Key Largo Fisheries Backyard Cafe

We stopped on our way to Key West and we loved the Grouper and Snapper sandwich, so delicious!!!
So we had to stop on our way back to Miami for more! The best one we ever had!!!

If there was a Center of Key Largo, I would say the Key Largo Fisheries backyard café is it there’s a really healthy looking marina. Lots of fishing boats they cook really fresh fish. Can you come by to take home the markets huge and it’s so busy in the back is absolutely brilliant as well entertainment and you can sit down and eat.

I ate a chicken bacon sandy. It was good. The fries were cooked well. My wife said her seafood was good. She ate it all. I drank a beer. They had loud, canned Cuban music and the guy singing was a riot. I bought a cap in the fish store that stated "grumpy" on it. The people were excellent. Recommended.

Amazing. I'm from Michigan so I really wanted good lobster. I came to Key Largo for a business trip, so I needed wifi and a light atmosphere. The Cafe was PERFECT! Because you order at a window and pick up from a different window when your buzzer goes off, this restaurant was ideal for me. We were able to sit and eat and work without worrying about taking up a table for a waitress. We were able to work inside but still have the feel of being outside. Everything we ate was incredible. We both had the lobster special. Tomorrow I'm going back to try the crab! The beans and rice tasted like the chef came straight from Cuba... Every single bite was heaven. The plantains were sweet goodness from the gods. I loved them so much that I was regretting that I ordered the chocolate turtle cake... That is until I bit into the cake. Good Lord, take me to church to thank the almighty! It was rich and moist and sweet with just a hint of dark chocolate bitterness. If you love dark chocolate, you'll love this cake. One piece was enough for me to share.

I forgot to talk about the tender calamari. It was very nice but in comparison to the plantains and beans and rice, I'd say it was ordinary. The same goes for the fries. This isn't to say it's not tasty, as it was, but it didn't make me think I was in heaven like the other food did.

Lobster BLT had too much lobster and too much bacon. Clam chowder had way too many clam pieces. The only reason I'm rating as a 5 is the moro was good. Haha. Seriously, everything was excellent. It could not have been any better. And being on the water in the marina was a plus.

We had the lobster roll & lobster BLT. Get the BLT! It is over & above our expectations. As we were leaving, the restaurant was making seafood Paella which made us want to try it.

Friendly staff, fresh seafood of all varieties, and reasonable prices compared to other places. Their prices per pound for large stone crabs are about 8 dollars a pound cheaper than in Everglades City, which I visited yesterday. Glad I shopped in Key Largo!

The Backyard Cafe has rare access to some of the freshest seafood in the Upper Keys. The transition between ownership was tenuous; the style of eatery quickly drifted towards the common "fish, three different ways" that every restaurant is capable of in Monroe County.

However, the recent introduction (or reintroduction) of some less common dishes such as the tropical shrimp salad or chipotle mahi wrap present a good redirection back towards the initial success of the originators of the eatery.

Our favorite place to eat on key largo! The whole fried yellowtail was amazing every time. You can't go wrong with any selection here, everything is fresh and worth the price.

In A Nutshell:

-This place took the crown from Splash Cafe in Pismo Beach for the BEST clam strips.
-These things tasted so fresh, were so crispy and yet so tender after you take a bite. Wish I lived closer.
-Check them out if/when you find yourself driving down towards Key West.
-The shrimp were also damn good. The texture of the meat seems to melt in your mouth much like how stone crab meat does.
-I wasn't to cray cray over the conch ceviche though, too fishy for my buds.

Overall, if you really, really need stone crab they will ship anywhere within the USA, which is good to know and will come in handy when the day comes.