Banana Tree Grille

Steak was tough and rubbery and swimming in a pool of olive oil. Wahoo was dry. Bluebeard castle was decrepit. View was okay. Bathroom was disgusting. We enjoyed the piano player and excellent service but there are too many good options now in st Thomas and especially St. John at this price point for us to ever return.

This restaurant was highly recommended by a concierge. The view was great – harbor with moored boats. The service was good but everything was ala carte– even the bread.
The Surf and Turf was average – the lobster was rubbery. The crab cakes were the best. We split an entrée, with a glass of wine and the bill was $ 109 before the tip. Overall I would say it was very average food and over– priced.

After a day of travel i had just arrived at the hotel. This looked a nice sit down place to eat. I was tired, not wearing makeup or dressed best — the waiter seeing a brown lone girl assumed me to be a local suggesting that I was eating at restaurant with ulterior motives such as meeting guests. I corrected him that I was from California just arriving on Island.
The menu is very limited. Some of the food photos shown in Unilocal were not available in current menu.
I selected an appetiser dish of pasta witth variety of mushrooms to be made into entre. When it arrived, there were no mushrooms, just some creamy pasta (not pesto). It had no flavor, totally bland. Typical caribbean ways of food not matching menu description. I was hungry from all day, i ate and left the place. Views at restaurant can be seen frm many spots on property. RESTAURANT NOT THAT GREAT, THEY JUST PRICE THEIR FOOD LIKE THEY ARE SOME LUXURY RESORT. IF I AM SPENDING 50 – 60, i’d rather be eating at Marriott or Ritz on the island where quality is guaranteed.

We have been coming to St. Thomas for 10 years and always have at least one dinner there. The view is incredible! The food is average to good. The service is always attentive. I have a problem with their carpeting and red tablecloths, but that’s my hang up.

This restaurant has a beautiful view, great menu, beautiful presentation. The food is so good — portions are well sized!

This could be my favorite restaurant of all.
The food, service and view are outstanding.
Will was an exceptional, informative server and the kitchen staff deserves high praise.
For apps my wife went with the crab cakes (cleaned her plate) and I had the Burrata with roasted fig and crispy (almost chip-​like) garlic slices. The garlic was great.
My wife had the BT filet and I had the pepper-​crusted NY strip for dinner. Both were cooked perfectly. I love strip steaks, but I have to admit the filet was tastier.
For dessert we split the brownie and had a delicious cappuccino and creamy latte.
As we were leaving we made reservations for Friday.
I love this place.
Back for another visit to close out the week.
Specifically asked for Will.
I went for a rerun of my first visit (hey, if it ain’t broke…) and my wife had the mussels and pancetta (delicious broth, especially when using it to dip the garlic ciabatta) and the garlic shrimp.
Banana ravioli for dessert — perfect end to a great week.
Already looking forward to our next trip.

Wow. This restaurant was absolutely amazing. My wife and I came here mid-​October 2015 and were just blown away by how delicious the meal was.
We started our meal with the 4 cheese ravioli special. The ravioli came out as a single giant ravioli and was rich, creamy, and wonderful. My only reservation is that I wish they gave you more :)
For entrees, I ordered the Imperiale Crab Grouper. This is one of the best seafood dishes I’ve ever had. It was perfectly cooked, rich, with a delicious butter sauce. My wife ordered the Scallops special. The scallops were cooked to perfection and, therefore, were amazing.
I only wish that they would provide bread for free instead of charge $ 5 — $ 12 for a bread basket.

Service: very good. Views: amazing. Food… well, two out of three isn’t bad. Food just ok. For the price, should be much much better. Had the special … Seared scallops. Good size and cooked nicely but ruined by bland undercooked green beans and dried out potatoes on which they sat. Hubby had the sirloin. Oddly shaped piece of meat sitting all by itself on a plate. No garnish, no nothing! Not as tender as would have expected. The $ 6 baked potato side was at least a day old. Two drinks, two dinners and one app…$ 144! I guess that’s the price for the view.

Omg!!! Had the black angus cabana burger… amazing. Highly recommend it! So delicious!

Stopped in at Banana Tree Grille while in St. Thomas on a business trip. It is on top of the hill at Bluebeard Castle. It has a nice overlook of the bay from the restaurant. The restaurant itself is a bit dated as far as the décor and the atmosphere is a mix of older retirees and some younger people on vacation. The service was great. Very attentive and friendly. The keep your drink filled and the food comes out pretty quickly. For the food, it was pretty solid. I ordered the duck which was a served with asparagus and a savory bread pudding. This combination was actually quite good. I loved the bread pudding. I also had the Godiva chocolate triangle cake. This was a solid dessert. Overall a pretty good meal. A bit pricey ($ 49 for one person after tip with just water to drink) but it is to be expected.

