about

Our Restaurant
We are a family owned and operated restaurant, proudly serving Florida's lower Keys community since 1984.

El Siboney changed owners in 2004 and is now owned and operated by the de la Cruz family along with many of the same employees that have helped make El Siboney the popular destination that is remains today. We are proud of the recognition that our restaurant has received including Key West's Best Cuban Restaurant every year since 1993. But most of all, we are proud that so many locals and visitors have had a rewarding experience at our restaurant.

We are committed to upholding El Siboney's reputation as Key West's top restaurant for authentic Cuban food, Paella, and local seafood. We hope you enjoy the food, the service, and the friendly atmosphere that our customers have come to expect at our restaurant.

Where the name "Siboney" originates from
Some of our customers have wondered about the origin of our restaurant name. Before 1492, Cuba was populated by at least two distinct indigenous peoples: Taíno and Siboney (some consider these populations to be neo-Taíno nations). These two groups were prehistoric cultures in a time period during which humans created tools from stone, yet they were familiar with gold (caona) and copper alloys (guanín) Copper Age. The Taíno agriculturalist and the Siboney were a self-sufficient society, although their development was not limited to fishing and hunting, farming and production of wooden structures. Taínos and Siboney took part in similar customs and beliefs, one being the sacred ritual practiced using, often nasally inhaled, narcotized tobacco vapors and particulates called cohoba, is known in English as smoking.

Approximately 16 to 60,000, Bartolome de las Casas estimated 200,000, natives belonging to the Taino and Siboney nations inhabited Cuba before colonization. The Native Cuban Indian population, including the Siboney and the Taíno, were forced in to reservations during the Spanish subjugation of the island of Cuba. Many Natives were put in reservations. One famous reservation was known as Guanabacoa, today a suburb of Havana. Many indigenous Cuban Indians died due to the brutality of Spanish conquistadores and the diseases they brought with them, such as the measles and smallpox, which were previously unknown to Indians.

Today Siboney is a town in Cuba east of the city of Santiago de Cuba. In 1898 Siboney and the nearby village of Daiquirí were locations where American forces came ashore in the Spanish-American War. It was also the location of a farm where Fidel Castro and his men gathered shortly before the attack on the Moncada Barracks, which is widely regarded as the start of the Cuban Revolution.