Restaurants and Nightlife

Duval Street is the center of nightlife in Key West, and there are quite a few restaurants and hotspots here to whet your palate. Sloppy Joe's Bar is probably the most famous watering hole in Key West, made popular through its frequenting by the likes of Ernest Hemingway (when it was originally named Russell's). Hemingway even suggested the existing name of the joint, after a Cuban establishment.

Other standout bars, pubs and taverns (with online user starred ratings included) are Finnegan's Wake Irish Pub (4.5), The Bull & Whistle Bar (4), Bourbon Street Pub (4), The Green Parrot (4.5), Captain Tony's (4.5) along with a host of other fun places to rub elbows with locals and other visitors. The feel one gets from the Key West scene can be likened to that of a more laid back version of New Orleans' French Quarter. Nightclubs like Aqua and Garden of Eden (4) help make time in Key West exciting and memorable.

Restaurants in Key West run the gamut of ethnicity and type, from steaks and seafood to Caribbean cuisine (of course), French Bistros, fine dining, Thai restaurants, wine bars, bakeries, Mexican food, Japanese, Contemporary American, Vegetarian, Philadelphia-style delis, Chinese, Cuban and Italian. There's truly something for everyone looking for culinary treasures in Key West. Blue Heaven, with its free-range chickens and "cool atmosphere" is one of the highest-rated restaurants in KW, at 5 stars average. Another 5-star rated restaurant, B.O.'s Fish Wagon, is a seafood favorite among locals and tourists alike, and is as unassuming and genuine as it gets.