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Rusty Anchor (Seafood)
5th Ave, corner of Old Shrimp Road
Stock Island, Key West, Florida
Phone: (305) 294-5369
Parking: Large parking lot
Prices: Moderate
REVIEW
Well, what can I say? I’ve been in Key West for a while now and over the years I have heard all about how wonderful this restaurant on Stock Island was. I’m meant to understand that the Rusty Anchor was originally a wholesale fish supply with a restaurant as a sideline. It’s the perfect location since our Lower Keys fishing fleet emanates from Stock Island making it the best possible place to sell fresh seafood. I was so looking forward to the experience after all I heard for so many years that when the opportunity finally arose I was genuinely excited.
Let it be known that one of the most special people I know took me out for this dining experience and what I’m about to say has absolutely no reflection on the fellowship aspect of the evening. I would eat at Mickey D’s with her for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but after that it was one of the biggest disappointments in dining that I’ve had since my arrival here. So much hype from locals and tourists alike created an extraordinary expectation.
I guess I have seen childlike and rude behavior by Keys residents on many levels considering all the alcohol that’s consumed here, but in this instance it was the tourists. They have obviously found this place and arrived in droves by car and taxi from Key West (from downtown this has to be a $20 cab ride minimum). Once we were seated at our very unstable table and well into our meal a group of six tourists were seated next to us (average age 60+) who bumped their chairs into ours. One man in the group went out to smoke and stood in the window over our table blowing that smoke inside between us and talking over our table to his friends. Would he do this in New York City?
I was thinking that the food would make it all right somehow after all I’d heard. We ordered 2 beers, a smoked fish dip, an order of stone crab claws; my friend had the delmonico steak and I did the yellowtail snapper. Please know that my friend asked me to dinner this night and insisted on paying, but I did check the prices and expected the food quality and quantity to reflect the $17.00 and higher rates. We were served on large oval heavy plastic plates and the beer was served with thin plastic cups. My friend’s delmonico looked like it was about 30% fat and I sincerely doubt that I got ½ of one side of the yellowtail as a serving on my plate. The best and most flavorful item on my plate was the baked potato. We each received ½ a cob of corn that had obviously been cooked too long. I know it’s sacrilege to not like stone crab here, but I’m not a big fan. My special friend is and she wanted some so we ordered a plateful. It was the best part of the meal for me just cracking the shells and pulling away the meat. I didn’t used to like playing with my food before consuming it, but this was fun.
I do want it known that our server was very nice and gave us good suggestions on what we should select. Unfortunately she then forgot our second round of beer and the salad. It was very busy and she was friendly and I didn’t let the tip reflect the items that were missed. The servers on the Keys are among the hardest workers I’ve ever seen. You’d have to do a major faux pas to get a minimal tip from my friend or myself at any eatery here.
I’ll stop now and just wrap this up by saying that I will do a better job in the future taking seriously what people say about the places they eat. It will help me to have more reasonable expectations of the experience prior to arrival. You may love the Rusty Anchor and think I’ve got it all wrong, but all in all I would have enjoyed a foot long at Subway more as long as it was with the same company!
Doug Heyman in Key West for the Food Reference website
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