For dinner on Day One of our Key West Tour, we went in search of something different.   How about a French restaurant in the keys? We found the Hideaway Café on Grassy Key.  First of all, it is hidden away.

You really have to want to find it. It is located in the Rainbow Bend Hotel which was an odd little place on its own. Then, you climb the stairs, and, voila, you are in the restaurant. There is a porch if you want to sit out and look at the water (which we did) or a nice inside. They recommend reservations although we didn’t seem to need them.

We started with French onion soup because it was a good night for soup. It had rained all day and it was a bit raw.   We finally saw the sun as it was going down,  so it turned into a nice day after all.    The soup was good, lots of cheese, just the way I like it.

Their bread service was very good. They gave a chopped tomato sauce that went along with the bread. It was very good.  They also gave a Cesar salad with the main dish.  The Cesar salad was a bit lacking. It was overdressed with too much cheese.  I love a good Cesar salad but this one wasn’t great.   Besides that, why would you serve a Cesar salad in a French restaurant?   How about a nice leafy salad with vinaigrette dressing?

We both had the coq au vin because we were told it was one of the chef’s specialties. Once we started eating it,  we aren’t sure where he learned to make it because it wasn’t quite like any coq au vin we have ever had. It was more like a half chicken (not cut in parts like you expect in a coq au vin), topped with a  heavy wine thyme laced gravy.

The thyme got in the way of any other spice and not in a good way. The chicken was a bit overcooked and dry as well. We don’t think we would order that again. The portions are rather large so we didn’t have room for dessert.

The wait staff was very attentive and very good.   It is fairly pricey for the area.   We really wanted to like this place more than we did. We did enjoy our visit.   Maybe the rack of lamb next time.