Best Places to Eat in Marathon, Florida: Where Locals Eat

Where the best food in Marathon comes from For the best couple places to eat here in Marathon. To be perfectly honest, there's a handful of locally owned spots, but really the best option is to get out on your boat. Next question is, where's the best food in Marathon, Florida? And my answer is going to be kind of two places. We've got a handful of locally owned spots. And then the other best place is going to be your boat. We've got the grocery store right out front in the back country. And you've got some of the best seafood in the world available right here at your Why a waterfront view can hide weak food Door. Keys cuisine does not exactly have high acclaim. Generally, you're going to have a tiki bar with a gangster view, so you don't really need to try that hard when it comes to the food. The bar is set phenomenally low. Things are all coming off a Sysco truck. It's no longer local food, local fish, local lobster. You're getting a lot of frozen imported stuff because it's the only thing you can do on scale in these 300 seat restaurants. So finding local places that do care and are probably buying fish off of local fishermen is always some of the more important things to me. So everybody wants this Florida Keys style tropical experience and these giant massive tiki huts end up kind of becoming this regurgitated TGI Fridays with coconut shrimp and a fish sandwich. Sparky's Landing But um if there's one outlier, the proof is in Sparky's, which took over one of the nicest tiki huts on the water in Marathon that also had multiple failed establishments there before it. So, you know, a great operator is what's actually going to make the space, not just the space. If you want to get a brick oven, woodfired pizza, they're some of the best in town. Fish sandwiches, um freaking fish tacos, the whole shebang. And uh I think as far as tiki hut vibes go, Sparky's takes the Herby's Chowder House Cake. If I'm going to go for the cheap meal and you know, definitely want to feel like a fatso tonight. I love going to Herby's Chowder House, chicken and smashed potatoes. You know, they'll show you this big thing of Guy Fieri went there and put it on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, whatever that show is. And it's internationally acclaimed. But order the half order. The full order will put you to sleep. Cheeseburger and [unclear] fries. Can't go wrong. and they've got a killer craft beer selection. Did sell recently, but is still locally operated by a family who's been in the hospitality kind of food and beverage industry for a long, long time. So, you're still doing solid going to Herby's. Castaways is another Castaways Great option. Castaways is owned by John Mirabella. Rotating people in there that are, you know, captains, fishing guides, people that are trying to get a couple extra hours of work when they're not on the water. Those are going to be your servers and bartenders. So, it's a good authentic local vibe. Sushi's great. You know, they've got a couple guys in there always cooking up new rolls. And you've got a rum and a beer list that definitely is deserving of, you know, a classic Florida Keys dive. So, one of the nicer places I'd recommend getting a reservation in season and you can't go wrong. That's what you want in the Keys right there at Castaway is what they got. I'm an absolute sucker for old Keys Fishtails Nostalgia and I'm a firm believer in nothing's as good as it once was, but we can keep trying to make it that way. And another great place that proves that is Fishtails, which is this this super old from the outside very unassuming German style fish house right next to Captain Hooks Marina. You've got the marathon lady unloading fish every day behind it with all the tourists. You can go in there, get a fresh fish sandwich. They also do hand cut steaks and definitely one of my favorite places to eat. If you can get there in the fall for Oktoberfest, you will not be mad. It's right on Vaca Cut, which is kind of the main cut that slices through Marathon. The water travels from the Gulf to the Oceanside. And you got to get there early. They're not doing late dinner. You know, you're showing up at 7:00, you're kind of behind the curve. So, it's good to mix that happy hour dinner type vibe. Go in, get yourself a German fish sandwich. Or if you want to feel a little healthier, you can get a Johnny salad. Johnny's still a butcher guy in the kitchen doing the whole program. It's right next to Captain Hooks Marina, too. Another killer little spot in town. And so they've got one of the two butchers in town right there. So they're doing seafood as well as, you know, hand cut steaks and things like that, but it's more of a uh lunch and dinner vibe, not open 7 days a week. I love fish tails and would always tell you to go there. And if you really want Why the best meal starts on a boat To get the absolute best meal that you can possibly get in town, the move is to get on a boat. Whether you're with a charter captain or you're getting your own boat, you've got four miles out where the reef drops off. Inshore you've got all the best reef fish, snapper, grouper, yellow tail. Probably the best light, flaky delicious. Offshore you've got the mahi, you've got the wahoo, you've got the black fin tuna. You really want to treat yourself, get on the boat, go out there, catch some yourself. The people that we have available down here are probably the best in the world when it comes to commercial fishing. And getting out there with an absolute professional charter guide is an unmatched experience. If you want to get out there and experience that like the pros, like the locals do, click the link in our bios and in our descriptions. We'll get What is biting by season and hook and cook You out there no problem. Seasonally, we're catching different fish throughout the year. Grouper season starts in May and goes until pretty much the end of the year, December 31st. So, come in, get your grouper and your hogfish over summertime and into the fall and bring it into any of the restaurants. Tell them you want hook and cook. Mahi mahi season in the summertime, tuna usually all year round. Winter time we're catching all the classic reef fish. You know, yellowtail snapper is probably a 365 day fishery that you can get pretty much guaranteed year round. One of the nice light white flaky meats. Always a good option. Hook and cook. Whether you're going to go out, catch a fish yourself, head home and cook it, or bring it to one of the restaurants. Almost all of them in town will offer that option. Our local market, Grassy Grassy Key Land and Sea Market Key Land Sea, was something we put together. And any of our places are things that we did to kind of fill a void of what used to be available or what no longer was. And uh a complement to what Fishtails does in terms of local fish and beef. We wanted to really make some some awesome offering. So, we've got this exceptional grass-fed beef that is not like, you know, the homestead farm yellow fat kind of gameier cow beef that you might see off of, uh, you know, classic grass-fed ranch beef. Then we also have a, uh, phenomenal offering of different pork, antibiotic free chicken, uh, and a great selection of local seafood staples. In the case, you're always going to see yellow tail snapper, yellow fin tuna that is imported because it's sushi grade Pacific. The market's cool because it's something you can do breakfast, lunch, and dinner, 6:00 a.m. in the morning until 9:00 p.m. at night. We've got, you know, three menus throughout the day and you get anything in there from chum and fine wine. So, we've got it all covered. Of course, we A local restaurant shortlist Have some great options, but there's so many other things that make this place so special. Walking through a day-to-day thing, Herby's Chowder House has an incredible beer selection and some cheat food. If you haven't tried that fried chicken and smashed potatoes, you're missing out. Castaways. If you want to go get some lion fish or some good sushi, I would always recommend that. John Mirabella is a great operator, give you a rum glass that makes you feel like you're falling off a boat. And then, uh, Sparky's Landing, again, that's, you know, this Tiki Hut experience that you want to get on the water. Matt and Carolyn Anthony, phenomenal operators. They've been in the game for 20 years. Um, they actually care about the ingredients going into their food, where the fish is coming from, and how fresh their their product is. Also, you want to bring some kids, they can run around on the grass and eat pizza. So, Planning restaurants around days on the water Uh, I just had a great family of 16 that came in. Matt, we want to do everything available in town, whether it's going to be sandbar trips, snorkel trips, offshore fishing charters, the activities that we have at our locations, or we want to go out and experience the local Keys cuisine. Ask us the questions. We've got the answers. And I want to let you know what we would do as locals so that you can get that experience for yourself. When those guys got back, every single thing was just knocked out of the park. They had the perfect experience here in the Florida Keys. And that's what we want to provide for you.