Marquesa Hotel & Café Marquesa

Best meal we had in key west. Sat at the bar, Chance gave us the best service ever!!! The wine was amazing as well as their specialty cocktails. Duck foie de grass and barrata were flavorful. Best Mahi Mahi I’ve had in a long time. We live in Florida and travel often to Hawaii and always order fish. This dish is a must! I will be coming back every time I’m here. 5 stars

Some family and I went to Café Marquesa as a celebratory farewell during our most recent trip to Key West. Overall, though it’s a relatively upscale meal in the heart of casual Key West, the food and service did not live up to the price and hype.
Café Marquesa is one of those places that is advertised or cited in all the tourist brochures that are throughout Key West. It was relatively easy to get reservations here on OpenTable, but if you really want to go during the busy season, I would recommend two or three days notice for a good time.
Since we were four people, we were able to try out a lot of the food. On paper, all the dishes looked really good. That’s kind of rare for me to want basically everything on the menu, but Café Marquesa accomplished that. However, the food didn’t live up to the substantial prices, especially for Key West. The pork loin was under-​seasoned, and actually, basically every dish was under-​seasoned, from the prawns to the pasta to the fish. The grouper was not very food, even if it may have been fresh — putting a crispy fish onto wet greens underneath turns the whole dish soggy.
The service was not very attentive, even though it was little things like having to ask for butter for bread a few times. The restaurant isn’t very big, but they seemed to have too many servers, even though they weren’t doing much. The servers would just stand together at the end of the dining room looking at people — it was kind of funny.
I probably would not recommend Café Marquesa. There are plenty of «fine dinin» Key West locations I would go to more than this one, such as Nine One Five or Bagatelle.

Classy, food was good, yet extremely pricey. Impressive wine list. Romantic, nice for couples and special celebrations.

Café Marquesa is a great find In Key West, definitely go and experience if you have the chance, you won’t be disappointed

The ingredients seem to be high quality but the preparations were so jumbled and pretentious that the quality was masked… steak tartare with a quail egg (in shell) and a slab of brie was, at best, silly… duck breast with a chicken sausage made no sense at all… the waiter was delightful and helpful… the maitre d just serves as a doorman… he doesn’t work the room or engage any of the clientele… overall, it’s disappointing at their prices

We ordered the lobster and shrimp and the presentation was excellent. The vegetables were delicious, but the lobster tail and shrimp were average. We also ordered the filet mignon, which was good. The chocolate cake was excellent. Michael was our server, and the service was average.

Charming French bistro atmosphere, delicious food and the price to match. I had the duck breast with a sauce on the side that was lick the plate delicious with crisp green beans. The menu noted wild rice as well, but the rice and quinoa mixture I received had no wild rice in it at all. The dessert which we had read about, the key lime napoleon was as wonderful as people had raved about. Excellent service.

Very good seafood, try the mahi or the spiney lobster & Key West shrimp. Nice cocktail menu try the Key Limetini. Our friends were right!

Terrific food. Terrific service (Michael?). Seriously, everything was great, from the starters to the entrees to desserts. Awesome. The place ain’t cheap, but worth it.

I chose to dine here after looking at Zagat’s ratings and wanting to treat myself to a nice dinner alone outside of hotel room service. I had to walk quite a bit from my hotel (Ocean Key Resort) but it is conveniently connected to the Marquesa Hotel. While I can’t speak to the hotel, I loved the restaurant. It was classy with an older demographic and yet a homey place where I felt comfortable eating alone at the bar. The bartender was an older woman and very sweet. She had great recommendations on drinks and food and was friendly, chatting with me the entire time. I ended up ordering the Sesame Crusted Atlantic Salmon which was interestingly prepared in an Asian-​fusion way with udon noodles and a delicious mango-​miso sauce. Looking around, everyone’s dishes looked equally tasty.
I recommend visiting Café Marquesa to couples, small older groups, and those dining alone and willing to splurge for fine food.

Café Marquesa is a top restaurant in Key West. The portions are really very generous. I ate the scallops, which were truly delicious! I had a salad as my starter, which was also excellent. Sure it’s pricey, but we left stuffed and completely satisfied. Highly recommend.

I wish I could give this place infinite stars. Hands down the best dining experience I have had in ages. From the moment I was seated the waitstaff were incredibly accommodating and friendly. My partner and I shared an arugula salad. The kitchen was thoughtful enough to send the dish out on two plates without taking away from the presentation of the salad (which was killer). Our bottle of Sauvignon blanc came on ice and the waitress ensured that our glasses were never empty without the awkward interruption of a conversation. Stuffed olives are available as martini garnishes with blue cheese or kimchi. I make my own kimchi at home and had to try a side of these little jewels. I was so impressed I ordered an additional side of kimchi to go with my entrée– giant tiger prawn in thai butter with jasmine rice and baby bok choy. Again, presentation was phenomenal. I have personally emailed the restaurant and thanked them for this wonderful experience. Tanya and the rest of the crew were amazing. I will most definitely be returning on my next Key West trip!

