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.

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.

Where to eat Hogfish sandwich in Key West

2 editor picks for Hogfish sandwich in Key West, ranked by editorial score. All Key West signature dishes · Hogfish sandwich across every city.

  • Hogfish Bar & Grill

    Order The hogfish sandwich with Swiss and mushrooms on Cuban bread

    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.

    DetailsDirections

  • Cafe Sole

    Order Hogfish from the local catch, then the duck a l'orange

    Cafe Sole has cooked French-Caribbean dinners in a Key West backstreet since 1995, John and Judy Correa's kitchen of hogfish and portobello mushroom soup.

    DetailsDirections

Book food experiences in Key West

See all 558 food experiences in Key West

More places near Hogfish Bar & Grill and Cafe Sole

Not on this list, but close by, nearest first. Every one is in our guide with its address, hours and what to order.

Make it at home

Serves 225 minEasy

Ingredients

  • 2 hogfish fillets, about 180g each, or snapper as a substitute
  • 100g plain flour
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 80g fine breadcrumbs
  • 1 tsp salt, half tsp black pepper
  • 1 large onion, sliced thin
  • 200g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
  • 4 slices Swiss cheese
  • 2 lengths of Cuban bread, split
  • Neutral oil for frying, plus 30g butter

Method

  1. Cook the onion slowly in the butter over a low heat for 20 minutes until deep gold, then add the mushrooms and cook 5 minutes more. Season and set aside.
  2. Season the flour, then coat each fillet in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs.
  3. Heat 1cm of oil to 180C and fry the fillets 3 minutes a side until crisp and just cooked through.
  4. Lay Swiss cheese on the hot fillets so it slumps.
  5. Toast the cut faces of the bread in the same pan.
  6. Build the sandwich: fish and cheese on the bottom, onion and mushroom on top, close and press once.

Editor tip. 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.

Common allergens: Fish, Gluten, Dairy.