Key Largo Conch House — Restaurant in Key Largo

We read a lot of “hype” and recommendations about this place, and on a Saturday night, decided to try it out as much of our other dining experiences in the area left a lot to be desired, and we were wanting something extraordinary. This…was not that. It wasn’t bad, but it definitely wasn’t “wow, that was good.” That goes for both the food and the service.

I’ll start with the good: the atmosphere and ambiance is very home-y and cozy. Definitely a cute vibe! For apps, we ordered the conch ceviche and the gator bites. We were thoroughly impressed with both of these! The amount of conch in the ceviche was awesome, and the gator bites were extremely tasty. 10/10 for those!

Now, the entrees: I ordered the Kingston chicken. 1/4 chicken Marinated in jerk spices, finished with sautéed peppers and onions with a key lime honey. Served with rice, red beans, sweet plantains. The presentation was beautiful. The chicken itself was cooked well, flavor wise it was OK - it didn’t have any salt. The peppers and onions weren’t really “sautéed” they were just kind of thrown on the chicken. The rice was mushy and had maybe 7 beans on top. The beans that I did have, didn’t have much flavor it seemed like they were canned red beans. The plantains weren’t 100% ripe but I’ll give them a pass on that. Overall, for $25 I was kind of disappointed in my meal.

My husband had the churrasco. 10oz of skirt steak marinated in chimichurri served with rice, red beans, and tostones. His steak wasn’t cooked medium like he asked but nonetheless he said it was still really good, the chimichurri had good flavor and you can tell it was house made. He had the same bean/rice issues I had (he had even less beans lol) but on the plus side his tostones were HUGE and cooked perfectly. He was definitely happier with his meal than I was but at $32 we both felt like everything should have been executed perfectly.

Overall, despite some positives (presentation of food, atmosphere) there were more negatives and due to this, we probably won’t return. We don’t mind paying for really good food, but at $110 for 2 people with no extra drinks/desserts AND for us to leave fairly unimpressed….its a mistake we...

In May we were in town for a wedding and wanted to go to dinner close to our hotel. Plus, it was Mother’s Day. So, we walked to the Conch House. Unfortunately, they do not take reservations. But we arrived early, and we were seated right away. Surprisingly, it was not busy at all. There were 8 small tables inside. And outside seating was available. Our server was Aileen, and she was training someone. I told her I have celiac disease and a soy allergy. Then I asked if I could talk to the Chef. She said I could not speak to the Chef. But she assured me that my food restrictions would be taken care of. To start, we got two red sangrias which were refreshing. For appetizers, I got caprese and my husband got coconut shrimp. And both were delicious. For dinner, I got the mahi with grilled vegetables and rice and my husband got the bacon wrapped filet mignon. Can you believe no one checked on us for 25 minutes? Plus, they were not busy. Now you would think that two people are better than one as far as service goes. Not only were our water glasses empty but so were our sangrias. Finally, the server came to our table. But we had finished our meal. She asked if we wanted another drink. So, I said we would have if you had checked on us sooner. And it was a shame because we would have spent more money. For the price you are paying, I would have expected better service. Overall, the...

After years of coming to The Keys, we finally made it to The Conch House for dinner. We had met the owner Lauren a few years back when we were researching wedding venues, and we tasted her “key lime boats” which were delicious! Unfortunately, our dinner was a bit disappointing. The conch fritters were good (& interesting with a slight curry flavor). We both ordered hog fish, mine was topped with a crab stuffing and key lime butter and was very good. My husband also had the hog fish but topped with orange and coconut that was overbearingly orange and not enjoyable. What we were most looking forward to was the key lime pie. Having had those delicious key lime boats a few years back, we were certain the pie would be perfect, and we were greatly disappointed that it unfortunately was not. The crust had something in it - perhaps cinnamon? - that took over the flavor, and the pie itself was a bit drab. We prefer a more tart pie with the sweetness of a graham cracker crust. The service was also lacking. We had reservations and while we got our table rather quickly, it took more than 15 minutes for anyone to come and offer us a beverage. Therefore, we anticipated a 5-star experience that turned out to be a 3 at best. I’m sorry to say we will likely...