The Marlin Restaurant

Out of business :-(
Sad that Unilocal is making me write a bunch of nothing to post as review instead of buried as tip.

Sadly The Marlin is no more. The facility has been purchased by the Lazy Days group and that group is making it their 3^rd restaurant in the Keys.
The Marlin will be missed even though A) nobody spoke English there, B) the restrooms were «pure Keys» style if you catch my drift and C) is was not fancy in the least.
Try Habanos around MM 73 (on the front) for your Cuban sammy and coffee fix.

Place closed down. Don’t bother driving there. New place coming soon. I hear a Mexican restaurant

Thank goodness there is somewhere in the keys where you can get some good Cuban food and coffee!

Apparently permanently closed. Eviction notice in the door.

Don’t let the atmosphere fool ya, food is delicious. Recco’s: Cuban sandwich. Cuban coffee. Hogfish sandwich. Insanely Cheap.
This is a classic Local Island must-​see stop.

Great service food was awesome. Waitress nice and cute Cuban girl took care of us well! Pork and steak sandwiches were good and CAFE CON LECHE authentic great coffee! Pastelloes (sp¿?) Con guava y croquettes very good as well we will be back!

I usually got a coffee and something else on a daily basis. Today the waitress took my order, then started making it while talking to another customer that was her friend. She took care of her before me and cashed her out, touching the dirty money and continued to make my order without washing her hands or wearing gloves. That’s just gross. I won’t be going back there again.

If you are looking for a good cuban café in Key Largo, this may be the spot. Stopped in for some espresso and croquettas for breakfast on our way home. Unfortunately the espresso machine was broken, but the staff was very frienly and gave us 4 extra croquettas for the inconvienence.
If you are looking bistro café to grab food, this is not the place for you. The Marlin is a good old cuban café with all of the foods present at the counter. I only gave 3 stars because I did not get to try a meal.
I will definately be returning to The Marlin Resturant.

It’s always nice when a restaurant WOW’s you. The Marlin is fantastic. We had the chicken, rice and beans special, a couple Cuban sandwiches and an omelet. Everything was incredibly flavorful! Key Largo’s best right here!

Place was ok, friendly service, but my boyfriend had a moldy bun on his burger… and they put onions on it when he asked for them not to. however to make up for it, they gave us all a slice of key lime pie to go, and I’ve never been a fan of key lime before… but it was extremely good

5 star food, the size and décor is the only reason the overall rating is not 5 stars. It’s quaint and clean. The food is so good that we went 3 times in 4 days. It is now a must stop anytime we are near there now. Prices are great. Fish sandwich is phenomenal. Chicken Melanase is delicious!

In April of 2013, we stopped by on our way home to grab a cuban sandwich to go. It was a totally different place — the place was run down and the people working there were not friendly at all. While we were waiting for our food, we used the restroom. It was the most disgusting bathrooms I have ever seen! There was no paper products or soap. The toilets hadn’t been flushed in a while, trash all over the floor, etc. We told them there was no way we were eating anything from there and left. Hopefully someone else buys it and fixes it up.

The Fish is very good, do not take the steak sandwich though. French fries came not so hot. Fair enough restaurant on our way to key west.

Mixed experience.
The Good: Very good price. Good service. Ham and cheese breakfast croissant was pressed flat, in Cuban style, but good.
The Bad: No paper products or hand air dryer in females’ bathroom. Basque omelet was very dry, but had interesting shrimp flavor.
I would have difficulty in recommending this restaurant to travelers who may not be familiar with this restaurant’s menu and not having paper products in bathroom. The lack of a means to dry hands brings up questions of workers sanitation. If you are a local, this would be a good place to grab a cup of coffee and have a quick bite.