The wife and I were celebrating our first wedding anniversary and with us being foodies I tried to find the best restaurant with great drinks/​wine list. After dining at Café Marquesa I think I hit the jackpot. The service was excellent and I’m sad to leave.
Drinks:
Key Lime Tini– their version of a key lime martini. It was spectacular. The wife absolutely loved it. MUST order. Highly recommended.
Glasses of Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon– both were great.
Food:
Seafood Potstickers: served with kim chee and seaweed salad. I am not sure what seafood was inside these babies, but they were absolutely delicious and one of the best potstickers i’ve ever tried. Housemade kim chee was awesome too. Highly recommended!
Truffle Sacchetti: served with duck confit and foie gras. Being from CA anytime i see foie on a menu i always order it no matter what. This was the first time i’ve tasted sacchetti, which is a pasta stuffed with ricotta mixture. It was extremely good. There was like a delicious sauce that included the duck confit and foie gras. If they offer this when you’re here, it’s a MUST order!
Conch Bisque with Grilled Shrimp: Hands down this was the best soup my wife and i have ever tasted and my wife hates soup haha. Highly recommended!
Coconut Almond Crusted Mahi-​Mahi: served with udon noodles, stir-​fry vegetables and a mango-​miso sauce. The fish was cooked perfectly. The sauce was absolutely divine and made this often awesome dish, the best in class. I am still thinking about this dish days after. MUST order if available!
Grilled Black Angus Filet Mignon: served with a bleu cheese crust, asaparagus, heirloom carrots, brandy peppercorn sauce and Boursin mashed potatoes. The filet was a tad over-​cooked, as i ordered it medium rare and it came out more medium, but it was still amazing nonetheless. Beyond tender. Great flavors. The Boursin mashed potatoes were some of the best i’ve had and were positively unique. Highly recommended.
By this time we were way too full for dessert, but we had an amazing dinner and time at Café Marquesa. We highly recommend this restaurant for foodie type people. I overheard the staff being really flexible with menu items as well. so if you see something on a menu from a prior day, but not on a current menu, just ask… they can probably assist you in getting what you want.

Celebrated our 21^st Anniversary in high style. The food was amazingly delicious, fresh, unique, and worth every penny! Romantic, elegant, and old money quaint.

Even though the restaurant was fully booked, the manager set up a table for us on the front porch of their hotel (since we were quest) and we were served there! Amazing service!

Went here last Saturday with the bf to celebrate my birthday after reading the rave reviews online and hearing good things from the locals.
They had decorated our table with birthday confetti and ribbon– super cute and considerate! The ambiance was exactly what I was hoping for– not too fancy to be stuffy and just small enough to feel intimate.
We ordered martinis to start– bf got a vodka martini with creamy blue cheese stuffed olives. Awesome! We ordered the same drink at A&B lobster the night before and there was no comparison. I ordered the cranberry vanilla rose’ martini and it was perfectly balanced between sour from the cranberry and a sweet finish from the vanilla and the rose’ rounded it out. Awesome start to a meal but unfortunately everything went down from there…
We ordered the tea smoked quail for an appetizer– the best thing we ate that night. Smoky but not overpowering– really all it needed was a pinch of salt to make if perfect. It paired well with the pickled radishes, cucumbers, and micro green salad that it came with. There are a bunch of other appetizers I would have liked to try– a couple with foie gras or mushrooms in particular– but the bf isn’t a fan of either.
For the main course, I ordered the phyllo dough wrapped snapper. The fish was cooked well but I didn’t care for the combination of flavored when you ate the phyllo crust on the fish with the «sauce» on the bottom. The «sauce» was basically a bouillabaisse soup. The crust on the fish was delicious by itself with the dill seasoning– it just didn’t taste right when you ate everything altogether. Bf got the Asian inspired mahi mahi with udon noodles– really only okay. Both needed a pinch of salt.
Maybe we should have ordered lamb or duck for our entrees, but when I am by the ocean, I crave fish! And I expect any fine dining restaurant like this to nail their two seafood dishes on the menu.
Not my fave meal during our trip to key west, although I would recommend this place for their martinis and maybe the apps too.

The space is very nice, the service was generally good but the food just did not measure up to the big city prices.
My wife and I both had a lobster and shrimp entrée. The lobster was delicious but the shrimp was not. Veggies were undercooked and the entire meal was plated on some liquid sloshing about.
The dessert, a key lime Napoleon, was absolutely wonderful.
Buyer beware!

I am leaning between a 3.5 mostly but I prefer to up it than down it.
Café Marquesa was a lovely spot in Key West. It actually really had a feel of being in New Orleans. It was almost like a déjà vu in there for me which was hard to put my finger on.
I loved the décor, I loved the ambiance, I loved the architecture of the building.
I really wasn’t into the food as much as I should have. On our recent stay in Key West, we stopped at our favorite restaurant the evening before hand, (Santiago’s Bodego which I reviewed on their page). Had I went to Café Marquesa first, I may have been more swooned. However I had a better meal the evening before for much less so I kept having food regret.
I felt like the concepts of the menu were great but the food kept missing the mark.
I would recommend it for a romantic evening but I would really analyze the menu before ordering.

During a little weekend getaway this past weekend, friends of ours made reservations at Marquesa and invited us along. I was very impressed with both their food and service and would absolutely recommend.
I had the Ginger, Almond & Coconut Crusted Mahi. It was served over noodles that were tossed in veggies. The only thing I would have changed was the Mahi was a tad too buttery, but overall the flavor was AMAZING.

Interesting creole-​Caribbean nouvelle cuisine.