Bahama Billy’s Island Steakhouse

This place isn’t closed, but it’s funny I think I now know why there weren’t a lot of guests dining here this past Friday night.
We came in around 7:30, sat outside by the fire, which was nice but there were all sorts of cigarette buns in it, not classy and pretty disgusting.
The drinks were meh. I ordered the Bahama Mama, tasted more like spiked OJ if anything. I ordered a frozen daquiri, mango flavored and I asked about using fruit, they do not, but a frozen purée type thing. I figured that was better than nothing but gosh, I mean it tasted like frozen icecubs mixed with alchohol, so plain. Still, to this day, The Grotto makes the absolute BEST mango margarita, tastes like real fruit, its amazing.
Back to this place, the food is alright, got crab cakes, it was okay, kinda weird tasting, the garnish with it was better, I think it was mustard greens with a balsamic vinegrette. I also got the fish and chips, I know, who orders that? I am really into fried fish these days, I can’t explain it lol. But it was a huge, I mean a huge portion. The sweet potato fries were good and yeah thats about it. For what we spent, I think is waaay over priced, the drinks, appetizers, everything it just didn’t seem like it was worth the money.
On the other hand, the service was great, our server was so friendly and so attentive, she was very nice!
Anyways, maybe if this posting became more accurate, as in still in business, I think there would be more business, but the drinks do need some revamping and the prices need to go down.

[Note – they are *NOT* CLOSED – they just dropped «Billy’s» from the name. So now there are two separate listings on Unilocal]. Our very late lunch/​early dinner was successful from a food perspective. The service (or lack thereof) brought things down from a high 4/​low 5 to a low-​medium 4. We had two very good spinach salads, an outstanding calamari appetizer (light, crispy, seasoned batter, tender squid), and a very good blackened mahi mahi sandwich. (The mahi may have been a bit overcooked, as the edges had a bit of a jerky-​like consistency.)
We were there during a shift transition, and it was not a smooth transition. The stereotypical artist-guy-from-I’m-guessing-Big Sur-​who-​just-​wanted-​ice cream-​and-​brought-​his-​own-​teabag-​and-​wanted-​unlimited-​hot-​water & his equally frugal lady friend seemed to get much more attention from the wait staff than we, who were there for a full meal, did. Go figure.

Went here a few years ago, the service was okay and the food was okay; that’s the thing, nothing really stood out. I’d like to come back and try it again at some point in the near future.

We had a very uneven, very meh dinner here. There was a golf tournament in town and by the time we dined on Sunday evening, they were out of a lot of menu items. I really think we might have caught them on an off night. Then again, what we did get was not very good.
We split the wedge salad. Very blah wedge of iceberg topped with very blah dressing.
I had the fish tacos. Not bad, but nothing special, either. Wife had the skirt steak, which was a flavorless slab. The couple next to us split what turned out to be the last piece of halibut. They sent it back.
You cannot build an island menu by tossing some bits of mango on every plate.
We overheard the server relaying to other tables what desserts they had run out of, so we skipped out and called it a night.
On the plus side? Pet friendly outdoor seating for our not-​ready-​to-​be-​left-​alone puppy.

If you are in Carmel Valley during the week I recommend Bahama Billy’s for their happy hour. Good prices, lots of locals who add some serious color to the place, and the fish tacos were excellent. No happy hour on Saturday or Sunday.

Still the best early-​bird deal in Carmel.
Everything in the restaurant at 50% off between 3:00 — 6:00 PM.
Recently went with my buddy, Cosimo, and we had two drinks at the bar and an order of Sweet Potato Fries for $ 11.00. That’s a recession buster…
The drinks were good and stiff and the sweet potato fries were generous thick cuts of a perfect blend of sweet and sea-​salt salty with Ginger Sesame, Garlic Aioli, and ketchup as dipping condiments. The outside had a good crunch, the inside was moist and tender with each bite releasing a puff of steam into the air.
It was a great way to start our evening.

Bahama Billy’s blows. Doesn’t give me any great pleasure to say it, but I really didn’t enjoy my experience here outside of the company of my dinner-​mates.
We had an 8pm reservation here on a Friday night. The restaurant was fairly full, but extremely loud. It was hard to hear my family members over the normal din of the restaurant conversation; the people weren’t loud, but the acoustics of the restaurant made everyone sound that way.
The food was very bland. We started with the house appetizer sampler, which featured very dry and lightly seasoned ribs, wings and shrimp. For dinner I ate very boring catfish tacos (at least load it up with guac or sour cream or something really lardy!). My seat-​mates were similarly unimpressed. We all split the ice cream and bananas dish for dessert. The bananas were carted out and fried in a bunch of alcohol and a stick of butter (no kidding, and entire stick of butter used for about three bananas). Definitely the highlight of the meal, but still nothing to write home about.
Service was fair. It took the crew ten minutes to seat us in a table ten feet away that was already made and cleaned. Don’t know how that worked out. Our waitress was prompt and polite.
The food alone really soured the experience. Wouldn’t recommend Bahama Billy’s to anyone.

Holy crap. I am a self proclaimed food snob from San Francisco and I must say, this place was very good. We were visiting some friends of friends in Pebble Beach and they brought us to this little gem. At first glance, I was a bit apprehensive about this place.
After some very stiff drinks (Watch out for the Disgruntled Bastard! Oy Vey!) we ordered the platter for 2 –which consisted of loads of crab legs, generous portions of skirt steak, mashed potatoes, and veggies — all for around $ 50! Richard and DesNeiges G. were with us (and totally copied us!) and got the same thing. But we all agreed, hands down, that it was the best crab we had ever had. And the best part — the crab legs were cut in half making it effortless to get out the delectable meat.
Our waiter was very friendly (maybe a bit too much in that odd sort of way). My only complaint about the service was that I had to ask continually for my water glass to be filled up.

You haven’t had garlic bread until you’ve been to Bahama Billy’s! They put corn on top of it, and it is buttery madness. Yum!
I love this restaurant, and it is a great place to dine outside as well.
Foods to try:
–Crab Mango Bisque
–Fish Tacos
–Sweet Potato Fries
Great atmosphere, excellent customer service… one of my definite faves.

Very limited menu, bland food & slow service all for way more than it should ever actually cost. Don’t get me wrong I don’t mind paying for a good meal in fact I don’t mind paying big for a good meal as many times you get what you pay for when it comes to fine dining, but this place doesn’t deliver.
It’s barely passable as caribbean food and not even remotely close to the ambiance or quality of food from similarly themed franchises like Bahama Breeze.