Latitudes is Sunset Key Cottage’s signature restaurant – a 7 minute boat ride from Key West.   The boat ride is available about every 30 minutes and once there you have a choice of “island cuisine” in the interior Ernest Hemingway Room or al fresco on the huge grounds, both overlooking the Gulf of Mexico and the lighted palm trees.  Your reservation time is the same as your ferry time and parking is available for guests at their sister property Opal Key West Resort (remember to bring your ticket for the restaurant to validate).  It is a large place but reservations are a must and need to be made several months ahead for dinner.  The place has an elegant feel and great service but people were dressed fairly casually.  The view in the daytime is said to be wonderful but I enjoyed the lighted trees.

Facility

Menus and Wine list

 

Food

We started with some martinis while we looked over the menu, which had no specials.  The great server was very helpful in making our dinner selections.

 

They brought a basket of 3 types of rolls and butter but the medallion stamp on the butter was the best part there.

 

The beef short rib appetizer was with a gochujang glaze, maitake mushroom and snap peas.  The beef tore easily into shreds and was wonderfully tender and flavorful.  The vegetables were good and mixed well with the lovely beef.

 

Lobster and crab cake was served with a  course mustard sauce and Belgian endive salad.  The exterior was nicely browned but the interior of the cake was way too gooey for me.  The sauce was great and the endive was nicely crunchy.  Actually the endive was better than the cake.

 

Lemon glazed yellowtail snapper was pan-seared and placed on a vin blanc sauce and served with wild rice and roasted vegetables.  The fish is local and caught daily.  It was a tad overcooked for my taste but the sauce was great.  The vegetables were still pretty crisp and the wild rice forgettable.  The fish would have been the star here with a perfect searing on the outside but just stayed in the pan a bit too long.

 

Seared grouper was plated with coconut cracked conch salad, charred hearts of palm and butternut squash, all topped with yuzu brown butter emulsion. Like the snapper it was a bit overcooked but had a great sauce.  It was a much thicker piece and had some of the same greens decorating the dish.   The fried conch pieces were chewy and pretty good.   It was better than the snapper but did not have the large flake I’m used to, but still the better main plate.

 

Lemon Basil Panna Cotta was served with mango gelee, poached pineapple and toasted pignoli.  It was a ton of stuff on the plate and none of it very good.  The panna cotta had the wrong texture – not smooth and velvety at all. We each tried a bite but when the server came he kindly took it off the bill.

 

Beignets were filled with salted dulce pastry cream and blueberry jam with a side of whipped cream.  They were covered iwth cinnamon sugar on the outside.  Nicely crisp on the outside, the filling was good too.  You really didn’t need the whipped cream but it made a pretty plate.  They were fairly good.