Thanksgiving in The Florida Keys: Where to Feast and Give Thanks
Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, Nov. 26, 2026, and chefs throughout The Florida Keys & Key West are already planning menus worthy of loosening a belt buckle or two.
There is plenty of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie to keep the traditionalists happy, but this is The Florida Keys, after all. That means Florida lobster can share the table with the bird, Key lime pie is absolutely allowed at Thanksgiving, fresh local seafood makes a few appearances and, if sitting around a dining room table sounds a little too ordinary, you can even take your Thanksgiving dinner out on the water.
From Key Largo to Key West, here are some of the 2026 Thanksgiving dinners, brunches and feasts worth looking forward to.
Key Largo
Bungalows Key Largo
At Bungalows Key Largo, Thanksgiving isn't being treated as a single meal. It's more like permission to make an entire tropical getaway out of eating, drinking and being thankful that somebody else is doing the cooking.
The adults-only, all-inclusive resort is planning a full Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, Nov. 26, starting with football in the Living Room and an afternoon wine tasting at Hemingway Bar. Dinner specials take over the resort's dining outlets from 5:30 to 10 p.m., with holiday dishes being created at Sea Señor, Fish Tales and Bogie & Bacall's.
The resort promises chef-prepared turkey dishes, seasonal sides and house-made desserts, followed by a Thanksgiving night DJ on Tiki Beach.
This one's especially suited to travelers who think Thanksgiving should involve a waterfront cocktail and perhaps absolutely no alarm clock the following morning. Bungalows is an adults-only resort, and its Thanksgiving experience is designed around registered resort guests.
Reefhouse Resort & Marina
Reefhouse Resort & Marina is extending the holiday eating into Friday, Nov. 27, with a Thanksgiving buffet at Upper Gus' Grille from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The buffet is listed at $85 per person plus tax and $30 for children under 12, with a 20% service charge. Reservations are recommended.
And this is not a plate-and-go situation. Start with butternut squash soup, holiday breads, sweet Hawaiian rolls, cornbread and maple-walnut butter. Then work your way through seasonal salads before arriving at a seafood bar stocked with jumbo chilled shrimp, seared ahi tuna and oysters on the half shell.
At the carving station, there is herb-roasted turkey with cranberry-mandarin relish and natural pan gravy, salt-crusted strip loin of beef with Cabernet jus and maple-mustard pit ham.
The hot dishes keep coming with horseradish-crusted salmon, butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter, whipped Yukon Gold potatoes, candied yams, classic cornbread stuffing and fall vegetables.
Dessert covers nearly every pie allegiance imaginable with pumpkin, apple, pecan and Key lime pies, plus coconut cake, chocolate cake, cookies, brownies and petit fours.
Islamorada
Kindler at Three Waters Resort
Thanksgiving gets dressed up a bit at Kindler at Three Waters Resort & Marina, where familiar holiday flavors are getting the restaurant's elevated, wood-fired treatment.
Kindler's special three-course Thanksgiving dinner starts with puff pastry tartlets featuring Point Reyes blue cheese, black figs and hot honey. The centerpiece is a turkey ballotine with smoked applewood bacon, black truffle, haricots verts, caramelized carrots, potato purée and cranberry sauce demi-glace. Dessert brings things home with a spiced red wine-poached Bosc pear, Sicilian pistachio gelato and white chocolate soil.
For anyone at the table who isn't feeling turkey, Kindler's regular menu will also be available.
Explore more about Kindler
ReelCatch at Amara Cay Resort
Over at Amara Cay Resort, Thanksgiving leans a little more relaxed and a little more tropical.
ReelCatch is serving an island-style Thanksgiving feast featuring roast turkey, holiday favorites and cranberry-mango chutney, giving the traditional cranberry sidekick a distinctly Keys-worthy upgrade.
Prefer something a little more casual? Head toward the Tiki Bar, where the Thanksgiving specials include jerk turkey sliders and sweet potato wedges.
There is more happening beyond the dinner table, too. Thanksgiving Day activities include treat decorating and a turkey scavenger hunt, with music at the Tiki Bar scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. Turkey, mango, live music and a tiki bar.
The Lower Keys
Little Palm Island
If your Thanksgiving mood is less "pass the casserole" and more "pass the Florida spiny lobster," Little Palm Island Resort & Spa may have your table. The Dining Room is hosting a four-course, family-style Thanksgiving Brunch on Thursday, Nov. 26, guided by Executive Chef Rodrigo Albornoz. The feast is priced at $205+ per person.
