Pepe’s Cafe is one place where I send people who ask where Key West eats. It opened in 1909 and has been serving breakfast through dinner every day of the year since. It also runs a full turkey dinner every Thursday, and most things are made from scratch, which tells you most of what you need to know about the place. Here is what is on the menu for each meal, how much it costs, and what I order.
Pepe’s Cafe at a Glance
- Where: 806 Caroline Street, across from the Key West Bight parking lot
- Hours: 7:30 AM to 9:30 PM, 365 days a year
- Meals: breakfast 7:30–noon, lunch noon–5, dinner 5–9:30; their full menu PDF
- Happy hour: 1 to 6 PM daily through the summer; 4–6 PM the rest of the year
- Reservations: accepted for weekday breakfast
- Good to know: pet friendly, with seating at the full bar, in indoor booths, or on the covered patio
Breakfast at Pepe’s
Breakfast runs 7:30 until noon and is the meal Pepe’s is most famous for. The menu does not call it breakfast; the three sections are Early, Noontide, and Late, which is the sort of thing a place that opened in 1909 gets to do. The bread is baked in-house and the juices are squeezed in-house, and the mimosas and screwdrivers benefit from this touch.
Two eggs any way with toast are $7.45, and meat is not included. Bacon, ham, link or smoked sausage, Canadian bacon, or corned beef hash is $4.95 on the side, so the plate most people are picturing lands closer to $12.40. Home fries, grits, or a potato patty are under $5.
From there, the menu runs about $9 to $19, with build-your-own omelets starting at $10.95 and prepared ones $13.95 to $18.95, plus eggs benedict, French toast and pancakes in short and big stacks, and smoked salmon on a bagel. Ask what the bread of the day is. Watch the specials board too; I love when scallion pancakes make an appearance.
The creamed chipped beef on toast, $11.95, is made in-house. Very few kitchens still put it on a menu.
One thing most visitors don’t know: Pepe’s now takes reservations for weekday breakfast. The place looks like a walk-in-only spot and mostly is, but if you want a table at 9 AM on a Tuesday without standing outside for it, you can book one.
Lunch at Pepe’s
Lunch is served from noon to 5, and the appetizers are where the local seafood sits.
Raw gulf oysters are $1.75 each, baked oysters are $13.50 per half dozen in three styles or a medley of two of each, a half pound of Key West pink peel-and-eat shrimp is $16.95, and local smoked fish dip costs the same. Stone crab claws are market price in season, October to May.
Those are the full prices for the oysters, shrimp, and fish dip; prices are reduced during happy hour.
Pepe’s bottles its own hot sauce in three varieties: Smokey Chipotle, Really Hot, and Sweet Mango. Two out of the three were in the condiment tray on my table. I put the Smokey Chipotle on the smoked fish dip. They sell bottles at the restaurant for $9.95 if you want to take some home.
Sandwiches run from about $10 to $19, each with a choice of macaroni salad, German fries, or coleslaw. The local fish sandwich changes with the catch, and they will tell you what type of fish it is if you ask. The Thanksgiving sandwich from the Thursday turkey dinner is on the menu daily. Burgers, BLTs, grilled cheese, and club sandwiches cover anyone at the table who is not in a seafood mood.
Pepe’s Happy Hour
Happy hour at Pepe’s is a seafood event. Through the summer, the window runs 1 to 6 PM daily, with raw and baked oysters at half price the entire time. Raw oysters cost 88 cents each, so a dozen are $10.56, which I know to the penny because I have ordered them and kept the receipt.
Yuengling is $1.50 on draft, house wines are $5 a glass, and the fresh-squeezed classic margaritas are $6. Pepe’s took the 2026 Bubba Award for Best Margarita, and having had two of them in one sitting, I will back the voters on that one.
The mojito took the 2026 Bubba for Best Mojito, though it is not part of happy hour, so you pay full price. That is where a Key West Bar Card could come in handy.
