Hideaway Cafe

This quaint shiny gem of a restaurant with an upscale flair in Grassy Key is a jewel indeed. It’s location is right on the beach, with a great view.
The selection of dishes is varied, and you cannot go wrong. My favorite is hogfish snapper à la Française, with butter, capers and the right touch of lemon. But their lamb, pressed duck, roasted chicken and beef medallions are also excellent.
They have a great wine selection if you are into that. And my favorite dessert, among the many delicious temptations, is a hot dark concoction of molten dark chocolate that I bet will be worshipped by many chocolate aficionados.
The service is cordial and top notch, and the ambiance is warm and understated, not formal. Maybe upscale Keysy! lol
Don’t miss it. We live in Marathon year round and the Hideway Café has been our favorite among many good restaurants in the Middle Keys for years.

Good find! We were able to make a reservation for our party of nine ahead of time. Ordered a variety of options on the menu — all were really good! Mashed potatoes with the dill where outstanding! Kids who don’t normally eat mashed potatoes loved them. Great location on the water.

My wife and I went in around 5pm on a Tuesday. The place was empty except for the host/​waiter, who asked if we had a reservation. We said «no» and he pretentiously said he could «fit us in», then took us to a table on the patio. We had a couple of drinks and then ordered from the «early bird» menu, everything $ 16.99 (I think). They brought a garlic loaf with tomato tapenade that was very good We ordered escargot for an appetizer. I love escargot — but theirs was mediocre at best. The salad was romaine lettuce — about half of it was stalk & stem (shame on someone in the kitchen). I had the duck entrée. It was also mediocre. My wife had shrimp scampi that she said was good. By the time we finished, only two other tables were occupied– maybe Tuesday is an off day. The best thing about this place is its location and view. Could be a great place for a nice romantic dinner but call ahead for a reservation to hopefully knock the edge off of the host/waiter’s attitude.

Awesome breakfast. Service, setting, and view from the upstairs dining room were all fabulous. We will definitely return to try the dinner menu on our next trip to the keys.

We came for breakfast, and we weren’t disappointed. I grew up going to the keys my entire life. I can see why tourists may be put off by the kitschy décor, and overall feel of the restaurant, but that’s part of it’s flair. It’s an authentic local keys restaurant, and that’s what makes it charming.
We came in at 10:30 on a Sunday morning. We were a party of six, and were sat immediately. We were greeted right away, ordered, and got our drinks immediately. Our breakfast came out promptly, and HOT. The hash brown casserole is a MUST. Delicious! I enjoyed my omelet, and are every bite. My kids loved their eggs and pancakes. Some may say it’s hard to mess up breakfast, but it actually isn’t. Eggs get cold right away, so in a large party, my expectations for a hot breakfast are usually pretty low. In addition, the service was relaxed, but efficient.
I go the Key Largo often, and I’m already planning my next visit to Hideaway.
I’ve never been for lunch or dinner, but the breakfast was good, and I will definitely go back.

Had a great dinner. Prepared in the best way, great service & music. Would highly recommend.

Celebrated my brothers birthday last night at this great quaint spot you would never suspect there. Great service and food selection and everyone loved their selections. Good portions and delicious food right on the water.

Excellent
Make sure you ask for directions
Worth it
GPS will not take you there
Rack of lamb, beef Wellington
Extensive wine list

We were here for a week and was recommended. Would never find if you didn’t know but was an unexpected find! Incredible breakfast led us back to return for dinner. Dinner was romantic and cosy. Not too expensive for great quality and amazing presetation. Shrimp bisque, fresh fish and keylime raspberry mouse were delicious.

Meh, overpriced & very outdated! They are not reinvesting the profits back into the building. It’s falling apart. We went for the gf birthday, butdefinitely not worth $ 133 plus tip for service and decent food. The sides were tiny carrots, 2 tiny asparagus and half a mashed up red potato. Being sat by the sliding door got super annoying really really fast.
The restroom is separate and down stairs and disgusting. You can really smell them from outside. The beach is gorgeous and worth a walk after you meal.

You need to pull into the Rainbow Bend hotel and walk towards the beach to find it. The menu isn’t extensive and during our breakfast they were out of shrimp but the prices are fair, the food and service both good and the location great. I’ll go back.

second year in a row. Very romantic, 60’s type music. Waiters were great. Favorite restaurant in Marathon

A hidden gem just north of Curry Hammock State Park, located inside the Rainbow Bend Resort. It took some time to find this place as the GPS kept indicating it was at the resort and we didn’t know it was ‘inside’ the resort. As we drove around we saw the sign toward the back and found a place to park; parking was no issue.
The restaurant is located upstairs and as we entered we were promptly greeted at the bar. Our servers were very nice and had great recommendations. The hogfish francese was as good as all the reviews have stated and the lamb was also very nicely done. The unsweet ice tea was delicious, a very distinguished taste.
We started with the french onion soup as an appetizer, done in broth and not too bitter or not too much wine. An excellent starter.
The desserts are also very noteworthy, the banana a la hideaway is nicely presented with the dish on fire, from the rum that the bananas are soaked in. The chocolate lava cake was freshly baked as we were told it would take 15 minutes to bake, well worth the wait.
Overall an excellent place for a nice dinner, nice 50s/​60s music with candles lighting the tables. Highly recommend this place.

