Stone Oven Pizzeria - The Whistle Stop — Restaurant in Islamorada

We arrived late on the first night of our second trip to Islamorada and settled on pizza. Unfortunately, we had passed our favorite pizza place in Key Largo and didn’t feel like turning around. After checking into the hotel, we went to search for pizza nearby. Starving and exhausted, we turned into a parking lot that looked like it had a decent amount of customers. Unlike the last trip, we hadn’t gone looking for reviews.

Stone Oven Pizzeria is in a busy-looking older strip mall on Overseas Highway. We’ve both had stone oven pizza up north and enjoyed it immensely. Opening the door, I noticed a sign stating if you arrived before 5 pm (?) enter through the Whistle Stop Bar next door. In hindsight, I thought it was odd, but we were tired. After entering, we found the packed parking lot wasn’t for the pizza place connected to the bar, but for the bar itself. Besides us, there was only one other small tired-looking party. After being seated by a woman who came out of the bar side, we were left with a menu we had to decipher. We decided on a build-your-own pizza because all we wanted was mozzarella, pepperoni, green peppers, and onions. None of the named pizzas on the menu were anywhere near that simple.

While placing our order we were told the only mozzarella cheese they had was buffalo milk mozzarella. I guess she saw the look on our faces and advised us to go with the four-cheese blend. I don’t know about my buddy, he’s a cheesaholic, but I wasn’t too sure about a four-cheese blend at a place that didn’t carry regular mozzarella. What I can say about the pizza was it was different. The crust wasn’t the crispy stone oven taste we had anticipated. The toppings and cheese were runny. Between the two of us, we ate maybe 2 slices before calling it a night.

The restaurant was clean and the one staff member we had contact with seemed nice enough. For us the restaurant seemed like an afterthought or an extension of the Whistle Stop. The pizza may be great for those looking for a gastro-pub-style pizza, but not for those of us hoping for a traditional pizza. My buddy and I missed the mozzarella from a traditional pizza. The Stone Oven Pizzeria is not a bad place just not for my...

So I’m not entirely sure what was wrong with one the bartenders, Matt, but he immediately greeted my family with a rude attitude. We are Puerto Rican, and I only mention that because I can’t think of any other reason why he’d come at us so aggressively when all we did was walk in to purchase some liquor.

While we were placing items on the register and discussing how we would divide up what we were paying for, Matt was already putting things through the register. No problem. After we gathered everything my dad grabbed a bottle and a small case and mentioned that they were going to be paying for those separate. Matt immediately responds “So you wait until after I’ve rung this up together to tell me they were separate?” As if we were causing him a huge inconvenience. Obviously we were shocked and caught off guard by the comment. After sharing a few words with each other we made our purchase and left but it was completely uncalled for and off putting. We have no desire to return to this bar especially if they’re going to treat patrons like they are a nuisance for giving them business. I’d love to hear a logical explanation for this type of behavior because Matt seemed to be quite friendly with the other patrons who looked just like him, if you get what I mean.

Either way, take with this what you will. I don’t think the way he reacted was called for whatsoever and it was obvious he didn’t like us or our business. Maybe Matt was just having a terribly bad day but it doesn’t excuse...

I literally never leave reviews, but...I called on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to see if my vacationing extended family could order pizzas for a casual and non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner, and was told that Stone Oven was closed Thanksgiving Day, but the Whistle Stop would be open and have pizzas after 5. Because we had kind of a large crew, we called on Wednesday to ask if it was easier for us to pre-order. They said it would be best if we called at 5 on Thursday, and once again re-iterated--without me asking--that they'd have pizza available--but we should call the Whistle Stop's number to do it. Sure enough, when we called to place our order on Thursday at 5, we were told the kitchen was closed. So my extended family, including small children and elderly folks, is presently stuck with gas station food for Thanksgiving dinner because nothing can accommodate 24 people on Thanksgiving with no notice, and even Dominos and the grocery stores are closed. This is really, really uncool. Happy Thanksgiving, jerks! Next time, just tell us you'll be closed the first time. We would have been happy to make an alternate plan, but your incompetence took that...