Sparky's Landing - Fish n Cocktails — Restaurant in Key Colony Beach

We were in town with two families and decided to visit Sparky's for an adult night out without the kids. At first, we were really excited to try it out since we stopped by the night before and the wait time was over an hr. The place really looks beautiful, the location is amazing, and the live music was absolutely great. We waited for our table outside by the docks and got a couple of drinks from the bar. Unfortunately, this is where the compliments end. The host was not very friendly or enthusiastic. Our server was just ok, didn't seem like he was having a good night, but we were excited for the food and the music was great, so the service was overlooked. When we got to look at the menu the feeling of disappointment settled in. It is very small, and the options are not the greatest. They have a couple of standout options, but for a place on the ocean, you would expect more variety of fresh seafood. We ended up ordering a couple of appetizers (calamary and queso), both very disappointing. The queso i am sure was just plain velveta and the calamary was coated in really coarse flour taking away all the flavor from it. They are known for the wood oven pizza (one of my favorite things in life). We ordered two pizzas, a half chicken salad and pasta with chicken. All dishes were not up to expectations. The pizzas were over cooked that the fresh dough was really crunchy. The chicken salad was really bad. The greens were great along with the dressing, but the chicken was really dry and absolutely no flavor. The pasta with chicken was just ok as the sauce saved the dish. I hope this review is noted as constructive criticism, not a complaint. The place is gorgeous, and we would definitely go back, but only for drinks and music. Not...

Overall a great restaurant. Kinda on a small scale, we heard so much about the place, we stopped in to see what the “must eat at place” in Marathon was all about.

1 Star was taken off because of inconsistency in the communication of wait time. Upon our arrival, they were telling everyone 30 minutes, but that turned into 60 minutes.

Location - The restaurant sits behind the Fairfield Inn, so it’s not visible from the main road.

Parking - Get there early! Because they share the lot with the hotel and it’s guests and others chartering boats, renting jet skis and other water crafts, it can get packed quickly. But it’s FREE.

Reservations - They do not take call ahead reservations. You must come and check in and receive a notification device, which you must stay close by for it to work.

Seating - It was kinda awkward at first, but everyone is different. They have many big party tables, and a mixture of 4 seated tables. But we did observe one family of 4 sitting at one of a table and a couple sitting at another end of the same table.

Once seated, service was fast.

Menu (Attached) - Offers a lot and has something for everyone. They do have a separate BAR area and will make virgin drinks for kids.

We tried a variety of food that was all fresh and hot. From Asian BBQ ribs, brick oven pizza, to the bacon wrapped scallops, to pasta.

They had live music. They even have decks out back, overlooking the marina and waterfront.

*They are...

Compared to Fish Island Co. This hit every note for us. I ordered the Shrimp Cajun Pasta and we also had the Shrimp and Bacon Pizza. The pasta dish was well presented, it had the right amount of sauce, shrimp was beautifully cooked ad well as the mushrooms. The pizza was good, it could have been better with a much thinner crust and a drizzle of Balsamic glaze to make it pop, but really good anyway. The drinks were amazing, I loved the Tanteo Mango Jalapeño Margarita. Perfect balance of Sweet, Tangy, and Heat. I tried the Tanteo Strawberry Chipotle Margarita, that was not great. It was watery, they should not have put soda in it- made it bland. We also had the Sparky's Punch, which had toasted coconut shaving and we.also tried the Coconut Margarita, another winner. These are the drinks for people who like it sweet.

The service was excellent, the food and drinks came.out very quickly! Our server Emmie, was amazing! She was attentive, friendly, and just bubbly without being closing. Reminded us of our teenage girls at home. We got lucky, there was a one man band on a Thursday night. He was very good- I would have rated him excellent if he had left his politics at home.

The view was phenomenal from where we sat on the deck. The only detractor was the swarm of big black flies we had to swat at all throughout our meal. I guess they must be foodies too, know a good thing when...