the island fish company & tiki bar

best seafood wish is at island fish!. i'll start by saying that this is the type of place you hope to find when on vacation! island fish distinguishes itself from all the local joints offering food, booze and music, not to mention the great view and ambience in the keys and island tradition. i looked them up on yelp before traveling and was even more enticed after having lunch there, deciding to comebacka few days later for new year's dinner! the moment you walk in, it reeks of laidbackfun and relaxation. while at the furthest point of the u.s., on water and in the sun, who wants anything but fresh fish, seafood and drink, so for lunch we had the fresh catch mahi mahi sandwich on toasted bun, with remoulade sauce, lettuce, tomato and banana pepper, and excellent choice as the remoulade is good enough to write home about; also had the fried dolphin (incredibly tender) lightly dusted with flour, sautéed with sherry, lemon and butter wrap; and the baja fresh tacos consisting of soft tacos, lightly fried mahi mahi, cabbage, tomato, cilantro, jalopenos, and sour cream salsa, served with white rice and black beans; we also had their taco salad consisting of a fried tortilla bowl, refried beans, iceburg lettuce, tomato, monterrey jack and cheddar cheeses, black olives, scallions and a side of tomatillo sauce topped with a blend of ground beef with sour cream and tomatoes; we washed it all down with lemonade; coors lite; stella; virgin pina colada; cuervo margarita... here at the beach i was expecting beach-bum names of my servers to be buffy or gidget, maybe boom boom or wave-runner, but i had to settle for yani, more musical than beachy... anyway, service was extraordinary as was the food and ambience. a few days later for new year's dinner we enjoyed: caesar salad; macho chicken nachos grilled with tomatoes, olives, black beans, jalapenos, scallions and smothered in cheese with salsa, sour cream and guacamole; stuffed shrimp of key west pink gold shrimp, stuffed with mango crab meat stuffing, baked and topped with key lime mustard sauce served with white rice and black beans; hogfish fried, topped with creamy sherry sauce, shrimp served with rice and veggie special; absolute & soda; irish rum coffee; sierra nevada; grapefruit crush of absoulute ruby red, cointreau, grapefruit juice and sprite; blue lagoon with coconut rum and blue curacao. ahoy and bon apetit!

average food. key lime pie was a small portion for $4. waitress ignored us and went outside to play with a puppy that another waitstaff had brought by restaurant. finally camebackin to bring us our check but did not wash her hands after playing with the animal! manager saw the whole thing and ignored it. great location and view, avg food & poor service. typical for the keys.

what is worse than one? i want that option. have been to the island fish company many times and, although nothing spectacular, we never had a bad experience however that all changed tonight. our 2 year old daughter said she didn't like the kids spaghetti but we figured she was just being picky like every other 2 year old. we had just receive our entrees. two seconds later she is projectile vomiting all over the table, my 7 month pregnant wife, the floor...anyone with children understands. the waiter comes by to check on us and sees what is going on. he doesn't offer napkins, a towel, a hand...nothing. so, i get up and run over to the waitress station and get napkins and then run out to the car and get a pack of baby wipes. finally, i asked the waiter if he had a garbage bag for my wife who was cleaning the entire booth....7 months pregnant!!! not once, did anyone ask if they could help, could we maybe warm your food up, make you something fresh, no, instead i got the check. i asked to speak to the manager and andy, the manager on duty, came over and told me that we made a mess of his booth....what??? i bit my tongue and explained to him that we can't exactly eat our food and that my daughter said the spaghetti was bad. what did andy say you ask, "i have served 15 of those tonight and they have been spot on". he then continued with the "mess" we had made. finally, i could take no more. i informed andy that we would be happy to pay for what we ate and nothing more. what next you ask, andy called the police!!!! three cop cars pull up and my wife goes over to speak with them. andy says that we were walking out on our bill. what? we waiting for 30 minutes for the police. our other two kids were on the restaurant dock feeding the fish. walking out?!?!?! the monroe county sheriffs office could not have been nicer. andy spoke to the police horribly! they explained to andy that they could not make us pay. after listening to this "manager" go on and on for 15 minutes, my wife just said she would pay the bill to get out of there. the police explained they could not force her to do so but with a crying baby in the car full of puke, my wife did the right thing and chose our kids over andy. the police offered to escort my wifebackinto the restaurant so that andy could not be mean to her anymore. the police said they would write up a police report even though that was uncommon in this type of situation so that if we chose to fight this, there was a record of it. thank you monroe county sheriff's office for making this horrible experience a little better. finally, we spoke with the concierge at our hotel on arrivalbackand they said, "these guys treat tourists terribly". lesson learned, speak with locals first!

