About Martin's
Since 1990, Martin's has occupied a distinctive position in Key West's dining landscape: a European-trained sensibility applied to the island's finest ingredients, housed in an elegant space that manages to feel both formal and warmly personal. At 917 Duval Street — a stretch of Key West's main artery better known for t-shirt shops and bars — Martin's operates as an elegant counterpoint, a reminder that this island has always attracted people of genuine taste.
The dining room is intimate, appointed with white linens and candlelight that sets an unambiguously romantic tone, but it's the rear courtyard garden that has made the restaurant's reputation. Under mature tropical trees strung with soft lights, tables are spaced generously and conversations remain private — a luxury on an island where everyone seems to know everyone. The courtyard transitions seamlessly from the formal dining room to a covered lounge area, giving guests the option of a full dinner or a more casual evening built around the tapas menu and the signature Signature Martinis offered at half price during the 4pm to 5pm happy hour.
The kitchen has always been serious about sourcing. The daily Beef Wellington special — individual portions wrapped in flawlessly executed pastry — is the dish that has defined Martin's reputation for over three decades. The wiener schnitzel, made with properly pounded veal and finished with the correct lemon and anchovy accompaniments, is technically beyond what most Key West visitors expect to find. Prime ribeye cuts at $48 represent genuine value for the quality of beef being served. Fresh local seafood — yellowtail snapper, Gulf shrimp, stone crab in season — receives the same European technical discipline applied to the meat program.
The wine list shows the same European literacy as the kitchen. Selections from Germany, Austria, and Alsace complement the continental menu in ways that purely California-centric lists do not. The house martini program has developed its own local mythology: three dozen variations, each made with the precise attention to temperature and technique that distinguishes a proper martini from a cold glass of spirits.
For a business dinner in Key West — where the casual atmosphere of the island can make it difficult to signal the appropriate gravity of an important meeting — Martin's provides the right combination of formality, privacy, and food quality to make a strong impression on clients who have dined at the world's great restaurants.
Best Occasion: Close a Deal
The rear garden courtyard offers the most private tables in Key West fine dining. Tables are spaced for conversation, the ambient noise level is controlled, and the service staff — many of whom have been at Martin's for years — read the room with the discretion that serious business dinners require. The menu signals taste and substance without excess. A client who has eaten at the world's great restaurants will understand exactly what they're being shown.