So I must say that breakfast is my weakness so at 10:30 in the morning I was starving which means I walked into this place blinded by hunger and ready to not give a crap about anything else but the food. It was the easiest 4 to 5 stars to get since I was ready to ignore and forgive every little annoyance I had noticed walking in as long as the food was good but no… that didn’t happen. The staff and management made it very hard for me to be generous. Therefore 1 star.
This place is a road side Cuban restaurant/​diner which is ok… nothing wrong with that. Now, parking is a mess but we manages to park. We were seated by the food station so the smell of food that was on our clothes by the time we left was borderline dangerous. I was looking over my shoulder for possible wild animals ready to attack me, after all, I did smell like a walking steak.
Server didn’t bother wiping the table clean before placing our placemats on the table, therefore, our placemats got immediately soaked. I get disgusted by wet paper so I proceeded to build my own placemat with napkins and I put my improvised placemat over the wet one since the server didn’t bother removing the wet placemats. The rest of our friends did the same. I’m not kidding. It was not 3 drops of water, the whole table was wet. I was going to call the server to clean up the mess but she was already frustrated by the fact that we asked questions about the menu. Everyone in my group was Asian, I was the only cuban in the group so that explains why the questions, but whatever, she wasn’t moved by the obviousness of our need.
I ordered a tortilla vazca which is supposed to be thick and rich and full of goodies but mine was tasteless, flat, and burned like a sorry looking pancake. I only managed to eat half. I felt like getting in their kitchen and showing them how a tortilla vazca is made. Moving on to the next mishap. I ordered my dish with french fries but the fries never made it to the table. I also ordered a café con leche which was ok, that’s worth 1 star but the Cuban toast I ordered was so over buttered that it felt like uncooked dough rather than toast and let me say that no toast is bad enough for me not to eat it… well guys, this toast escaped almost unharmed.
Meanwhile, as I was trying to deal with my disappointment, another disaster was brewing right next me. My fiancé woke up feeling very sick that morning so I suggested he ate something before our boat trip so he placed his order for a very simple breakfast consisting of 2 fried eggs cooked over hard and a Cuban toast. While waiting for the food he felt so sick he had to run to the nearest pharmacy to get an over the counter medicine to settle his stomach. By the time he came back (10 mins later) the server had managed to spill a full glass of water over my mother-​in-​law and my fiancé’s food had not even made it to the table! He then decided to cancel his order because he couldn’t even stand the smell of food. The rest of us (we were a party of 6) did not cancel our orders. He told our server how sick he was feeling and to please cancel his order and her answer was that she could cancel it but she still had to charge us because it was already made. Really?!? They couldn’t cancel 2 fried eggs? Are 2 eggs worth it of a bad review? I’m going to ask you Unilocalers to please donate a hen to this people because apparently eggs are very expensive down in Key Largo.
PS: when we got the eggs they were runny!!! They couldn’t even get that right:0

Cuban food galore! Even in our 3.5 hour drive to Miami we find a decent Cuban joint without 3 $$$ hanging on their Unilocal review.
Food:
Ordered some fried pork pieces… now that is what I’m talking about! IT was freakin delicious… but then again fried pork = delicious. The rice on the other hand was a little mushy and the chicken they used had bone in it which was not expected.
Service:
This place was empty. Service was average.
Environment:
Imagine driving from the west coast to the east coast. You stop halfway somewhere to grab a bite. This place felt like that. Middle of no where. Empty with no customers, but serves above average food with decent prices. Looking for a restaurant with a lot of character? Try this place!
Price:
About $ 10 a pop which is less than the $ 15-​$ 30 I was spending in the other parts of the Keys.
PS: Yes it did give me gas
Food: 4
Service: 3
Environment: 4
Price: 4

Pros: Great café con leche, sweet waitress
Cons: This is a roadside shack with really bland food and questionable cleanliness.

The location is really kinda a dive, and not necessarily a good way. It needs a facelift to get more tourists inside, they definitely have the food to satisfy them. Portions seem huge… had the roast pork dinner ($ 9 I think) which could easily feed 2 people. Had a nice ‘tang’ to it, probably from lime or something else in the meat.
The conch fritters were almost all fritter, and no conch, so I would pass on those. Another member of our dinner party commented that there was more mustard on her Cuban sandwich than she’d prefer, but this was her first Cuban as well, so I can’t comment as to whether it’s more than average, or if that is just the way Cuban sandwiches are served.
Overall, I think it’s good food let down by a poor building. Just down the street another restaurant was packed, while Marlin’s was hardly occupied. While the interior didn’t feel dirty or unsafe to eat in, it’s just a shame to see a place get passed over by reserved people who look for a more polished presentation.

The best Cuban sandwich I’ve had in a long time… note: I am Cuban, and I live in Miami, so yes, I know what these things should look and taste like. They hit it right on! They used fresh roast pork instead of the formed and pressed sliced deli pork you get almost everywhere nowadays. so kudos for that. The Pan con Bistec was very good also.
Very friendly young servers, and clean welcoming dining room. Nothing fancy, just a family run hole in the wall with great food and friendly service. Need I say more?