oo-tray

We were 2 couples looking for a change from conch fritters and the typical fish entrees.
This place filled the bill. Wonderful menu, service friendly and helpful, extensive drinks from the bar.
Highly recommend Oot if you want an excellent meal, and not the old same thing
Give them a try, we’re sure you’ll enjoy the evening there

I would not recommend anything about this place. The keys don’t have a lot of different restaurant so I was excited it had a tapas style menu… The food was not good. Lobster dumplings are super expensive for the smallest portion of an entrée I have ever seen. And we didn’t even finish them because they tasted lol bad fish. We ordered a bottle of wine and were sitting outside so one of my full glasses ended up with a dead fly in it… Waitress brought me a clean glass (did not offer more wine) and did not removed the gross glass of wine from the table… Finally I told the bartender about this and he said he was sorry but ALSO didn’t offer another glass or anything… Don’t waste your money.

Delicious ! I’m visiting from Miami Beach and was surprised with the quality of the food! The server was a sweetheart and made sure we had everything we needed. I highly recommend the steak, the black eye peas hummus dip and any catch of the day. The catch of the day was hog fish! So delicious! The cocktails were on point too! They had a live acoustic artist that played great music all night long! Very fun ambiance better than the full moon party. Thank you Chef for the great food. And my server was awesome:)

What a wonderful surprise. Great food and reasonable prices. It’s not easy to to find a place to eat on the keys outside of Key West and Chad’s if you don’t eat fish or meat. At oo-​tray not only is there a whole section of choices for vegetarians, but each dish is conceived with care and ingenuity. A thoughtful waiter, heat lamps for cold nights, a tasteful patio. Definitely going back.

Great, fresh, tasty food (especially Polenta with Mushrooms). Very reasonable prices!
Will definitely stop there on my way to Key West next time.

Omar is the only reason I’m leaving any stars for oo-​tray. He was the bartender who took care of us the best he could despite the rest of the restaurant being a train-​wreck.
When we arrived, the first red flag was that the inside of the restaurant was empty, but we were told that there would be a 30 – 45 minute wait because «everyone showed up at the same time.» It was suggested that we head out to the bar outside and grab a drink while waiting. Seeing as I’m pregnant, very visibly so, we headed out to the bar so that I could have some water. It was pretty busy out on the patio and the bar was packed with people waiting for tables, another red flag. We found some seats and at least my husband was able to order a drink. 45 minutes went by and not a single person from the bar had been seated. An hour went by and the couple next to us at the bar, who had ordered apps before we even sat down, started getting pretty upset and asked to speak with the manager. They made a bit of a scene and then left without paying. My husband and I made a face at each other, but little did we realize how right they had been.
An hour and fifteen minutes go by and my husband noted that half the people who had tables still didn’t have anything except for water. No food to be seen anywhere. We finally asked Omar the bartender for a menu (something we had not been offered yet) so that we could at least order an appetizer since it was 9pm now and we had been waiting for 75 minutes. We’d had several waiters tell us that there would be a table available «soon,» but in the 1 hour and 45 minutes we waited, we were never seated at a table.
Omar felt so bad about everything that he comped one of my husband’s drinks and found us some fries (which were apparently ordered by the couple next to us almost two hours earlier, but that couple was long gone and no one had told the chef), which he comped as well. We asked about the lack of food and he finally told us the truth about what was going on– there was only one chef in the kitchen, the other two called out today. In my opinion, this is really something we should have known before we decided to put our names in for a table. It became very clear that even if we were ever seated at a table, it might be two more hours before we actually saw any food at that table. Omar is the only reason we were able to eat anything, even if it was just a small basket of fries, and I think he just took pity on us because I was the pregnant lady who had waited almost two hours for food.
By the time we gave up, it was after 9:30pm (we had arrived at 7:40pm). We watched several tables get up and leave before we did. Almost no one had been able to get anything to eat. Almost every other restaurant in the area was closed at that point and we ended up at yet another overpriced mediocre fish restaurant.
All in all, this was one of the worst restaurant experiences of my life. The owner of oo-​tray should really be ashamed. The front of house should have been honest with us from the beginning. Omar and the rest of the wait staff were doing their best, but it wasn’t enough to keep us hanging around for more than two hours hoping to eat something… anything.
TL;DR: Really disappointing experience and pretty much ruined our evening. Omar was great. The fries were good.