The first course includes Hamachi crudo, roasted beet carpaccio, Key West pink shrimp cocktail and autumn greens with delicate squash, pomegranate, candied pecans and maple-sherry vinaigrette. Course two moves into charred honey nut squash with brown butter sabayon, Florida blue crab cakes, 36-hour braised beef cheek and roasted wild mushrooms. Then comes the difficult part: choosing the main course. Traditionalists can go for heritage turkey roulade with spinach, brioche and sage stuffing, potato purée, haricots verts, cranberries and roasted turkey jus.
But this is The Florida Keys, so turkey has some formidable competition. Other choices include Florida spiny lobster with charred corn ragout and coconut-lime butter sauce, prime beef filet, local black grouper and wild mushroom cappelletti with black truffle. House-made scones and cornbread come to the table with whipped honey and cranberry butters, followed by a dessert finale of pumpkin cheesecake, apple tarte tatin and pecan pie.
Key West
Key West Cooking Show
Sometimes you don't want Thanksgiving reinvented. You want turkey. You want stuffing. You want gravy. You want pie. And you want somebody other than you washing the pans afterward. Enter the Key West Cooking Show.
On Thursday, Nov. 26, the Cooking Show is hosting its traditional Thanksgiving buffet with just two seatings, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., for $60 per person.
The menu checks all the boxes: butternut squash soup, bread with compound butter, slow-roasted turkey breast, mashed potatoes, sage stuffing, homemade gravy, green bean casserole, honey-glazed carrots, cranberry sauce and pecan pie.
Hot Tin Roof at Ocean Key Resort & Spa
If Thanksgiving dinner deserves a sunset view, Hot Tin Roof at Ocean Key Resort & Spa has a pretty strong argument. Executive Chef Scott Maurer is serving a four-course prix-fixe Thanksgiving dinner for $140+ per person, combining holiday comfort food with the restaurant's island-inspired style.
The starters immediately make it clear this isn't your standard buffet. Choices include roasted butternut squash soup with royal red shrimp, roasted wild mushrooms with fontina polenta or spiced roasted cauliflower with maple glaze, bacon lardons and cornbread crumbs. Salad choices include caraway and rock salt-roasted beets or burrata with baby greens, candied walnuts, roasted pumpkin and cranberry vinaigrette.
Then the main event arrives. You can stay firmly in Thanksgiving territory with herb-roasted natural turkey, haricots verts, buttermilk mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberries and traditional gravy. Or you can make a hard turn toward The Florida Keys with surf and turf featuring a petit filet and half a Florida lobster tail. Other entrée choices include slow-roasted prime rib with black truffle potato gratin, seared Florida grouper with coconut curry and chorizo, and local yellowtail snapper with citrus-fennel salad. Dessert is no easier to choose. There's Key lime pie, brown butter pumpkin layer cake and triple chocolate cheesecake.
Check out the Thanksgiving Menu
Latitudes at Sunset Key Cottages
At Latitudes at Sunset Key Cottages, Thanksgiving dinner is served from noon to 9 p.m., with reservations required. The holiday menu is à la carte, so everyone at the table can take Thanksgiving in a slightly different direction. Start with butternut squash and pumpkin bisque, oven-roasted beets or shrimp cocktail. Then choose your Thanksgiving destiny. The traditional roasted heritage turkey dinner is $50 and comes with chicken-apple sausage stuffing, Yukon mashed potatoes, sage turkey gravy, mushroom green bean casserole, glazed heirloom carrots and cherry-cranberry relish.
Not feeling turkey? There is a lobster-and-crab-stuffed red snapper for $50, a 12-ounce roasted prime rib for $58 or a wild mushroom risotto for $32. Dessert keeps things appropriately autumnal with homemade pumpkin pie or warm brown butter apple streusel with vanilla ice cream. The fact that your trip to Thanksgiving dinner starts with a ferry ride is just the Key West bonus.
View the Thanksgiving Day Menu
Café Marquesa
Thanksgiving gets an Old Town glow-up at Café Marquesa, where Chef Travis Lee is serving a three-course prix-fixe Thanksgiving menu for $135++ per person, with an optional $90 wine pairing.
First-course choices include wild mushroom bisque, baby gem Caesar and beef tartare.
For the main event, diners can choose a truffled turkey roulade with stuffing bread pudding, haricots verts, confit garlic and chestnut turkey gravy, or venture beyond the bird with beef tenderloin, red snapper or seared scallops with sweet corn ravioli and butternut squash butter.
