(Note: review based solely on our take out dessert the men of our group brought back for us to…read moresample for critique)
Back story. The quest for the best key lime pie in Key West began over dinner on Monday night, when I mentioned wanting to check out Kermit's on my friend Jen's recommendation, lamenting that I never got to enjoy a truly good key lime pie during my first and last visit in 2020. The one I had then was... not good. (I now know the dead giveaway is that it was green).
What followed has become a pursuit of principle: truly a noble quest I can get behind.
Fast-forward 3 days, and here's our verdict so far, with one contender still to come. Tomorrow night we're headed to Red Shoe Island Bistro for dinner at the insistence of a local who claims it blows Kermit's cheesecake out of the water:
1. Kermit's - The benchmark. Bright, tart, light, and perfectly balanced.
2. Hurricane Hole - Good, but missing the extra punch of tartness that puts Kermit's over the top.
3. El Siboney - Solid, but denser and more cheesecake-like, but also lacking the light, airy tartness of Kermit's.
4. Key Lime Pie Bakery - Forgettable in a town where memorable matters.
5. Matt's Stock Island Kitchen - Overly sweet with virtually no lime (or even lemon) presence. Our slice came boxed with whipped cream and... cherry sauce?! If you'd called it birthday cake, I'd have found that a more accurate description. Might as well call it Diabetes On a Plate. The boys did say this place is located in a beautiful hotel with great view. So there's that.
Tomorrow morning, a plan was proposed (that I seconded): we'll stop by Kermit's to grab two slices to go and stash them in the fridge, specifically to revisit after dinner at Red Shoe Bistro as a point of reference. If Red Shoe's pie ends up being too close to call, we'll have no choice but to bring a slice home and do a true, side-by-side comparison in real time. And in the interest of not ending the trip on a sour note if tomorrow night disappoints, at least we'll be leaving Key West on Friday morning with Kermit's key lime pie as our final bite.