Taste the Keys in Key Largo: Dinner Sets the Price, Lunch Sets the Value

Taste the Keys starts October 1. For the whole month, restaurants in Key Largo and the Upper Keys serve prix-fixe lunch and dinner menus, modeled on Miami Spice and paid for by the Monroe County Tourism Development Council. Look at the menus the restaurants have posted and one pattern stands out. Most dinners cost the same $45, so dinner prices barely separate one restaurant from another. Lunch prices, the few menus priced off $45 and the addresses tell you much more about how to use the month.

The Key Largo Chamber of Commerce presents the event. It began as a soft opening in 2024 and grew into a full event with 20 participating restaurants, according to Keys News Talk. The organizers say the goal is to bring diners into Upper Keys restaurants during the slower fall season. That timing means the prices are aimed at people who are here in October.

The $45 Anchor

Seven of the posted 2026 menus charge $45 for dinner: Gus' Grille at the Reef House Resort, Snooks, The Buzzards Roost, DiGiorgio's Cafe Largo, Bayside Grille & Sunset Bar, Buttonwood Grill and The Catch Restaurant. When most rooms charge the same price, the price doesn't help you choose. The setting, the kitchen and the dish each place submits to the Signature Dish Showdown do.

The menus priced off $45 are where the variety is.

A few details on the edges of the table matter. C&C Wood Fired Eats serves its $29 dinner Sunday through Thursday, 4 to 10 p.m., according to its menu page, which is dated one day after this post. Check the price before you go. Kindler serves its $69 dinner from 5 to 7 p.m. only, which makes it an early table. Sol by the Sea charges one $55 price for either lunch or dinner. That makes its lunch the most expensive in the lineup and its dinner a small step above the $45 group. Where the menus say so, prices are per person and don't include tax or tip.

Lunch Is Where the Month Opens Up

Dinner prices cluster at $45, while lunch ranges from $18 to $55. Coast to Coast Pizza starts at $18, followed by Mrs. Mac's Kitchen at $19 and Key Largo Conch House at $20. Bayside Grille and Buttonwood Grill charge $25, The Catch $27 and Gus' Grille $28. Several $45 dinner menus have no lunch option, including Snooks and DiGiorgio's Cafe Largo.

Gus' Grille shows how much the timing matters. Lunch there is $28 and dinner is $45, a $17 difference for the same restaurant and the same promotion. The gap is $22 at Conch House, $20 at Bayside Grille and Buttonwood Grill, and $18 at The Catch. If you're flexible about when you eat, a weekday lunch can cut the cost of trying a place nearly in half.

Some restaurants hadn't posted their 2026 menus when this was published. Lido 73 and the Italian Food Company Express are in Tavernier. The Italian Food Company's Key Largo location, Zaika Key Largo and ReelCatch are also on the list. All five show "menu coming soon" on the official locations page. Four of them, Lido 73, both Italian Food Company locations and Zaika, still have 2025 menu pages online, but those prices may not hold for this year.

A One-Mile Stretch Carries Much of the Month

Addresses on Overseas Highway follow the mile markers. That's why Gus' Grille at 103800 is listed at MM 103.8. Put the participating restaurants on a map and a cluster shows up, running from roughly MM 99 to just past MM 100:

1. Mrs. Mac's Kitchen, 99020 Overseas Hwy
2. C&C Wood Fired Eats, 99201 Overseas Hwy
3. Snooks, 99470 Overseas Hwy
4. DiGiorgio's Cafe Largo, 99530 Overseas Hwy
5. Bayside Grille & Sunset Bar, 99540 Overseas Hwy
6. Coast to Coast Pizza, 99625 Overseas Hwy, Suite 1
7. Key Largo Conch House, 100211 Overseas Hwy

That puts seven participants within about one mile of highway. It includes the three cheapest lunches and two of the three dinners priced below $30. Two more restaurants sit together on Garden Cove Drive, with The Buzzards Roost at number 21 and Buttonwood Grill at number 45. Gus' Grille at MM 103.8 and Zaika at 105045 are farther north. Sol by the Sea at 97450, Lido 73 in Tavernier and Kindler in Islamorada are to the south.

Because so many menus sit that close together, you can easily plan October as a series of short trips. You can have lunch on one side of the MM 99 stretch and come back a few days later for dinner on the other.

What the Showdown Adds to the Plan

Each participating restaurant enters one dish in the Signature Dish Showdown. Diners can try those dishes all month and vote online at TasteTheKeys.com, and the winners are announced in early November. These are the 2026 entries posted so far:

• Mrs. Mac's Kitchen: Key Lime Pie
• Coast to Coast Pizza: SS Wreck Key Lime Pie
• Key Largo Conch House: Gator and Shrimp Jambalaya
• Snooks: Pistachio Encrusted Yellow Tail
• Sol by the Sea: Crispy Whole Thai Snapper
• Buttonwood Grill: Onion Crusted Catch of the Day
• The Buzzards Roost: Mahi Seminole
• C&C Wood Fired Eats: Short Rib Lasagna

Two of the entries are key lime pies, from Mrs. Mac's Kitchen at 99020 and Coast to Coast Pizza at 99625. Those addresses are about six-tenths of a mile apart, and both restaurants are among the lowest-priced menus of the month. Seven of the eight entries come from restaurants in the MM 99 cluster or on Garden Cove Drive, and Sol by the Sea is the only one outside them, so most of the voting can happen within a short drive. Last year's top prize went to Sundowners for its Key Lime Seafood, which Keys Life Magazine called the Best Dish in the Upper Keys.

Two Trolley Nights, and What $150 Covers

The Chamber runs two Trolley Foodie Tours. Each is $150 per person, Chamber members get $25 off, and guests must be 21 or older. A ticket covers a light bite and one drink at every stop.

The October 15 tour starts with check-in at Snook's between 5:00 and 5:15 p.m. and a Sunshine State Salad with wine. The trolley leaves at 6:00 for Sol by the Sea, which serves Smoked Mahi Dip on Lavash Crisp with a Fiery Key Lime Margarita. At 7:00 it heads to Lido 73 for a Taste of Italy with wine. The last stop, at 8:00, is Mrs. Mac's for Key Lime Pie with a flavored iced coffee or a Watermelon Smash Mocktail. Guests are back at their cars at Snook's between about 9:15 and 9:30.

The first tour is the one that reaches the most spread-out restaurants. It goes south to Sol by the Sea and to Lido 73 in Tavernier, stops you might not string together on your own in one evening. The trolley handles the driving, and the price includes four drinks. The October 29 tour includes Sundowners, last year's Showdown winner. As of today, its schedule and tastings haven't been announced.

The October 15 Overlap

REEF Fest starts the same morning as the first trolley tour. It runs from 10 a.m. Thursday, October 15, through 8 p.m. Sunday, October 18, at the REEF Ocean Exploration Center, 98300 Overseas Highway. The program includes seminars with scientists and conservationists, social events, creative workshops and time on the water. Most events are free with registration, and some are ticketed. The center is about a mile and a half south of Snook's, which gives you the option of a day at REEF Fest followed by the trolley tour from Snook's at 5.

The rest of the month is quieter. Mid-October has the overlap, the end of October has the second trolley night and the Showdown results come in early November. Lunch prices from $18 to $28, spread along a mile of highway, give you options on any weekday in between.

This October, restaurant prices say a lot about where Key Largo's dining is priced, and the same kind of close local reading applies to what your own home would bring. If you'd like that figure from people who follow Key Largo up close, Ocean Sotheby's International Realty will prepare a private assessment. Request a Home Valuation.