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.
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.
Signature: Killer Hogfish sandwich, Grouper reuben
Order: The hogfish sandwich with Swiss and mushrooms on Cuban bread
Tip: It 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.
Order: Hogfish, then the duck a l'orange if you are sharing
Tip: The garden tables under the trellis are the seats to ask for; the whole restaurant holidays through September.
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