Hog's Breath Saloon — Restaurant in Key West

I've lost track of how many times I've visited Key West and Hogs Breath has always been a favorite place to stop in for a quick beer and maybe two or three if there's good music going on. About a week ago my family and I (5 of us) stopped in after having walked around town all day. We showed up in need of everything - food, drink, and a place to rest. We figured we'd spend the next hour or two rehydrating, drinking beer and cocktails, and ordering whatever it took to fill everyone up. What we received was service and an attitude of a waitress that was nearly unfathomable in a tourist town or much less any bar/restaurant on the planet. We were given a table just inside the restaurant area, a few steps out from the bar, where we sat and looked at drink menus and I patiently waited while our party, famously indecisive and needing forever to figure out what combination of drinks and apps to order, figured out our game plan. So much time went by that I was 100% there was no waitress assigned to our table and that we must obviously have to go up to the bar to get our drinks started. I went up to the friendly bartender who started off by making a couple drinks and pouring a couple beers and as he was swiping my card my wife came to tell me the waitress had come by and asked if it was too late to cancel our bar transaction. The bartender and quickly done his work and no big deal I thought for us to settle up and continue on with whoever our server would be. Oh how wrong I was. When I brought the drinks back to our table my entire family said how pissed this girl was, how she complained that we had gone to the bar and had stormed off in response after my family had started to ask for waters. I went back to the bartender to ask for waters and he said if we had a table that he shouldn't serve us waters or anything else. I told him based on my family's reaction the waitress had no intention on bringing us water. He said she had to and, having trusted this nice guy from our previous interaction went back to the table. After sitting down for a few minutes and noticing there was a server frequenting the other tables around us, it was just as apparent she was ignoring service to ours. She even would occasionally scowl at our group. I ended up going to the outside bar to grab a couple waters and brought them back. We had finished our round of drinks and finished our waters when the waitress, a prolonged period of time later, brought waters to my family. The entire experience at this point was appalling and we decided we were done with Hogs Breath for this day with the unprofessional, immature attitude from the waitress having done in the entire experience. We thought we would try to make it up to her and as an apology (because she had entirely made us feel we had committed a tremendous crime that entirely ruined her day) tried to give her a straight $20 for having done nothing but bring us waters and treated us like absolute sh!t and the girl wouldn't even accept it. She was so pissed that she wouldn't even take a twenty from us after all she had put us through. What an absolute total fail as an employee and human being in general. Total fail for Hogs Breath on this beautiful January day. This one waitress needs to go. Despite having lukewarm fond memories of Hogs Breath from the previous 20 years I'll never forget this one experience that greatly sours any good times...

As soon as we walked inside the bartender was not welcoming and rude. We were by the entrance before you could see the hostess sign and I just simply asked him if we sat ourselves was not very busy. He said in a very snarky rude tone that we did not “as the sign right in front of mean said..” even if we had been closer to the sign and could see it not a way to treat paying customer. The way his voice sounded obviously someone who should not be in customer service… I carefully made comment could not see the sign and you could tell he just wanted to ignore me as if did not Want to engage w customers. His tone reminded me of a teenager w attitude was not a Good look..

My friend wanted to leave I wanted to stay because some of other friends we have who stay in area part of the year had suggested us going. The server was polite and prompt. The atmosphere seemed most people more coming to drink and hang. My friend’s brisket she said was worst she ever had very fatty poor quality cut. The fries likely frozen and very overly seasoned. My blacked fish was ok but bun just basic bun nothing to have me go back with so many food choices in the area. I did send a message directly to the establishment got a generic message back received but no commentary. Note everywhere else we have had had wonderful service and food. Notice other reviews last few months commenting on a rude bartender.

They did have first responder badges on the walls which were good. Me and my friend both are in medical so appreciated...

We kept coming back here because we loved the vibe, the live band (same both nights we went, but great), and it was a hyped up fun crowd. There’s A LOT of smoking and they don’t think twice about lighting up right next to me (I’m deathly allergic, have severe asthma attacks and lose my voice instantly when exposed to even a second of cigarette smoke). It started pouring rain (welcomed because it drastically cooled us off) while we were there the second night and we were glad when the staff pulled down clear tent style walls until the smokers smoked us out of there. We had to leave after it came into the restaurant part where we tried to get away from the smoke.

We spent quite a bit of time in the parking lot because I could move around and it was actually one of the safest places we found in all of Key West where I wasn’t having to move away from people lighting up cigarettes wherever I was standing or sitting. The parking lot has a good view of the stage and all the action “inside” the bar area which is a partly open patio in an alley.

Another good spot we stood was the stairs under the sign (I’ll have to request those photos from my husband) where there was an industrial fan to cool us off until another woman came up for the same reason so we left her the cool spot and explored other places...