Amazing! Hogfish is a must! Great service and great food! Don’t judge the restaurant by the appearance of the outside when you go to walk up into the restaurant. Once you get inside you feel like you are at home and they will treat you like such. I got the surf and turf they did filet and hogfish for me and it was fantastic. The bruschetta was great and the Cesar salad was amazing! If you are staying at hawk cay go here over the over priced resort restaurants!

Love this place! I felt like my parents in the 1950’s. Small, cozy, retro music. You’d expect Frank Sinatra to be at the next table. The staff went out of their way to serve us. Hogfish fish was outstanding. My husband had the New York Strip, cooked to perfection. I’m a vegan, and with just a mention when we made the reservation, they had a meal planned for my arrival. They served our table a complimentary dessert, for my birthday. Both the owner and Chef Frieda came out to greet us. One thing I truly missed — a gin martini. A cocktail would have been perfect for this place. Other review said «Full Bar», nope beer and wine only.

Order the smile salmon appetizer and the Hideaway Duck. Food was very good and I would try this place as another option of good restaurants. As this is not a chain not connected to a hotel, I would go out of way to try.
Service was exceptional.

There heart is in the right place, There fish is done well. I will not get into details but the chicken dishes have lots of room for improvement. Beautiful views of the ocean. Good wine selection. Very romantic settings with older flavor of music which is nice for the older crowd but don’t think the younger gen will enjoy it too much.
Remember the name fits the location as it is really hidden. Look for the Rainbow hotel then go to the back and up the stairs. There is a sign on Rt 1 but if your not coming off of Peachtree Ave. you might never see it.
The Chef and Maitre de and everyone else were very helpful.

Overall we had a nice experience and enjoyed most of the food here, and the chef is really sweet. However, the service leaves a bit to be desired. I’m not sure if the issue is that they don’t have enough servers or help in the kitchen. Maybe a little of both.
Make a reservation – the space is small.
This restaurant is hidden within the Rainbow Bend resort. It’s a fine dining restaurant on the water tucked within a very mediocre little keys resort.
All entrees come with garlic bread to start and Caesar salad. I enjoyed the Caesar salad and the bread was good. They have a pretty good wine selection and you can tell that the chef, who checked on us twice, was trained in traditional French cuisine.
Two in our party started with the shrimp cocktail. They said it was pretty good, but the shrimp seemed like it had been overcooked a bit. I had the shrimp bisque, which was the special, and it was pretty good but was served in a super small cup.
For entrees, I had the hogfish prepared in their special way with shrimp and scallops. It was good, but LOTS of butter. The other two had monstrous ribeye steaks that were pretty awesome. They were also overcooked just a tad – they were ordered medium rare – but they enjoyed them.
We had the bananas flambé and crème brule for dessert. My boyfriend enjoyed the bananas, but the crème brule was bad. The custard wasn’t creamy and was just not a great representation of crème brule.
It’s worth checking out if you don’t mind dropping $ 130 on two people. We only ordered one glass of Pinot Gris, which was very good.

Maybe because we are much younger than most others in the restaurant (early 40s with our teenaged daughter) our waiter was quite surly. No greeting. No introduction. «What do you want to drink?»
But I can get past that. My concern is the food. Here the Hideaway Café came up woefully short.
I had the seafood special: hogfish in a light sauce with scallops and shrimp on the side. The shrimp were ok, but the rest was totally devoid of flavor. Worse, the breading/​coating/​whatever on the fish was soggy. My sides consisted of three baby carrots, two asparagus, and a dollop of potatoes. Cheaply done, and tasted like it. I will say that the lobster bisque was quite good, so not everything is complaint-​worthy!
Ok, the bad news. My wife had the steak au poivre. It was horrible. When we left she told me that she would give the leftovers to the dog, but wasn’t going to eat them. Why she didn’t say that inside I don’t know. I assumed that the chewy, grisly bite I had was just a one off, but I was wrong.
I would not have been happy here for $ 50, but I was off-​the-​charts unhappy about blowing $ 180 for this. If it wasn’t for the bisque and the waiter’s assistants this place would be 1-​star. I can’t fathom what they did to deserve so many good ratings, but it surely had nothing to do with the food.

Hidden Gem! Do not miss this place if you are anywhere in the vicinity. We wanted to escape the resort and find a local place and man did we ever!!!
Every detail was perfect. The garlic bread was fresh and delicious paired with a fresh brushetta on the side. The cesaer salad as fresh and light… my 5 year old even ate it. unheard of!
We had the hogfish and shrimp wrapped in bacon. The hogfish was unbelievable. I ordered it based off of a Unilocal review and was not disappointed. It was fantastic. The helpings were large and we left so stuffed we couldn’t order dessert.
Such a cute, quaint romantic place. We love the soft music playing and the waitstaff was top notch. Attentive without being invasive. Robert the owner was enchanting. But the food… THE FOOD!
5 stars all the way. DO NOT pass this place by.