did, because this ended up being the best meal we had in Key West!

Nine One Five has a fun selection of tapas. We started with the peach salad that was served on a bed of greens with goat cheese and the most delicious balsamic dressing. Seriously, this dressing was so good I was basically lapping it up from the plate. The dressing was wonderfully sweet from what turned out to be maple syrup. We asked the waiter afterward for the full list of ingredients, but he never told us.

We also ordered the cauliflower and capers which turned out to be a beautifully colorful mix of cauliflower doused in olive oil and pecorino. For the main we split the seafood fettuccine which was appropriately chock full of local shrimp, fish, and clams. The pasta was homemade and had that wonderfully soft, fresh texture.

And because it's vacation in Key West, we also had the key lime bar with blood orange sorbet for dessert. Their key lime had a great graham cracker crust and the top was brûléed, giving it a nice crunch. The sorbet was a super light, refreshing accompaniment.

All in all, I wish I could go back here so I can try some of their many other super appealing looking dishes! Maybe one day *sigh*.

Moon Dog Cafe - 823 Whitehead Street

Moon Dog Cafe just off of Duval St. was on my list of restaurants to try because it has great reviews on Google. The vibe is very cute, with colorful murals and lots of outdoor seating. This was one of those places where everything on the menu looked really good and I want to (again!) come back here and try other dishes.

I ended up ordering the grilled caesar salad with local blackened mahi-mahi. Anyone who knows me knows I am a sucker for a good caesar salad (though a bad caesar salad is particularly sad). This one was great! The grilled romaine hearts had a great char to them which added a smokiness. The dressing was great and the fish was delicious. I even enjoyed the croutons and I'm not a huge crouton person!

Mom ordered the mussels which were possibly even more delicious than my dish. The broth was what made them sooo good. It was so savory and spicy! The perfect thing to sop up with bread.

Moon Dog Cafe is also a bakery and has a ton of amazing looking baked goods in their front display case. I was tempted by all the cakes, but because this was Key West we had to sample the key lime pie! These were two GINORMOUS slices of pie! They are not messing around here. Though I'm not a huge fan of whipped cream normally, it really worked with this pie because the key lime was so tart (in a good way). The whip helped offset it, and of course it looks beautiful.

The Lobster Shack - 507 South Street

Though my mom is a seafood lover, she had never had a lobster roll before. I actually hadn't either before senior year of college. It's just not a Pacific Northwest thing (we're more about the crab). So we knew we had to try one while in Key West.

The Lobster Shack, located near the Southernmost Point of the continental U.S. (90 miles to Cuba!) has the best lobster roll I've ever had. Granted, I've only ever had one other lobster roll but that one was pretty fantastic so the bar was high. This roll is pretty much perfection. The bread is nicely sweet and perfectly toasted. The inside is stuffed with lobster so you really feel like you're getting your money's worth. It is buttery with just a hint of lime. SO GOOD. I already miss it.

Miami: Azucar Ice Cream - 1503 SW 8th Street

After our 6 nights in Key West, we also spent 2 nights in Miami to go to the Everglades. We saw some amazing wildlife in the Everglades including dolphins, alligators, baby alligators, turtles, and tons of different kinds of birds. Because we were only there one day, we didn't really see much of Miami. However, we did have one free afternoon so we popped down to Little Havana and walked around Calle Ocho a bit.

Azucar Ice Cream is quite famous, especially for its non-conventional, Cuban inspired flavors. I got the mulatica (top) and the cafe con leune (bottom). Mulatica was a cinnamon ice cream with chunks of oatmeal raisin cookie in it. Cafe con leune was cuban coffee with oreo. I loved how full of chunks both of the ice creams were - they do not skimp! And the ice cream itself was delicious - creamy and full of flavor.

The ice cream shop is also right next to the Ball & Chain, an iconic bar that has been around for decades. They have live music there all the time and we were able to enjoy our ice cream while listening to the band play lively tunes next door.

Those are the best foods in Key West IMO! Maybe your mouth is watering by now - I know mine is 😆 I hope that you get to visit Key West someday and try out these foods (if you haven't already)! See you next time 😊