RiskyEats
Key West

Phase 1 cuisine essay ยท FRI Cuisine Essays

Official records + calculations Counts and statistics derived from cited public records. Definitions →

Key West Mexican Guide

FRI public-record essay for mexican restaurants in Key West.

Key West has 28 validated Mexican entries, including 2 with elevated safety overlays. This guide uses DBPR, OSS Places, Sunbiz enrichment, emergency-order history, ORSM severity context, and the unified closure resolver. 0 of 28 candidate evaluations were filtered before publication.

Updated 2026-09-30 15:09 UTC

By FRI Editorial Desk ยท Safety guide

Price and service-format claims are withheld. License seating, OSS category, and chain footprint are not observed menu prices; a future price analysis must use sourced menu/check data and local-market normalization.

Validated open entries 28 ยท ยท
Confirmed closures 0 ยท ยท
Inspection/safety overlays 2 ยท ยท
Filtered candidates 0 ยท ยท

Monroe

Tacos & Taquerias

Tacos & Taquerias

Taco Express

  • Unverified

24171 Overseas Hwy, Summerland Key

Tacos & Taquerias entry; inspection severity is elevated at 1.1x the peer alert threshold.

Validation: DBPR license SEA5428454; Sunbiz entity not resolved.

Tacos & Taquerias

Taco Express Kw

5180 Suncrest Rd, Key West

Tacos & Taquerias entry; inspection severity is within the typical peer range.

Validation: DBPR license MFD5453368; Sunbiz entity TACO EXPRESS KW LLC.

Tacos & Taquerias

La Isla Taco Grill

  • Unverified

243 61 Gulf Street, Marathon

Tacos & Taquerias entry; inspection severity is within the typical peer range.

Validation: DBPR license MFD5453225; Sunbiz entity not resolved.

Tacos & Taquerias

Tacos Jalisco #3

  • Unverified

90001 Overseas Hwy, Tavernier

Tacos & Taquerias entry; inspection severity is within the typical peer range.

Validation: DBPR license MFD5453366; Sunbiz entity not resolved.

Tacos & Taquerias

Amigos Tortilla Bar & Storage Area

425 Greene St, Key West

Tacos & Taquerias entry; inspection severity is within the typical peer range.

Validation: DBPR license SEA5401629; Sunbiz entity 425 TACOS, LLC.

Website

Cantina & Modern Casual

Cantina & Modern Casual

Chicos Cantina of Key West

5230 Us Hwy 1, Key West

Cantina & Modern Casual entry; inspection severity is within the typical peer range.

Validation: DBPR license SEA5401497; Sunbiz entity CHICOS CANTINA OF KEY WEST INC.

Website

Cantina & Modern Casual

Ocean Reef Mexican Cantina

  • Unverified

35 Ocean Reef Dr Ste 200, Key Largo

Cantina & Modern Casual entry; inspection severity is within the typical peer range.

Validation: DBPR license MFD5453320; Sunbiz entity not resolved.

American & Fusion

American & Fusion

Karlitas Cafe

934 Truman Ave, Key West

American & Fusion entry; inspection severity is within the typical peer range. Emergency-order history: 2 event(s) (Roach & fly activity).

Validation: DBPR license SEA5402720; Sunbiz entity KARLITAS CAFE MILE MARKER 10 LLC.

Website

American & Fusion

Old Town Mexican Cafe

7 Key Lime Sq, Key West

American & Fusion entry; inspection severity is within the typical peer range.

Validation: DBPR license SEA5401688; Sunbiz entity OLD TOWN MEXICAN CAFE, INC..

Website

American & Fusion

Puerto Vallarta Mexican Bar & Grill Llc

86701 Overseas Hwy, Islamorada

American & Fusion entry; inspection severity is within the typical peer range.

Validation: DBPR license SEA5402046; Sunbiz entity PUERTO VALLARTA MEXICAN BAR & GRILL LLC.

Website

American & Fusion

Cactus Jacks

  • Unverified

103900 Overseas Hwy, Key Largo

American & Fusion entry; inspection severity is within the typical peer range.

Validation: DBPR license SEA5402061; Sunbiz entity not resolved.

American & Fusion

Chili's

3495 S Roosevelt Blvd, Key West

American & Fusion entry; inspection severity is within the typical peer range.

Validation: DBPR license SEA5428505; Sunbiz entity CONCH FLYER CONCESSIONS, LLC.

Website

Editorial cuisine-guide section

MEH / Proceed With Caution

American & Fusion

Old Town Mexican Cafe

7 Key Lime Sq, Key West

American & Fusion entry; inspection severity is within the typical peer range.

Validation: DBPR license SEA5401688; Sunbiz entity OLD TOWN MEXICAN CAFE, INC..

Website

Cantina & Modern Casual

Chicos Cantina of Key West

5230 Us Hwy 1, Key West

Cantina & Modern Casual entry; inspection severity is within the typical peer range.

Validation: DBPR license SEA5401497; Sunbiz entity CHICOS CANTINA OF KEY WEST INC.

Website

Tacos & Taquerias

Taco Express Kw

5180 Suncrest Rd, Key West

Tacos & Taquerias entry; inspection severity is within the typical peer range.

Validation: DBPR license MFD5453368; Sunbiz entity TACO EXPRESS KW LLC.

Editorial cuisine-guide section

AT YOUR OWN RISK

Health & Safety Concerns

Karlitas Cafe

934 Truman Ave, Key West

inspection severity is within the typical peer range; multi-signal closure detector shows no closure confirmation on the active DBPR license.

Emergency-order count: 2. Closure data: multi-signal closure detector shows no closure confirmation on the active DBPR license.

Health & Safety Concerns

Taco Express

  • Unverified

24171 Overseas Hwy, Summerland Key

inspection severity is elevated at 1.1x the peer alert threshold; multi-signal closure detector shows no closure confirmation on the active DBPR license.

Emergency-order count: 0. Closure data: multi-signal closure detector shows no closure confirmation on the active DBPR license.

Editorial cuisine-guide section

RIP (Permanently Closed)

No RIP entries had two independent closure signals for this geography.

Methodology and Audit

Entries clear the FRI cascade on DBPR status, closure vetting, and cuisine attribution. Identity enrichment (DBPR/OSS/Sunbiz name agreement, geocoded address, city/county consistency, plus cached Google/Foursquare/Yelp verifier context) refines a listing but is no longer a publish gate: a DBPR record that fails only enrichment is still shown rather than dropped. A record that cannot be matched to an identity is marked "Unverified DBPR Record" and its unverified corporate/website/social attribution is withheld; a record that cannot be geocoded is recorded as un-located. Failures and enrichment levels are written to output/cuisine_essay_audit.parquet for operator review.

28 of 28 candidate evaluations published (100.0%); 15 marked unverified (no identity match), 15 recorded as un-located (no geocode). Audit log: output/cuisine_essay_audit.parquet.

The local Sunbiz master enrichment contains corporate names and statuses reliably, but Sunbiz locality fields are sparse in the current export. The city/county check therefore requires DBPR and OSS locality agreement and records missing Sunbiz locality detail in the audit row.

Data sources: FRI Cuisine Essays. Built from DBPR public inspection records, Florida Sunbiz business filings, and Foursquare/OSS location data. All counts are derived from public records โ€” no estimates or projections unless labeled as forecast.

Time-series forecasts and anomaly detection use NVIDIA NV-Tesseract. Model output is labeled separately from official records.

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