Banyan Drive Cafe

Ok, so someone else is taking a shot at making this place into something. I understand it takes a while to turn a place around but you need to begin with the obvious.
Cleanliness– this place is nasty. All the tables are either broken, covered in grime or mildew. The few high chairs they had were broken and black from years of uncleaning.
Floors were gross too.
Food– Really good! Everything brought out to us was real tasty and it was brought out in a reasonable amount of time. But if the kitchen mirrored the dining room then I’m glad no one got sick.
Wait staff– AMAZING! With just 2 girls working, one of which was kept busy at the bar, they managed to wait on nearly 20 tables. Spending time at each one and not making anyone feel as if they were annoying them with questions. I watched our waitress physically running orders back to the cook. They were friendly and full of smiles the whole time. We tipped her 50% for her hard work.
Owner– quit being cheap. Buy new tables and chairs and hire more staff!

Had the steak and shrimp kabobs. Awesome! The grilled vegetables were very tasty. Not sure why the other reviewers meal was so bland, but this dinner was packed with flavor. I’ve been on the island for over a year now and best kabob I’ve had. Will definitely be returning!

Came here with my parents for their anniversary dinner tonight. Decided to try here because we had a Kau Kau card which could get 1 free dinner entrée with purchase of another entrée. I haven’t been here when it was Uncle Billy’s restaurant so I can’t compare to that. I think it was reopened as Banyan Drive Café just recently? But not sure exactly how long it’s been open.
Very touristy atmosphere. I wouldn’t say it caters to the local crowd. Definitely more of a tourist/​local-​haole spot. There was also live music that was supposed to be «jazz» but sounded more like «folk-​with-​a-​touch-​of-​jazz» to me haha: P
The menu is very small, and the menu items don’t have descriptions either, just simply listed as «steak,» «portabello mushroom,» «cheeseburger,» etc. — I kind of want to know a little more about what I’m ordering!
I had a cheeseburger with sweet potato fries. Note — they are not what you’d expect! Not the orange sweet potato fries. They were cubed fried purple sweet potatoes. I wish I was told that before I chose to get that. They were good but just not what I anticipated so I got a side of regular crinkle cut fries too. Those were good and crispy at first but got soggy fast. My burger was good. It wasn’t juicy but I thought the flavor was nice.
My dad had steak with teriyaki sauce, which tasted pretty good, but was well done instead of medium well. My mom on the other hand had the portabello mushroom, which was very disappointing. Only about 4 pieces of dry shriveled mushroom (pretty much not even half of an entire mushroom) with lilikoi sauce atop a pile of sweet potatoes. Another note — those entrees were supposed to come with «grilled island vegetables,» but the only veggie was brussel sprouts.
Also my parent’s entrees came with a side salad & soup. The salad was standard but the soup was like a «mystery soup» :P it tasted fine but we didn’t know what kind of soup it was. It was kind of like a thick hamburger-​vegetable-​rice stew lol.
The service was good; friendly and attentive. The food came pretty fast. But overall I don’t see myself coming back anytime soon… maybe when they become more established and perhaps change up the menu.