Louie's Backyard — Restaurant in Key West

My wife and I first dined here in the winter months of 1984 when I was initially stationed at NAS Key West on a "stash tour" right after getting my commission and awaiting orders to flight school in Pensacola. We went back there several times after again getting stationed back at NAS Key West for advanced training in 1986. Since I retired in Florida back in 2005, we now go to the Keys on vacation every year, and almost always have sunset dinner here because the service, the food, and the view is always 5-stars. The prices are not bad at all, and if the weather is good, you'll want to dine out on the lower patio, or on the upstairs porch that has a few small tables for two. We took an old Navy buddy of mine here for dinner during our most recent visit on July 20, 2025, and even though he's a frequent visitor to NAS Key West on business trips, he didn't even know about it. He was super impressed and says he will also become a regular diner there every time he's in town. The restaurant specialize in fresh fish, prepared a variety of ways, and it's always prepared to perfection by their awesome chef. Parking can be a challenge here, so if you are staying on or near lower Duval Street (its southern end) or at the nearby Casa Marina or Southernmost Resort, you can easily walk here in less than 5 minutes. If you are staying up on the northern end of Duval or anywhere in Old Town, I'd recommend just getting an Uber here and back, or taking a leisurely walk back to your hotel or rental accommodation so you can experience the beauty of the Old Town side or back streets and their very cool and beautifully restored historic homes. I would also HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you make reservations here at least a week or two in advance if you can, particularly during the peak season (December to April), or around any of the weekends when there is a large festival or event going on downtown (i.e., Fantasy Fest, Hemingway Days, Key Lime Festival, Veterans Day Offshore Powerboat Races, NAS Air Show, etc.). I'd also time your reservation so that you are seated about an hour before the local sunset time so you get the full experience of watching the color of the sky and ocean change as dusk arrives. It's quite spectacular to watch if the weather is good. In one of the most competitive gourmet restaurant markets in the world here in Key West, this place has stayed in business for over 40 years now because of its view, its management, and its highly trained and...

We have been going to Louie's whenever we take a trip to the Keys since 1996. From our first visit to our last, the waitstaff has always been friendly, well-trained, and professional. That is a real testament to management, to keep a consistent level of great performance across nearly 25 years.

The food is the best in the Keys. Always an interesting menu, and always a very nice selection of specials. The flavors on a dish always complement each other; the chef is an artist.

Wine list is very expansive. We tend to like the drier white wines, and there are always several Fume Blancs and Sauvignon Blancs. We look for new wines we haven't tasted before, and have found several nice wines this way.

And my wife and I got to meet Louie Signarelli!! Not at Louie's, but in Cashiers, in the GA mountains, in that corner where GA, the Carolinas, and Tennessee are all so close. That's where he retired after selling the restaurant. He had a souvenir shop, and my wife bought a silver Conch Shell on a silver chain. She said, "Oh, a left-handed Conch", to which the white-haired gent behind the counter said, "I'm a left-handed Conch, so that's all I sell." My wife asked if he was a Keys native, (those born in the Keys are called Conchs) and he introduced himself. We struck up a conversation. He told us about how he started the restaurant, that Jimmy Buffett lived in the rooming house next door in the early '70s, Buffett's dog Ten-Speed who hung out at the bar, and the day that Buffett wrote "Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season".

A few months later we were at the restaurant, a late-ish reservation, and mentioned the story to our waiter, who had worked there when Louie still owned it. Ten minutes later we had half the wait-staff and kitchen around the table listening to my wife tell the story. These folks loved Louie! What a fun evening.

Sadly, that was nearly 20 years ago. Louie passed away a...

Visited Louie's Backyard on two Saturday visits to Key West; providing the chance to sample the lunch menu, then the upstairs "Café" menu and the dinner menu on the second occasion.

The small differences between the items on each menu... for example, between the lobster appetizer in the Café upstairs, vs lunch or dinner... provide a lot of color and variety to choose from, and excellent reasons to return again and again to explore the menu in different seasons and at different times of day.

The restaurant is reasonably priced considering the value, quality, ambience and attention you're enjoying. As in many restaurants, the lunch menu is a smaller selection at lower price points...and here, the "café" menu upstairs is an even better value with items at the same level of quality and creativity as the top-of-the-line dinner menu. You simply can not go wrong at any time of day. Just bear in mind that they do close between 2:30 and 5pm to turn-around the restaurant for dinner.

Whether you decide to go to Louie's for brunch, lunch, pre-dinner or a full dinner setting, you will enjoy seasonal and local-inspired dishes featuring lobster, shrimp, conch, scallops and fish, much of it locally caught.

Some of the local tastes include conch fritters served with sweet and spicy pepper jelly, on the appetizer menu; or the snapper sandwich with remoulade sauce on the lunch menu. Touches of Caribbean, New Orleans creole and South Carolina coastal cuisine appear throughout the menu.

Louie's Backyard is in an old two-story Keys mansion and backyard deck, close to the "southernmost point" or terminus of US Highway 1. Inside, it's a comfortable, relaxed, homey and cool place to enjoy drinks and dining, with large windows overlooking the deck and the ocean looking south toward Cuba. If you prefer breezy and sunny outdoor seating, the outside bar and deck is directly...