Dessert keeps one foot firmly planted in Key West with a Key lime tart, while beignets provide another appropriately indulgent finish. This is Thanksgiving for diners who still want familiar holiday flavors, just served with a little more polish.
Four Marlins
At Four Marlins Oceanfront Dining at The Reach Key West, Thanksgiving dinner comes with Atlantic views and live music instead of a sink full of roasting pans. Thanksgiving dinner is scheduled from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 26, with live music on the patio and reservations recommended.
The holiday plate features roasted turkey breast for $56 with cranberry sauce, port wine gravy and warm butter biscuits. Diners choose three sides from options including rosemary-roasted potatoes, haricots verts with shallots and almonds, cornbread stuffing, charred Brussels sprouts and baby carrots with bacon and pomegranate molasses, and sweet potato mash. Dessert choices keep the classics coming with pecan pie, pumpkin pie and, because you are still in Key West, Four Marlins Key lime pie.
Explore the Thanksgiving Menu
Casa Marina
There are Thanksgiving dinners, and then there are buffets that require a strategy. The Thanksgiving Day buffet at Flagler's Restaurant at Casa Marina Key West falls squarely into the second category. Seating is scheduled from noon to 3 p.m. and 5 to 8 p.m., with pricing at $125 for adults and $35 for children. A complimentary welcome mimosa and live music are included, and reservations are recommended.
The resort is promising a sprawling holiday feast that starts with charcuterie and a chilled seafood display, then moves into made-to-order pasta and carving stations. Among the Thanksgiving headliners are Papa's Pilar Rum-glazed turkey, slow-roasted rib roast and miso-butter local fresh catch, plus seasonal accompaniments and plenty of dessert.
Margaritaville Beach House Key West
Thanksgiving doesn't require white tablecloths to be delicious. Margaritaville Beach House Key West has its Thanksgiving celebration scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 26, giving visitors another option for spending the holiday with palm trees and Key West sunshine instead of falling leaves and cold weather.
Start with an apple salad made with mixed greens, candied pecans, dried cranberries, goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, red onion and apple cider vinaigrette. For the main event, the resort is serving roasted turkey for $45 with classic gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce and stuffing. Dessert keeps it traditional with apple pie and vanilla ice cream for $12.
And because this is Margaritaville, the holiday menu comes with a few festive cocktails, too. Sip on a pumpkin cheesecake martini, a whiskey amaretto sour or a cranberry Moscow mule while you trade chilly fall weather for palm trees and Key West sunshine.
Check out the Menu
Sunset Watersports
Sunset Watersports is taking the holiday onto the water with its Thanksgiving Day Sunset Sail, a two-hour trip featuring live music, an unlimited open well bar and a Thanksgiving-themed menu.
The food keeps things casual and festive with turkey sliders with stuffing and cranberry sauce, honey ham sliders, sweet potato tots, meatballs and gravy, holiday cheese and cracker trays, vegetables with hummus and Thanksgiving dessert. For travelers who prefer their Thanksgiving dinner with an unobstructed horizon, it is difficult to beat eating turkey while sailing into a Key West sunset. Just remember to hold onto your napkin.
More info here
Come Hungry. Leave the Dishes Behind.
There are plenty of Thanksgiving traditions worth keeping.
Gathering around a table. Going back for seconds when you absolutely did not need seconds. Debating whether pumpkin or pecan deserves the final sliver of available stomach space. Sneaking one more bite of stuffing while everyone else is pretending they are finished eating. But there is no rule saying Thanksgiving has to come with cold weather, an oven running since sunrise or a sink full of roasting pans.
In The Florida Keys, Thanksgiving can mean turkey beside the bay in Key Largo, a tropical twist in Islamorada, Florida spiny lobster on a private island, a waterfront feast in Key West or Thanksgiving bites served somewhere between the island and the sunset. You can dress up for a prix-fixe dinner, attack a holiday buffet with a game plan, take your turkey to go or climb aboard a boat and let the ocean provide the centerpiece.
And if Key lime pie somehow finds its way onto the Thanksgiving table?
Around here, we'll allow it.
A little holiday advice: Thanksgiving is a popular time to visit The Florida Keys, and special holiday dinners can fill quickly. Menus, prices, service times and availability can change, so make reservations early and confirm the latest details directly with each restaurant before heading out.
Then there's only one decision left to make... Turkey, lobster or both?
