I can't believe the lousy reviews on this one. We had the finest meal here during our entire stay in Key West. The fish was fresh and delicious. One of the specialties, penne pasta with shrimp in tomato-cream truffle sauce, was so heavenly I have been dreaming of it ever since. My husband's scallops with key lime buerre blanc was also fabulous. We had a lovely waitress (maybe they have since ditched the bad help?) and all in all a wonderful dinner in a charming restaurant.

I'm glad I didn't read the reviews before deciding to eat at the Grand Cafe. Three of us had drinks, apps, dinner and dessert and our bill came to less than $200. My snapper, my son's filet, and my husband's pasta with shrimp were all very good. Our server was attentive and efficient.

We visited the Grand Cafe on a mid February night after watching the sun set in Mallory Square. We were walking back to our hotel on Duval Street and decided to dine here because it just looked so nice and inviting from the outside. We should have stuck to the restaurants we checked on Trip Advisor before we left.

The outside dining area is beautiful, and nicely landscaped, sitting in front of a large, restored house. There is seating inside the house as well but we ate outside. We were promptly seated even though we had no reservations and got a table overlooking the street activity below. People watching on Duval St. became our primary source of entertainment as our meal progressed extremely slowly.

I wouldn't say the service was unfriendly just extremely slow and negligent especially after we finished our meal. It took close to 1/2 an hour to get our check after we had finished and we wanted to pay by credit card. After delivering our check, our waiter disappeared. We waited around for another twenty minutes and we finally decided to just pay by cash to get out of the restaurant. Otherwise, we would probably sitll be there.

The food was ok but nothing special. We ordered a conch fritter appetizer, which I had high hopes for but I had better conch buying it from a street vendor on Mallory Square.

My fiancee ordered the special of the night, which was a sampler of four dishes. The waitress did not mention the price of the sampler and we should have asked. That was a big mistake. The "special" ended up being $46, which was almost twice as much as any other entree on the menu.

This place has a huge wine list and it can be kind of intimidating. However, the wine we did pick turned out to be very good.

Upon arrival with our kids the waitress already seemed to be annoyed. Her tactic was ignoring us. The drinks took long, the food even longer. When it finally arrived it was cold and boring. The taste was uninspirational and bland. I guess the tourists go there because of the vouchers for wine they get at the hotels. There was no waiter in sight to complain to and it took us 15 minutes to get the manager listening to us. In the meantime the kids were asleep on our shoulder. She was not experienced to handle the situation. So a helpless "Im sorry" was all she could say. Tourist trap - they do not value your business because you are not expected to return anyway.