Restaurants:
Lighthouse Grill
This restaurant is somehow affiliated with the Hyatt Place and also with the condo complex next door. One of the pools for our hotel was connected to the back of the restaurant, that part of the restaurant being open air. We decided to eat here our first evening in Marathon because after driving down from Fort Lauderdale, none of us waned to get back in the car again, and it had good reviews online.
Spoiler alert: We loved it and ate here a lot!
There is indoor seating but that first night, we were told that one would need reservations for inside but they were able to seat us right away outside. The second time we ate dinner here they offered us inside or outside. It wasn't as humid and hot that day so we went with outside for the view.
Because the girls are used to eating early, we were seated well before 6:00 (on both nights) and informed by our server that there was an early bird special from 5:00 to 6:00. All entrees except for the daily fish was priced at $19.99. We thought this was a good deal seeing as you could get a $35 steak for $19.99. (Note that I have no idea if the early bird pricing is year round or seasonal.)
To start, the table is given fresh rolls with butter.
How cute is the butter shaped like lighthouses?
That first night, I ordered the grilled chicken. It came with mushroom risotto, haricots verts, tarragon cream and crispy onions.
This was really, really good and I was surprised with the serving size. I was expecting it to be smaller. That bowl is fairly deep.
Rich had the seafood fra diavolo, which is shrimp, scallops and penne pasta in a Cajun cream sauce. We both thought our dishes were very tasty and there was a lot of food. Because we didn't know what to expect for the food or serving sizes, the girls had basic stuff like mac and cheese and grilled chicken with garlic mashed potatoes.
Because we enjoyed our meals so much and really the restaurant was super convenient with its location right behind our hotel, we ate here again another night. We ended up ordering different meals to share, and Anna ordered off the kids' menu.
Filet mignon
This was mainly for Allie. I did have the kitchen cook the meat all the way through because she was eating it. Even cooked to medium-well, it was still very tender. I cut some off for myself and on my plate, I was able to break it down into smaller pieces easily with the side of my fork. This came with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus, both of which were excellent.
Rich and Emily mostly shared the seafood fra diavolo. Anna ate some as well. Rich would have ordered something else but Emily really wanted this and Rich couldn't finish it on his own. We have a thing about not wasting food. If we had been staying somewhere with a kitchen and could have brought back leftovers, she could have ordered it for herself. But we were in a hotel room with a little fridge.
Chopped salad
This was mostly mine, but I had some mashed potatoes and most of the asparagus from Allie's plate. Plus, I could only finish half of this. Everyone had a little bit and we did finish it off. The salad had bacon, asparagus, roasted corn, tomatoes, blue cheese and ranch dressing.
We also ordered three different desserts to share:
Chocolate cake
Warm bread pudding
And Key lime pie. (More on this below.)
I "sampled" all of them and they were delicious.
I think it was on our second day in Marathon, the girls were swimming at the marina pool, which is the pool connected to the restaurant, and they saw a small food menu on the patio table we were sitting at. After looking at the menu, they asked if we could eat lunch by the pool one day. For them, that was a big vacation thing to do and thinking about it, we had never done so. At Disney, they don't really want you eating by the pool so it's not set up for that.
At Lighthouse Grill, you place your poolside order with the bartender and the food is brought right out to your table. They clear for you after you're done eating too. We ate lunch by the pool twice because the food was good and I agree with the girls, it was a nice vacation thing to do.
We ordered the Cuban rice balls, conch fritters, chicken tacos and a burger the first time we had lunch. For our second lunch, we skipped the fritters and ordered more tacos.
Upper Crust Pizza
As we were driving back from Key West, we decided to grab something quick for dinner. We had seen Papa John's pizza delivered to other guests at the pool and I suggested pizza but we didn't want Papa John's. We ended up ordering a large cheese pizza, mozzarella sticks and a side salad from Upper Crust Pizza and eating at our hotel. While we were impressed with the salad and the mozz sticks were good (hard to mess those up), the pizza was nothing to write home about. The cheese/sauce ratio was off - too much cheese and not enough sauce.
I honestly don't know how or why we decided to eat here again, but we did. This time, we ate in the restaurant and the food was much better. We ordered a chicken parm, an eggplant parm, more mozz sticks and a smaller pepperoni pizza. I had some of the pizza and the sauce/cheese ratio was perfect. The other food was tasty too. No complaints and I would recommend if you're looking for Italian food. This is a small independently owned restaurant, which has been in business in Marathon since 1980.
