Fogarty's — Restaurant in Key West

Awful

Would have given a -1 star if the option were available.

See the Florida Inspection Report confirming 11 issues dated June 19, 2024

Food was mediocre fast food quality at best. One dinner that was served was inedible. Drinks were highly processed mix served in a laughably small container.

Sanitation was non-existent. See the attached report dated June 19, 2024.

We were seated near a table of loud obviously over-served drunks openly defying the posted sign to not feed the birds (feral chickens). Food was all over the patio around their table. Two servers were alerted to the situation but apparently were afraid of provoking the table of loud drinkers.

The manager (who would not give us her name) was finally engaged in this nearly empty restaurant and said, in sum and substance, too bad, sorry that our food is inedible and that our signs about not feeding the pestilence are to be ignored. Just pay our exorbitant charge and dislike us online.

So here it is.

Save yourself from a miserable time and go anywhere else.

Follow up to the “sorry, not sorry” reply on behalf of Fogarty's

Fogarty’s minimalist response is a non-apology riddled with errors.

While it is somewhat true that feral chickens are protected in Key West, what is actually true is the following:

Restaurants are not exempt from following sanitation laws required to be a licensed because a feral chicken enters your dining area. In fact, there is no overlap whatsoever. Feral chickens and a sanitary establishment are pretty much completely opposite. Just learn how to keep them out of your restaurant (thereby stopping the introduction of their soiling into your dining areas and eventually your food preparation areas, etc.). Invest in a gate or a wire fence if you must.

Just keep the feral chickens away from your dining facility, kitchen, etc. and maintain sanitation.

The drunks may be disappointed but the health department officials (and most sober guests) will be pleased. Your inspection report of June 19, 2024 shows you have a lot of sanitation problems to fix.

On the subject of feral chickens, it is actually AGAINST the law to feed them. It is not a stretch of this rule to bar a restaurant or saloon from hosting, permitting or encouraging its patrons, sober or drunk, from feeding them on its premises (no matter how mediocre the food tastes to humans).

No other restaurant appears to have your inability to keep feral chickens and other wildlife mostly outside and not dominating its guest areas. I understand from your official manager (who never provided a name) how delighted your drinking guests are to feed the feral chickens, however, how about just trying to serve edible food to paying guests at reasonable prices, don’t over-serve obviously drunk guests and prohibit feeding feral chickens on your property (which also happens to follow the law).

Fogarty’s should learn sanitation.

Recognize that guests fleeing your establishment leaving an untouched meal are probably not happy with the lack of sanitation secondary to the surplus of feral chickens at their feet being fed by the nearby table of loud drunks. Your waitstaff was asked to make the flinging of food stop and when it did not, they said they informed “the manager “. The manager (who would not share her name) said, in effect, this is how Fogarty's likes the feral chickens and lack of sanitation. Managers “manage” situations. Your manager never said her name, showed no ability to do anything to end your violations and despite being given opportunities to fix the situation, she never stopped the drunks dumping food, she never moved us and she never tried to remove the chickens. Managers manage situations to stop escalation. The Fogarty manager, when required to fix a sanitation issue, apparently just presents the bill suggesting a guest subjected to health code violations should pay for NOTHING and immediately leave. The Health Department report of an inspection of Fogarty's dated June 19, 2024 is a good place for you to start improving...

Dining here one night of my vacation, i was treated so poorly. I decided to take my friends here to dinner, it was their first time in key west. Our waitress was nice at first, atmosphere was great. I ordered the blackened fish tacos (mind you i’m a chef who has worked in kitchens for 4+ years) so i expected them to be a bit spicy, but when i took a bite, it was so incredibly spicy and bitter. I took two bites and had to stop because it was so painful. Being a chef/worker in restaurants myself, i didn’t want to be a pain but i also didn’t want to go hungry and only took two bites. I very kindly asked the waitress if i could please switch it out for a different entree and explained that it was painfully spicy. She suddenly changed her attitude and turned defensive and rude, and said that i would have to pay full price to get a different entree and that she would ask a manager. However, not even a minute later she returns to reiterate that i would have to pay for a different meal and says “blackened is spicy, that’s why i ask if blackened is ok”…. not ONCE did she ask if blackened was ok, nothing on the menu mentioned it was that incredibly spicy, and working as a chef, i’ve never had blackened fish that hot and bitter! I was not about to pay another 23$ for a meal, so i went hungry and STILL had to pay for the tacos. The way she talked to me really ruined the vibe when i was trying to enjoy my one vacation with my friends. My friends said their food was ok, nothing memorable though. Really...

Visited Fogarty’s around 4:30 p.m. today with my family of 5, who are visiting Florida. We sat indoors, and I appreciated that they had A/C—it made the experience comfortable. The place has a casual American bar/restaurant vibe. We all ordered burgers, which were very good; the patties were thick and filling.

However, we were not treated kindly. Our server was a middle-aged woman with noticeable eyeliner under her eyes—I couldn’t get her name. She got annoyed when one of us began giving their order without waiting for her to ask. She stopped them midway through their order and rudely told us to wait our turn. When I tried to explain that my family members don’t speak English well and needed my help translating, she basically dismissed me with an unpleasant expression for interfering and moved on to the next person.

To make things worse, when it was time to pay, we had to go around looking for her just to get the bill. It came with an 18% gratuity already included. Would we willingly leave an 18% tip for service like this? Nope. On top of that, the bill was tossed onto the table by her when she saw out efforts to get the bill, right over food scraps, as if to add insult to injury.

We left feeling upset and discouraged—even to the point that we didn’t want to speak with a manager. Overall, the poor treatment overshadowed the good food, and it really hurt the...