Pickles Pub Key West — Restaurant in Key West

We visited yesterday with another couple for our third visit within 12 months. The past 2 visits were great which is why we returned during this trip as well. However, this visit wasn’t a great experience. Our server was Rose and she wasn’t on her A-game by any means. It took nearly 15 minutes to get our initial drinks. Our order was taken and 1 of the 4 entrees ordered wasn’t put in the computer so he didn’t get his food. That wasn’t the worst part. Rose was having lengthy conversations with the table in front of us which became such a distraction that she actually let our food sit. She tried to say “it hasn’t came up yet” but there’s no way she could have known because she was talking to that group for about 10-15 minutes and never went back to check. Miraculously, after we finally interrupted her conversation, she went back and our food was already done and she brought it out. We ordered pizzas and she brought no plates or utensils so we asked her for some on her “fly-by” passed our table and she didn’t even bring enough for the number in our group so we had to go get a fourth plate and set of utensils. Three different occasions, we had to get up and get our own drinks (non-alcoholic). She would disappear randomly and we finally decided to serve ourselves. After all food was brought out, she finally told the person in our group she forgot to put in his taco burger, but it was AFTER she brought everyone else’s food and he inquired “Can you check on that burger?” And after she left to check and returned, that’s when we were informed it was never put in. He ended up eating the pizza someone else ordered. I will say, the pizza was great and the Cajun chicken sandwich was great too! The last time we visited, we had great service from a gentleman with long brown shoulder length hair (slightly curly) and he was great. Right before we left, the bartender was walking by and put the cherry on top for a bad experience after we regretfully asked him for a recommendation on a dessert place nearby and he was rude and cut me off by answering with a scuff as we walked by with a response I didn’t even understand. It’s unfortunate that the service from Rose and her lack of effort overpowered the experience and took away from the enjoyment of the food. Thankfully, the pizza is so good and we liked our previous server and that ALONE will bring us back for subsequent visits. However, we will kindly ask to not be served by Rose if it comes to that in the future. She spent a significant amount of time with the only other table she had walking them through Google reviews and asked them to specifically mention her name, which I believe was the most recent review written upon her request most likely to counterbalance the one she probably expected from us. All in all… food was great, atmosphere was great, our server was not, and the bartender working yesterday around 6:00pm could have been more friendly. Next time, we will ask for the guy with...

While visiting Key West on a "working holiday", a friend and I decided to have dinner at The Sandbar Sports Grill.

This is definitely a sports bar. Lots of high top tables and big screen tvs behind the bar.

I think the most amusing part of eating here was that birds are walking around the floor snapping up whatever scraps they find!

After looking over the menu, and debating between three delicious entries, I decided to try their Baja fish and chips. I chose this because the fish used is Mahi Mahi! I've never had Mahi Mahi fish and chips and decided I should give it a try.

In case you are unaware, Mahi Mahi is also known as Dolphinfish. Don't freak out, this is NOT dolphin. Dolphins are mammals and dolphinfish is a fish. Also, do not confuse Mahi Mahi with the similar sounding Ahi. Ahi is tuna.

Any way, this Baja fish and chips was very nice. I really enjoyed it.

It's coated with panko bread crumbs and has a side of jalapeño white sauce for dipping. The "chips" are crinkle cut fries and were nicely done. They were hot, crisp, and tasted great.

I also decided to get the Alligator Tail appetizer. The gator tail was served with a side of spicy Chipotle sauce and I was absolutely impressed with the sauce!

In fact, I liked the gator tail sauce so much that I dipped my crinkle cut fries into it too!!

The gator tail itself was good. It was cooked perfectly. It was tender and not rubbery. I think the gator tail was a good pairing with the fish and chips.

The Sandbar Sports Grill has a full bar and they even had some "Papa's Pilar rum". This rum was named after Ernest Hemingway's boat "The Pilar". It is also distilled at the Hemmingway Rum Company on Simonton Street in Key West.

Since rum is one of my favorite drinks I wanted to try some of this Papa's Pilar rum.

I enjoyed it! I've had some rums that were very harsh tasting, but Papa's Pilar was nice and smooth with a pleasing taste.

Overall, I had a very pleasant experience at the Sandbar...

Just wanted to let someone know about the experience we had today, Friday May 3rd. Mike the bartender had invited us to come have a drink on him when we were part of his jet ski tour group on Tuesday morning. The drink on Mike never came to fruition. There were four of us in total and we sat at the bar. We ordered our drinks and took our time deciding what we wanted to eat. We ordered two appetizers and one of them was the pretzel logs. I had asked for the extra two logs for the additional charge but when they came out from the kitchen it was just the four. We told the runner it was fine, not to order the extra two. Then Mike came back to take our order. He took two orders and the third party had questions. He answered the questions and said he had to step away because there was a pub crawl group waiting. Totally understandable but he sent our order to the kitchen with only two of the four of us ordering. We were completely fine with waiting. We knew he was busy. But we were shocked and upset when out order came out and he hadn’t even come back to take the other orders. Keep in mind we ordered a pizza and chicken fingers, so it wasn’t a quick turn around with the food. We were so disappointed. We had enjoyed Mike at the jet ski tour so much and then he literally blew it off that we were upset about their order not being taken. I tried to complain to a manager but Mike followed me and the server to tell me I was exaggerating everything and that he was the manager on duty. He told me to take my complaint to Facebook. I’m not going to argue with someone that lied to us to get us in and then treated us like garbage. We paid our 109.00 bill and left. 18 years I was a server and if someone treated my customers the way we were treated, they wouldn’t have a job very long. I can’t tell you how embarrassed we were and how bad we felt that we brought this other couple to your establishment and then we were...