A no-bake custard of sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks and key lime juice set in a graham or pastry crust, finished with meringue or whipped cream. Key West's argument in dessert form.
Where to eat it: 12 restaurants across 3 cities.
Nobody has documented who baked the first one. The Curry Mansion in Key West credits Aunt Sally, the cook for salvage millionaire William Curry (1821-1896), with making the pie in the late 1800s. A competing account, held by local historians, gives it to Key West sponge fishermen, who carried tinned sweetened condensed milk to sea and combined it with egg yolks and key lime juice, the acid setting the custard without an oven. Both stories are told locally as fact and neither is proven; the first written recipes only appear in the 1930s. Florida made key lime pie the official state pie on 1 July 2006.
Common allergens: Dairy, Eggs, Gluten
Tip from the editors. Use real key limes if you can find them. They are smaller, yellower and sharper than Persian limes, and the pie sets paler because of it.
Kermit's Key West Key Lime Shoppe sells pie whole, by the slice and frozen on a stick at Elizabeth Street, the island's best-known key lime storefront.
Order: The frozen chocolate-dipped key lime pie bar
Tip: The Elizabeth Street original beats the Duval satellites for seating; the gluten-free pie is a real version, not an apology.
Worth the queue: Frozen chocolate-dipped key lime pie on a stick
Key West Key Lime Pie Co bakes its family-recipe pies on Greene Street, selling slices, frozen chocolate-dipped bars and mini pie-making classes.
Order: Key lime pie in a cup to walk with, or the chocolate-dipped bar
Tip: This is Kermit's great rival two blocks away; taste both in one afternoon and pick your side of the pie feud.
Worth the queue: Key lime pie in a cup
Blue Heaven's breakfast is Key West's most famous morning: pancakes and benedicts under the Bahama Village canopy while chickens work the courtyard.
Order: Richard's Very Good Pancakes straight off the griddle
Tip: The courtyard closes for a holiday each September and reopens in October, so check ahead if you visit in hurricane season.
Moondog Cafe serves Key West's Bib Gourmand brunch on a Whitehead Street patio, breakfast tacos and quiche lorraine across from the Hemingway House.
Order: Breakfast tacos, then key lime pie with charred meringue
Tip: It sits across from the Hemingway House queue, and half the bakery case is vegan; the patio suits a long breakfast.
Old Town Bakery laminates croissants and pulls baguettes from a conch house at Eaton and Grinnell, and turns out a key lime pie the neighbourhood rates.
Order: A sticky bun in the morning, a slice of key lime pie after
Tip: The baker starts at 03:00 and the case thins by early afternoon; seating is limited, so plan on takeaway.
Worth the queue: Key lime pie
Joe's Stone Crab in Miami Beach is the 1913 South of Fifth seafood cathedral, serving chilled stone crab claws with mustard sauce from October 15 to May 1.
Signature: Stone crab claws with mustard sauce, Key lime pie, Hash browns
Order: Jumbo or large stone crab claws with the mustard sauce and a side of creamed spinach.
Tip: No reservations for dinner; arrive by 5pm or use the take-away counter next door for the same claws to-go.
Versailles in Miami is the 1971 Cuban institution at 3555 SW 8th Street, open until midnight every night and 1am on weekends with the ventanita pouring.
Try: Cuban full plates and ventanita cafecito
Tip: Weekend 1am closing on the dining room; the ventanita stays open later. Order vaca frita and a cortadito.
Yardbird in Miami Beach is the Southern brunch room at 1600 Lenox Avenue, with 27-hour brined fried chicken, biscuits and bourbon-maple syrup on a Saturday.
Order: Chicken n watermelon n waffles with bourbon-maple syrup
Tip: Book the patio at 10am for Saturday brunch; the queue stretches to 1pm by noon.
Columbia in Ybor City has plated 1905 Salad, paella and Spanish-Cuban classics since 1905, Florida's oldest restaurant under five Gonzmart family generations.
Bern's Steak House in Hyde Park is the 1956 dry-aged steakhouse running the largest restaurant wine cellar in the world: 500,000 bottles, 6,500 labels.
Ulele on the Tampa Riverwalk in a restored 1903 water works building cooks native-inspired Floridian fish, alligator and pompano over a 10-foot barbacoa.
Wright's Gourmet House on South Dale Mabry has built Tampa's classic Cuban and roast-beef sandwiches plus the famous rum cake since 1963. A Tampa table.
Order: Cuban sandwich pressed and a slice of the rum cake to take home.
Tip: Pete and Marjorie Wright started the shop on April 20, 1963; the Casper family bought it in 2024 to keep it Tampa-owned.
More cities are in research. Want key lime pie covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.