The rest of the happy hour menu includes the peel-and-eat shrimp, smoked fish dip, and baked oysters. Pepe’s has been on my Key West happy hour guide since I started it and is still going strong after all these years.
The $19.95 Summer Special
Throughout the summer, Pepe’s is running a $19.95 special at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and every one includes a drink. Lunch gets you the burger with German fries, a slice of key lime pie, and a margarita, all in for $19.95.
The pie arrives in a bowl topped with enough whipped cream to count as a second dessert. All three menus are written out on my Key West summer dining specials page, so there is one place to check and one place to update when they change.
Dinner and the Daily Specials
Dinner runs 5 to 9:30, and the Steak House half of the name is earned.
The signature plate is Pepe’s Steak Smothered in Pork Chops: a steak of your choice buried under pork chops with sautéed mushrooms, onions, and peppers. It starts at $39.95 for one and goes to $64.95 for the version built for two, which is a genuine two-person plate rather than a menu dare. If you want the chops without the steak, two center cut ones are $27.95.
New York strips are cut and cooked to order, from eight ounces up to sixteen at $39.95. A bone-in ribeye is $42.95 and the filet mignon is market price. Off the steaks, local fresh fish and Key West pink shrimp come in several preparations. Any steak takes béarnaise butter, mushroom demi glaze, blue cheese crumble, or truffle horseradish for $2.
The weekly rotation is the part some locals (me) actually track. Meatloaf on Monday, pasta on Wednesday, Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, and prime rib on Saturday. Rotating specials include a Seafood Trio, a Black-and-Blue Ribeye, and Surf and Turf. The specials paper notes that entrees come with two sides, and it does not print prices, so ask when you sit down.
My dad and I ran the full playbook once: happy hour oysters and margaritas first, then the Surf and Turf, a five-ounce bacon-wrapped filet with a seven-ounce spiny lobster tail, asparagus, mashed potatoes, and warm cornbread with butter on the side. Starting dinner while happy hour is still running is just good planning.
Thanksgiving Every Thursday
Pepe’s serves a traditional turkey dinner every Thursday night of the year: turkey with gravy, mashed or sweet potatoes, cranberry, peas, and bread. It is filling enough to schedule a nap around. If you are here for the actual holiday, Pepe’s is one of the reliable seats in town; my full Thanksgiving in Key West rundown covers the rest.
The Oldest Restaurant in Key West
Pepe’s Cafe opened in 1909. That makes it the oldest restaurant in Key West and the Florida Keys, and the second oldest in Florida behind the Columbia in Tampa, which opened four years earlier.
Harry Truman visited Key West eleven times starting in 1946, and the plaque on the fence out front says he stopped here for coffee on his walks through town. Apparently the buck stopped here too. The walls carry a century of photos and local artifacts to back up the general point.
There is a phone booth inside, and calls to your mother are free with a three-minute limit. The menu also promises free pickles for pregnant women. Their slogan undersells the whole operation on purpose: “A Fairly Good Place for Quite a Long While.”
Billy Bob, the Face of Pepe’s
For years the unofficial greeter was Billy Bob, a black-and-white cat who started life in a dumpster and worked his way up to repeat winner of employee of the year. He had the run of the restaurant and slept in his favorite Coke box.
He retired after a stroke and lives with the previous owner now, where he has a real bed he mostly ignores in favor of boxes. His likeness lives on across the merchandise, which feels like the right kind of immortality for a restaurant cat.
Hours, Location, and Details
Pepe’s Cafe & Steak House is at 806 Caroline Street, open 7:30 AM to 9:30 PM, with the Key West Bight parking lot directly across the street if you are driving. The package service runs the same hours, so you can buy beer, wine, and liquor to go.
It is casual and pet-friendly and runs mostly on walk-ins; expect an occasional wait at breakfast.
Their sister restaurant, Two Friends Patio, handles live music all day along with happy hour and even more specials to look at.