Honestly everything in the keys is overpriced and mediocre compared to any big city. In every way the vacation to the keys was awesome (drive, weather, scenery etc) except for the food. The only thing they can cook somewhat decently in the keys is seafood.
I was not expecting much from oo tray, but I was pleasantly surprised. They serve american food tapas styles. They have a large selection of vegetarian tapas which was nice.
They have a good selection of craft beer and whiskeys .
These guys made Brussels sprouts taste great! Their polenta preparation with wild mushrooms was really good! Black eyed pea hummus was good too! Sweet and sour shrimp was great as well!
The service was great and very friendly. no airs whatsoever. Might make a another stop before leaving the keys!

Eclectic creative food choices. And the kitchen was open til midnight on a Friday. Highly recommend if you’re looking for an intimate reasonably priced dining experience. Must try the eggplant fries, the duck wings, the fried Brussels sprouts and the fresh fish of the day.

¹⁰⁄₂₅ — What a treat to find something «different» and cool in Islamorada. As soon as I saw this place, I wanted to come here for my birthday dinner.
We walked in and the place is beautifully decorated, barn doors, wines on the wall, very clean lines. It was a perfect evening to sit outside in their ample patio and since they had live music, we did not hesitate. The host/​bartender told us that we came to the right place. We asked about the Moscow Mule and he said they make one of the best. Great!
We chose a table outside right in front of the singer. We had the waitress come by and take our drink order. Of course Moscow Mule and I ordered a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. The wine came out almost room temperature, and the Moscow Mule was just ok. This is not going well, I thought.
We put in our appetizer order. Eggplant Fries with local honey and rosemary ($ 8) and the Black Eyed Pea Hummus with pita chips ($ 8). The Eggplant fries were cut so long that when you pick them up they were bending, so we had to fold them a few times. There wasn’t enough taste, pretty bland so we asked the waitress to bring honey for dipping. For the presentation, these were served in a silver tin bowl. The hummus came out on a big white plate with a few chips, the hummus was in what it looked like a baby jar on top of some leaves. It was probably the worst presentation I had ever seen. The hummus was delicious though. We had to ask for more chips. These were nice, crispy and warm. What we actually did was take the pita chip, add hummus and dip it in honey… DELISH!
These 2 dishes (as they came out) just did not do it for me. I was so disappointed that we didn’t want to chance ordering an entrée. So we just asked for the check. It is pretty slow at Islamorada during this time so I almost have a feeling that the Chef wasn’t even there. I mean I have worked in Food & Beverage before and I don’t know any Chef that would let those dishes leave their kitchen that way.

My husband & I arrived «late» to Islamorada this past Friday. We didn’t realize that most restaurants close by 10PM and we were starving. A server at one of the closed restaurants suggested we check out oo-​tray. We are SO glad she did! It was the perfect spot to start off our Keys weekend! We enjoyed the most delicious food in a delightful setting with live music and a great selection of craft beers on draft! Be sure & try the Arepa Sloppy Joes & the Eggplant fries! SO YUM! Our main course was awesome and our server was great!

Wonderful. Excellent service, very cool atmosphere (check out the outdoor seating). We didn’t care for the appetizer-​they agreed, took it off the bill.
If you are foodie at all, this is a don’t-miss restaurant in Islamorada. The food is that good.
Go on Tuesday night and catch Caroline&Alexis playing Terrific young duo!

