Fried hogfish on Cuban bread with Swiss, mushrooms and caramelised onions. A reef fish that only reaches restaurant tables through spearfishing, and the sandwich a Stock Island bar was built around.
Where to eat it: 2 restaurants across 1 city.
Hogfish is taken by spear rather than net or hook, which keeps it local, seasonal and expensive; the name comes from the long pig-like snout the fish uses to root along the sea floor. The Hogfish Bar & Grill sits on the Safe Harbor docks on Stock Island beside the working fleet, and is built around one item: the Killer, fresh hogfish with mushrooms and Swiss cheese on Cuban bread, priced at $25 in 2026. Cafe Sole on Southard Street has served hogfish since it opened in 1995, plated rather than sandwiched, which is the fine-dining end of the same fish.
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Common allergens: Fish, Gluten, Dairy
Tip from the editors. If you cannot get hogfish, use yellowtail snapper rather than a thick fillet. The sandwich needs a fish that cooks in the time the crust takes to colour.
Hogfish Bar & Grill sits on Stock Island's Safe Harbor docks outside Key West, frying its namesake fish onto Cuban bread beside the working shrimp fleet.
OrderThe hogfish sandwich with Swiss and mushrooms on Cuban bread
TipIt is a 10-minute drive from Old Town on the Stock Island marina; go at lunch to watch the boats unload the catch.
Cafe Sole pairs French technique with Keys fish in a quiet Key West garden room, a husband-and-wife kitchen open since 1995 for hogfish and duck a l'orange.
OrderHogfish, then the duck a l'orange if you are sharing
TipThe garden tables under the trellis are the seats to ask for; the whole restaurant holidays through September.
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