Porky's Bayside BBQ
We gave this restaurant a try one night and it was okay. Close to a 4/5 rating. Rich ordered the ribs and I had a pulled pork sandwich. Both the ribs and the pork were cooked without sauce, which we found a bit odd. There was a bottle of BBQ sauce on the table and it was tasty but I don't think I've ever been to a BBQ place where I've had to add the sauce myself. The sides (cole slaw and beans) were really good and Emily's chopped salad was impressive looking. Also, I ordered a sweet tea, which is hard to find up here in New England, and it was perfect.
Marathon Bagel
Funny story. I had talked up this bagel place to the girls and Rich and was determined to pick up lunch here one day. I knew from their website they were closed on Mondays. So we drove over there on Wednesday and . . . they were closed. There was a sign on the door saying they would be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday of that week. Needless to say, we weren't able to try it out but it has really good online reviews if you're looking for a breakfast/lunch place in the area.
Keys Fisheries
The girls actually mentioned this restaurant right before we left for Florida. They read about it in a magazine because its lobster reuben was voted best sandwich in Florida. We never made it over there but it was on our list and has high ratings online. (If you can't tell, I'm not very adventurous when it comes to seafood. I'm okay with lobster, cod, haddock, shrimp and clam chowder. I have some kind of mental block and I most definitely will never eat oysters after my friend/co-worker became violently ill after eating them at a client luncheon.)
Mrs Mac's Kitchen
This restaurant is located in Key Largo, which is the first key from the mainland. If the timing had been right, I wanted to stop here for lunch when we drove down from Fort Lauderdale. Unfortunately, this restaurant is closed on Sundays and that was the day we drove down. It was over an hour drive from our hotel so not someplace we would have driven to for a meal from Marathon. And when we passed by it on our way back to Fort Lauderdale, it was too early for lunch.
Key Lime Pie:
Old Town Bakery, Key West
This was probably the most authentic, small town bakery slice of Key lime pie I had during our vacation. At $3.75, it was definitely the least expensive. You won't be able to tell from my photo, but the layer of Key lime was very thin, as was the crust. So not a substantial piece of pie, which was fine. It was very tasty but my one big complaint (and I feel it's completely legit) is that the top edge of the outer crust was overcooked. So much so that the girls thought the crust was chocolate.
Sweet Savannah's, Marathon
Really good texture, a nice crust but absolutely zero Key lime taste. It was actually just tasteless. Sweet, but no definable taste. If I had been blindfolded, I wouldn't have been able to tell you I was eating Key lime pie. I gave Rich a bite without telling him my opinion and he said the same thing.
Porky's Bayside BBQ, Marathon
Per their website, Porky's Key lime pie is homemade and was one of five Key lime pies featured on the Travel Channel as best Key lime pies in the Florida Keys. They have a deep fried version and while that certainly sounded interesting, I'm more of a traditionalist when it comes to pie. We ordered a bunch of desserts, including a slice of Key lime pie, after we ate dinner here. Their online menu states their traditional slices of pie come with a drizzle of red raspberry reduction, but the menu in the restaurant didn't state this. I was slightly perturbed when I opened the container later that night and saw the raspberry but it actually did nicely compliment the Key lime flavor. This was a really good slice of Key lime pie!
Lighthouse Grill, Marathon
Really good flavor and per their menu, their pies are homemade. This did have more of a cheesecake-like texture to it, but overall a good slice of Key lime pie.
Blond Giraffe Key Lime Pie Factory, Tavernier
Before our trip as I was researching the best Key lime pie in the Keys, this place had popped up. It's a bit of a drive from our hotel so I had kind of written it off, but then one of Rich's co-workers, who vacationed in the Keys a couple of weeks before us, mentioned it as well. We ended up stopping here as we were driving back up to Fort Lauderdale and grabbed a slice, which is why you're seeing a photo of it in the car. This place was smaller inside than I expected but they have all different kinds of Key lime pie and slices - naked, whipped cream, chocolate drizzle. We went with the meringue because we hadn't yet had a slice with it. Very tasty and the meringue was a good compliment and in perfect proportion to the Key lime.
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