Yes, another new eatery in Islamorada, a place drowning in tacky old-​style Keys restaurants. A breath of fresh air to blow away the moldy dust.
We had the crudo plate as appetizer and it was excellent, fresh and nicely presented, and then the fish of the day (a black grouper) as main dish, which was excellent too. I just wish we could buy fish as fresh as they have in the Keys.
Overall, I am glad that a place like this exists in Islamorada, and hopefully, can thrive. Laid back with a modern twist; and a nice Whiskey selection to top it off. Not necessarily a place that will make Grandma sing along (she can stay home and crochet another blanket), but, eh, the younger generations will surely appreciate what oo-​tray does.

This place is a nice change for the Keys. Sort of American fare with flare. They use locally sourced ingredients whenever possible. Very charming outdoor seating plus music even though right on hwy 1. Steak Frites was very good, perfectly cooked. Others in our party enjoyed the stroganoff.
Overall a good find, I would come back for a second visit.

I came here with a group of 20 (yes, that many people). When we walked in, we noticed that it does not have the typical Keys feel to this place. There were no seashells or fish references to be found.
With a party that large, the staff really handled our group well. They were friendly and stayed on top of our needs. The reason that I knocked them down to three stars was the lack of vegetarian options on the menu. It has been a long time since I saw not a single item that did not contain on their main course selection. I could not even substitute or leave anything out to make it meat-​free.
i ended up eating the arugula salad for dinner. The salad was delicious, and everyone else seemed to have enjoyed their meals. I hope that one day they update their menu to cater to other dietary needs.

We ended up here by chance.
You won’t find kitschy-​palm-​trees-​and-​fish keys décor here. Instead, it seems oo-​tray went for a more earthy feel with rock walls, Mexican tile, and dark wood chairs. There is a private room separated from the main dining area by very cool barn doors. Perhaps they just made do with the existing décor of the previous tenants? I couldn’t tell what was new and what was there before. I did notice some paw prints set into the bathroom tile. I thought it was odd. Paw prints? The waiter had no idea why that was there and said «perhaps it was there prior to them moving in.» Hmmmm In any case, the overall restaurant is charming, cozy, and unexpectedly different than most spots in the keys.
oo-​tray uses local ingredients and proudly displays a chalkboard listing the names of all the farms they work with from Homestead all the way to Tampa.
We all shared the following:
Shrimp Lettuce Wrap– Sweet and sour rock shrimp, bibb lettuce, jicama, kiwi, and guanábana. My friend (who was trying to eat as clean as she could) asked the waiter if these were fried. He said «No.» Take a look at my photo. They seem fried to me! The sauce was good and the shrimp was tasty.
California Chop Chop– Turkey, garbanzo beans, avocado, and tomato in a red wine vignette. The avocado was not ripe enough to be served yet, but the accompanying turkey was very good. I would ask for more of the vinaigrette with this dish.
Sandwich of the day– I don’t remember the name of it, but it had meat. It was way too simple for me to truly judge (given my friend requested the main sauce that topped it to be removed). SMH
They also seem to have a good whiskey, scotch, and bourbon list (especially for the area). Their handcrafted drinks were the standouts of our visit. We had several rounds of the PYRUS, BLACKBERRY MARGARITA, the BARREL AGED OLD FASHIONED and the BARREL AGED DIRTY MOJITO.
The menu states «oo-​tray-​adjective– passing the bounds of what is usual or considered proper; unconventional; bizarre.»
I can’t say much of what we had (or what was listed on the menu) matched that description. I will say, however, that we took a look at the dinner menu and it seemed way more interesting. As we walked out we noticed a flyer for an upcoming event featuring a Cigar City dinner pairing. That seemed like something we would love to try! We will definitively be trying this again in the near future for dinner. At least we know we will be in for some good drinks!
To be continued…

Mood and atmosphere here is relaxed, low lighting but not to dim. Service was great! Waiters are very good about making sure everyone’s drinks are full.
They’re black-​eyed pea hummus with fresh made pita was excellent.
Tempura vegetables, also, very good appetizer.
The Burratta Salad was amazing!
Ordered a pork belly sandwich, pickles are made in house, enough said!
The fresh Mahi with the French preparation was to die for, absolutely fantastic!
Finally the Tiramisu, oh my, the Tiramisu was the best! Great way to finish the meal!