exploiting animals for profit. i was at this restaurant with my family over the christmas holidays. they have a captured iguana in a tiny cage, just outside of the restaurant, which is extremely off putting and sad for anyone with an ounce of compassion. my family and i do not support exploitation of animals for human entertainment and would never gobackto a place that does such a thing. horrible!

great service and huge servings. we drove by this place and thought it was a great location and looked nice, read some reviews and decided to try it. parking is limited but we were there early so we were all good. the hostess sat us in what we normally would think would be a great table...but we just gotbackfrom a 10 hour fishing trip and the sun seemed to be killing us. our waitress was very concerned and continued to ask if we wanted to move tables but we didn't want to be a burden for something that wasn't their fault. we ordered the lobster rolls for an ap... i was expecting a tiny egg roll... holy cow they were huge... different and very tasty!! we both ordered soup and pasta. the soup was very good, it was the island style she crab soup.. now if you are expecting she crab soup.... be warned... it's not traditional..but still good. the pasta bowls came out and they were huge. the prices are a little higher, but for the amount we got, it wasn't bad. because the sun was making us uncomfortable we asked for our food to go somewhat quickly, but we had read a review about the deep fried key lime pie so we ordered a slice to go! it didn't last longbackat the resort, and our left over pasta warmed up great the next day. will gobacknext time when we can spend time and enjoy the atmosphere.

so good the first night we camebacka second night. highly recommend the conch fritters, lobster bisque, tuna tatika, and the fried key lime pie

my second trip here. both were good. good fresh fish and stone crab. would gobackwhen i'm in the area again.

the best restaurant in marathon- best calamari i've ever had!! fabulous service, right on the gulf coast! tiki style, open floor plan right on the water. never disappoints- i keep comingbackevery time i come to the keys!

yummy. we were driving down to key west, and ran across this gem! stopped in for lunch, beer cold, conch chowder hot and full of flavor, and fish sandwiches/wraps wonderful! we loved it do much on the drive down, we stoppedbackby again on our way to key largo, and again were not disapointed.

mediocre food, poor service. save your money!!. our family vacations in marathon every year, and the island is located less than a mile from where we stay; however, i will not give this place another chance! the first time we visited (2009) the food was great, so we camebackagain in 2010…we had actually saved it until our last night, but on that visit the service was slow and the food was mediocre at best not to mention way overpriced. we skipped it in 2011, but decided to give it another shot this year…big mistake. we were seated by the host/hostesses and pretty much forgotten. we sat there for about 15 minutes and no one ever greeted us—they weren’t even that busy! many employees walked by our table and not one noticed that we had not been greeted. we decided to leave, so my husband mentioned to the host staff that we were leaving because we hadn’t been waited on…they just looked at him like he had 2 heads. my husband runs 2 restaurants and has been in the restaurant business for 20+ years, so when he is treated poorly in a restaurant it makes him crazy. we will not be comingbackto the island…fool me once, shame on you…fool me twice, shame on me. i am sure they will still do business because tourists don’t know any better, but a word of advice to anyone going there for the first time, be prepared to be disappointed. don’t waste your money…head down to keys fisheries if you want good food without the hype and crappy service.

wow. after just posting my review i had to comebackand add another post after reading the previous posts. does the management read these, i see post after post about the same complaint i had and that is the staff is rude! i challenge the management to reply to the posts about the rude staff, its not like there is only 1 or 2 or even 3 posts about the staff, there are many many posts all stateing the staff is far from pleasant or even professional. so management, what say you?


-----24 feb, 2012-----

it was ok, but. i was on a motorcycle trip from orlando to key west, taking my time, not in a hurry, i had no set time to get there or get home when i came across this cool resteraunt. i pulled in and got a drink and then decided to try the lunch, the waitress came over and i was asking her some questions about the menu and to my surprise not all people in the keys are nice, this lady was very rude, short and i dont mean in height, i was completely taken by the unprofessionalism rudeness i received. i finally decided to look past the waitresses attitude and order some lunch, i got the bisque and a half pound of peel and eat shrimp, it didnt wow me like i expected seafood in the keys too, but it wasnt as bad as the service and attitude from the staff, i might try it again when i go back.

gluten-free win. after searching for seafood restaurants with varied menus, we landed at island fish co mainly because it is across the street from our hotel. thank goodness--our family (2 adults, 2 kids) had a wonderful dinner that happened to fit our gf bill without any modifications! our server was amazing, despite a huge party coming in. it's not on the menu, but there is a gf (vegan!) chocolate cake that is simply amazing--even if you're not gf. wine selection was pretty good. we had peel-and-eat shrimp, local stone crab, and mahi-mahi--all fresh and wonderfully prepared. we'll definitely bebackon our next trip to the keys!