Taste the Keys Is Back in Key Largo, With a Lineup That Looks Different From Last Year's

Taste the Keys runs through Oct. 31, and this year's list of restaurants has turned over a lot. The official 2026 page lists 22 participants. The festival site's own look back at 2025 shows 18. Comparing the two, eight restaurants are new this year and four from last October aren't on the list. That means more than a third of this month's prix-fixe menus come from kitchens that weren't part of the event a year ago.

The Key Largo Chamber of Commerce describes the festival as a month of special menus meant for "both visitors and locals," a way to support local businesses "during the quieter fall season." In past years, using it mostly meant ordering a set menu at a place you already liked. In 2026 it's also a cheap, low-commitment way to try the newer and less familiar spots along the Overseas Highway.

Who Joined, Who Came Back, and Who Isn't on the List

These are the eight restaurants on the 2026 list that weren't in the 2025 lineup:

• Snooks Bayside
• Coast to Coast Pizza Company
• Buttonwood Grill
• Kindler Wood-Fired Eats
• Amara Cay Resort
• C&C Wood Fired Eats
• Keys Latin House
• Shrimp Shack Islamorada

Fourteen restaurants are back from last year. That group includes Mrs. Mac's Kitchen, Sundowners Key Largo, The Buzzard's Roost, Key Largo Conch House, Gus' Grille at the Reef House Resort, DiGiorgio's Cafe Largo, Bayside Grille, Sol by the Sea at Playa Largo Resort, The Catch, Zaika Indian Cuisine, Vicky Bakery Key Largo, Lido 73 and both Italian Food Company locations.

Four names from the 2025 look-back list aren't on this year's roster: Crooked Palm Cabana, Pilot House Restaurant & Marina, Snappers Key Largo and Skipper's Dockside. Restaurants sign up for promotions like this one year at a time, so being off the list only means they aren't taking part this October.

Printed coverage may give you a shorter count. The Florida Keys Free Press ran its Taste the Keys roundup on Oct. 1 with 17 restaurants named, including one, ReelCatch, that isn't on the official page. For an up-to-date list of who's serving a menu, the locations page at tastethekeys.com is the one to check.

The Newest Name Opened 17 Days Before the Festival

Coast to Coast Pizza Company opened Sept. 14 at 99625 Overseas Highway, according to Keys Weekly. It's the company's third location. Owners Omar and Nicole Maldonado told the paper that Key Largo had been on their radar for a long time, and Chamber president Suzi Youngberg welcomed them to town. The menu covers New York, Detroit and Sicilian-style pizza.

The detail that ties this new shop to October is dessert. Keys Weekly reported that its homemade Key lime pie was headed for Taste the Keys. On the Signature Dish Showdown ballot, Coast to Coast is entering the SS Wreck Key Lime Pie. Mrs. Mac's Kitchen, which is back for another year, is entering its own Key Lime Pie. So a pizza place that opened 17 days before the festival started is competing for votes against a pie the festival's own trolley page calls "award-winning."

If you want a third pie for comparison, Bayside Grille's $25 lunch menu ends with its Deep Dish Key Lime Pie.

What the Ballot Looks Like This Year

The Showdown works simply. Each restaurant nominates one standout dish, diners try them during October, and everyone votes online through the Key Largo Chamber's ballot. Winners are announced in early November. The voting page says you can vote "the entire month of October" but doesn't give a cutoff hour, so Oct. 31 is the safe last day. On each prix-fixe menu, a star marks the restaurant's signature dish, and that dish is available all month.

The 2026 ballot names 16 dishes. Grouped by type, it's easier to plan a month around:

1. Fish: Snooks' Pistachio Encrusted Yellow Tail, Sundowners' Stuffed Hogfish, The Buzzard's Roost's Mahi Seminole, Sol by the Sea's Crispy Whole Thai Snapper and Buttonwood Grill's Onion Crusted Catch of the Day.
2. Shellfish and Gulf-style dishes: Shrimp Shack Islamorada's Islamorada Stuffed Lobster, Gus' Grille's Firecracker Shrimp, Lido 73's Shrimp Fra Diavolo and Key Largo Conch House's Gator and Shrimp Jambalaya.
3. Cuban sandwiches: Keys Latin House's Cuban Sandwich and Vicky Bakery's El Cubano.
4. Italian comfort food: C&C Wood Fired Eats' Short Rib Lasagna, Italian Food Company's Crispy Chicken Caesar Wood-Burning Panini and Italian Food Company Express's Ultimate Alfredo with chicken and shrimp.
5. Key lime pie: Mrs. Mac's and Coast to Coast's SS Wreck.

The new restaurants show up across most of these groups. Snooks, Buttonwood Grill, Shrimp Shack Islamorada, Keys Latin House, C&C and Coast to Coast all have entries, so a ballot weighted toward familiar names is up against a sizable group of first-time entrants. Two Cuban sandwiches on the same ballot also make for a natural side-by-side, with Keys Latin House as the newcomer and Vicky Bakery returning from last year.

Six participants aren't listed on the 2026 ballot page: DiGiorgio's Cafe Largo, Bayside Grille, Kindler, Amara Cay, Zaika and The Catch. Zaika's Moily with Shrimp still shows up under the site's 2025 archive. Lido 73 is listed with a ballot dish, yet its menu is marked "Menu coming soon" on the locations page, and so are both Italian Food Company locations. If one of those is the reason you're going out, call ahead.

What a Prix-Fixe Night Costs at Mile Marker 99.5

Two of the returning restaurants have posted full menus with prices, which gives a useful sense of what the promotion costs. Both sit at mile marker 99.5. DiGiorgio's Cafe Largo is at 99530 Overseas Highway and Bayside Grille is at 99540.

The $25 lunch at Bayside Grille is the cheapest way into the festival we found in the published menus. With two restaurants next door to each other at one mile marker, you could easily do a lunch at one and a dinner at the other in the same week. Prices for the other 20 participants are on each restaurant's page at tastethekeys.com.

The Trolley Tours Mix Newcomers With Regulars

The two Trolley Foodie Tours show the turnover in one evening. Each runs 5 to 9:30 p.m. on a Thursday and includes four restaurants, with a tasting and a drink at each stop. Tickets are $150 per person, or $125 for Chamber members, and the tours are 21 and over.

Each tour includes one of this year's new participants. Snook's starts off the Oct. 15 route and Buttonwood Grill is the third stop on Oct. 29. On both nights, the trolley takes riders back to the check-in restaurant by about 9:15 to 9:30 p.m.

One thing to know before you buy: as of Oct. 5, the trolley page displays a "This tour has ended" message under both dates, even though neither tour has happened yet. The Chamber's event pages still show the dates and registration links. To check whether seats are left, call the Key Largo Chamber at (305) 451-1414.

After the Ballots Close

The Key Lime Products ribbon cutting and grand opening is listed on the Chamber calendar for Thursday, Nov. 19, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 95200 Overseas Highway, mile marker 95.2 on the ocean side. The listing was posted last December and doesn't say whether this is a new business or a new location for an existing one, so check with the Chamber before you go. The Showdown winners should be announced a few weeks before that date.

Shane grew up in the Keys, and to our team the Overseas Highway is home before it's a market. If a trolley night or a Bayside lunch has you wondering what a home near those mile markers would look like, with dockage and an easy run home by boat or by car, the Shane Wilson team is in Islamorada and glad to talk it through. Get in Touch.