The Hideaway Cafe is located at the Rainbow Bend Resort on Grassy Key. It is seriously hidden away. Unless you knew it was there or you were staying at the resort you would never find it. The resort is an older, but it is right on the beach which is nice, and the view from the restaurant is great. We watched a kiteboarder all throughout dinner.
The Hideaway Cafe’s menu is interesting, mainly seafood with a french flare. All entrees come with a caesar salad, garlic bread, potato, and vegetables. Items include escargot, filet mignon, duck, and several other options. They also serve beer and wine, but no hard alcohol.
Shortly after we were seated the staff brought over some of their garlic bread with a tomato compote which was amazing. I think I would have been happy eating that for dinner, but I wanted to try more than just the bread. We started off with the seafood crepe and the shrimp scampi for appetizers. The crepe was wonderful. The scampi was good, but didn’t blow my mind. For dinner my husband ordered the chateaubriand for one and I ordered the seafood wellington.We were told by the reservations manager that the chateaubriand was amazing, but it was just okay. But the seafood wellington was really delicious; it basically had the same ingredients as the crepe, but in a different wrapper. For dessert I got the cheesecake and a coffee. This was good, but I prefer my own cheesecake. The coffee was delicious, and they gave us real cream for it rather than the usual half and half which made it even better, although much more fattening. Presentation on everything was very nice.
The service was good as well. I cannot say that they went overboard with making us feel welcome or explaining the menu items, but it was better than a lot of Keys service. It seemed like they were having a hard time keeping up with the tables, so I am glad that we had early reservations before things got hectic there.
I was not blown away by the experience as a whole like I thought I would be based on what I had heard about the place, but I was impressed with my meal if not with my husband’s. And I think that if you are staying in the Upper Keys, this would be a good place to try for dinner one night, especially if you like seafood, as those dishes far surpassed the steak that we tried at least.
For more information about things to do and see in our island city, go to our Key West Web Site. You can also visit our Key West Events Calendar to see more details on upcoming special events.
And for more restaurant reviews check out our restaurant review section of this blog as well as our restaurant reviews at www.gotothekeys.com.
