Garbo’s Grill nails street food in Key West – Burritos and ‘dogs’ are the local favorites

A person sitting at a table with a birthday cake - Dish
Owner Kenna Pancamo prepares food for hungry Garbo’s Grill customers.

Some of the best food to be had in Key West comes from a street vendor — Garbo’s Grill. Expect to wait in the long line that stretches to Greene Street while passing the time with locals and tourists ready to taste greatness. This food is so good, it’s worth staking a Facebook reputation on a food photo. Trust us.

Garbo’s Grill is a unique blend of Asian, Caribbean, and American foods that takes the best of each culture and merges it into supernatural mouth bliss.

Eli and Kenna Pancamo own and operate the food truck, with Kenna’s brother Drew Thornbrugh, at the cash register.

Eli tends the meat with care, constantly flipping the juicy short ribs, hotdogs, fish, shrimp and hamburgers on the grill, making sure everything is seared to perfection.

This is an up-close and friendly picture of the Kogi Korean BBQ tacos at Garbo’s Grill on Greene Street in Key West.
This is an up-close and friendly picture of the Kogi Korean BBQ tacos at Garbo’s Grill on Greene Street in Key West.

Marinated beef short rib, napa cabbage, daikon, scallions, carrot, sriricha (hot Thai sauce), and homemade soy dressing in a burrito, blends flavors cataclysmically to create a perfect balance of fresh cabbage and cilantro mixing with savory, tender, hunks of meat and salty Asian style sauce. The dish is called Kogi Korean BBQ.

The menu is 11 items short, but encompasses a variety of dishes to choose from, each a new experience for the taste buds. It’s also customized — guests can order dishes hot or mild, depending on the flammability of their taste buds.

The small truck on the western end of Greene Street has only been for a few short years, but has been featured on American Airlines and Delta flight magazines, contacted twice by the Travel Channel, and written about in the Miami Herald.

Don’t hate the (short) wait. Part of the experience is the camaraderie  — folks chatting on the benches or plunking down in the grass to eat.

Other menu items range from a plain quarter pound hotdog to a hotdog wrapped in bacon, jalapeños, sautéed onions, mango, and original Caribbean sauce, the signature Mango Dog.

For more info go to the stand at 603 Greene St. or their website, garbosgrillkw.com

 

Passersby can check out the blackboard menu on Greene Street in Key West.
Passersby can check out the blackboard menu on Greene Street in Key West.