On our last night in Florida, for our last sit down meal we visited the Half Shell Raw Bar by the Key West Marina. The scenic walk by the harbour’s ends brings you to this large water front restaurant.
There are many bars and seafood restaurants that line one side of the boardwalk where docked ships on the other advertise chartered tours and sea driven services.
Here, we learned about the protected tarpon that swim the harbour waters. These are lengthy fish that resemble small scale barracuda, and as is with the case of other such fish, the flesh is not edible and the tarpon are not fished for food or sport. In fact it is illegal to bring one out of the water, even if it is just to remove a hook from its mouth. You can however feed them. Either with stocked gum ball machines filled with fish pellets for a quarter or at Half Shell.
We were given a water side table on the patio, there we were able to see the silhouette of the tarpon and other smaller fish. Here we met the owner and she suggested ordering some shrimp and saving their tails to feed the tarpons with. She even grabbed a couple whole shrimp from the kitchen to give us a show. And it worked with the large fish scaring off the small, fighting for the treat.
When it came time to eat ourselves, we took her suggestions and focus on seafood, given the arena. We started with oysters given the name of the restaurant.
But first a couple of drinks. I went with the Bayou Bloody Mary reading that a single Key West Pink Shrimp was included as garnish. One that I would order to sacrifice to the fish. This was their “Top Secret Bloody Mary” made with their in house mix and jalapeño infused vodka, then rimmed with old bay. I keep trying Bloody Marys, but I have yet to find one that I like. This was a spicy and salty mix with little body from the clam juice that would have made this into a Caesar. I actually got some cinnamon notes that I didn’t want.
My partner went with the strawberry margarita with a blended fresh strawberry purée. This made it sweet and jammy with pulp.
We started with a half dozen of their Oysters on the Half Shell served with cocktail sauce, horseradish, and a handful of saltine crackers in individual packets. These were from the Louisana Gulf. Larger oysters known for their creaminess and their brininess, not the two most popular attributes of oysters, so we found the sides necessary to help mask some of it. We did it like the locals, either scooping our raw oyster out on to the cracker or crumbling it over top and loading up on condiments and juice from a squeezed lemon. The cracker was helpful as a base for the otherwise unpleasant texture of warm water oysters. A problem we don’t have with our cold weather variety in BC.
We then warmed up our stomachs with Conch Chowder. Famous here because they use a red sauce base, instead of a white crema. Sadly we found it a little flat as in, and we needed to pull from the table side basket of condiments, looking to the salt and Tabasco for seasoning and spice. The conch is also a more subtle flavour if you are comparing this to the more traditional clam.
We liked the Buffalo Shrimp. Golden Fried whole shrimp tossed in a Buffalo Sauce, and served with Ranch Dressing. They were juicy and crispy, and ate like wings. Can’t go wrong with a tangy Buffalo and creamy ranch combo in my books.
The Fresh Catch Entree came highly recommended. Today it was a black grouper with your choice of sides. We had it grilled for a nice char alongside coleslaw and yellow rice. A little under seasoned, but nothing salt and pepper couldn’t remedy. Under all cream and crisp of the slaw the poppyseed dressing threw me off. This was not what I was expecting, but I still ate it happily as it complimented the more dry fish and rice well.
And for dessert we thankfully saved room for their Key Lime Pie served with whipped cream. Sandra, the owner told us that everyone says their version is the best, but she insists that hers is. That it is not too sweet, too tart, or too cheesecakey. So we had to try.
I would give it its own category. It tasted like flan with the use pf condense milk, but with a texture more like creme burlee. Truly delicious and on a scale all its own. I can see why they haven’t changed the recipe since 1972.
In short this is a great place in Key West to enjoy a view, a spectacle, and some seafood like the locals. Can recommend.
Half Shell Raw Bar
231 Margaret St, Key West, FL 33040, United States
Open • Closes 10 p.m.
+1305-294-7496
halfshellrawbar.com