We stayed at Bluebeard’s Castle Resort for our honeymoon and on our last day we ate at Banana Tree Grille. The only thing about this meal we really liked was the Gorgonzola garlic bread. It was amazing. My husband ordered the prawn Carbonara and was really disappointed. He said it lacked flavor and was just not what he was hoping for. I was not feeling very hungry so I just ordered a Caesar salad which is always my i’m not real hungry meal at restaurants, never had a bad one, until here. The salad was so drenched in dressing that the lettuce wilted and it was just completely covered in that powdered Parmesan cheese you buy in a plastic jar. I couldn’t finish it because it was just awful. We also got a side of lobster mac and cheese. It wasn’t to bad. my husband liked it better then his main dish. The waiter also didn’t tell us that they charge for soda refills so we were charged for 2 sodas instead of 1. I just feel this is a rude thing to do. He would not have gotten a refill if he knew it would cost $ 2 or $ 3 more dollars. It was a small glass and was a serious rip off and I was mad and felt taken advantage of. If I ever go back to the Virgin Islands I WILL NOT EAT HERE AGAIN! I am seriously displeased with our service and the food was just meh for how much it all cost.

So let’s just say that you have been to Banana tree and you want to try something new. Well I have great news for you, they have added another incredible Chef who has been all around the world and has brought a bunch of new dishes to the menu.
One in particular I will share is the duck. I don’t order duck and when I got a tasting of the new menu tonight, I was completely blown away! The duck comes with a bread pudding tower that is unexplainable. Lump crab cakes, a tomato bruschetta mozzarella salad, bananas foster ravioli with vanilla ice cream, the Gorgonzola loaf. Uhh it was absolutely the best meal I’ve had on island.
The views are second to none and the service is outstanding. I could not recommend this place highly enough. Everything we had tonight was exceptional and I don’t use that word flippantly. Exceptional is how I would describe the entire experience.
Go and say hi to Chris for us.

Not good. I don’t know why this is rated as a top 3 on the island. Food is bush league and tasteless. Atmosphere is tired. They play up the view but it ain’t that great– certainly not good enough to merit coming.

Spectacular views overlooking downtown, cruise ships and the harbor. Beautiful ambience and the most delicious cuisine!

We had really great service here. Not just «good for the island,» but actually great.
We agreed that this place is best described as an open-​air retro steakhouse with a fantastic view of St. Thomas. The place probably looked the exact same in 1965 and had the same menu (pick your steak + classic sauce + sides). We had great steaks here and were really happy with the experience.
However, we went on a Sunday night for the live piano (supposed to be 6:30 — 9:30), but it didn’t happen (despite the sign by the piano advertising it). If you’re going for the music, you might want to call first.

We arrived at Banana Tree after a much longer than expected flight to St. Thomas. The staff sat us in a corner after our arrival which was much appreciated (we were not wanting to interact with many more people at that point).
I had a pasta dish that was delicious and my husband had some sort of fish that he loved. While the price was a little more than we are used to the food was great. The service was also wonderful and helped to get us into vacation mode.
If you are at Blue Beards Castle the view is wonderful from everywhere, however from some areas of this restaurant you aren’t able to enjoy while eating.

This was our favorite restaurant on our trip!
Chris our waiter, was outstanding as was the food! The view and atmosphere are spectacular & romantic.
Don’t pass up the opportunity if you are visiting the island!

7 years of amazing meals and reviewing them here on Unilocal– there’s one thing I’ve learned in my culinary travels: you can enjoy 5 star meals in back alley cafes and be subjected to 1 star meals on mountaintops with amazing views.
Disappointingly, this one is the latter.
I guess the menu didn’t actually say the fish was fresh, but I thought that it must be given the island location. I ordered the ahi tuna rare. It took some time to make it out of the kitchen and once served, was completely tasteless. Mayo sandwich on white bread tasteless. Glass of ice water tasteless. Banana Tree Grille ahi tuna tasteless,
We were sitting at the bar so I let the bartender know, actually cut him a big hunk of the tuna and offered him a taste, which he ate. He completely agreed that the tuna was devoid of flavor and that he’ll know for the future not to order it.
Huh.
He did ask if there was something on else on the menu I might want and I went for the Bolognese, but there were out of it. The bartender returned with a small dish full of moroccan spice which the tuna had been seared in, hoping it might add more flavor.
Too bad that didn’t help.
We overheard the bartender speak with a woman, the restaurant manager. He returned to offer us dessert, but I tend to want a sweet after eating something savory. We declined.
It was a short walk out of there, since we were staying on the grounds at Blackbeard’s castle. I left right after the dessert offer and my Mr. stayed to finish his drink and watch the tail end of the Packers v, Niners game. When he got back to the room, he gave me the receipt so I could put it with the rest of our vacation chits. I was surprised that the tuna hadn’t been taken off the bill.
The bartender ate as much of my food as I did, I could have asked him to split the cost of the meal.
Those considering this location for a top level tasty meal, think again. Making sure to post this review on FB and Twitter so ya’ll will be forewarned,

Incredible view, great service. Although it was completely empty, food was delicious, wine selection was expansive. Would return.

Had Thanksgiving dinner at Banana Tree Grille with my husband and his family. The restaurant is located at Bluebeard’s Castle in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.
Because it was Thanksgiving I felt obligated to order the traditional turkey dinner and did not have the chance to try the restaurant’s regular menu. The restaurant did a great job on the turkey. Our waitress was very attentive and friendly and convinced me to order one of the desserts that is freshly made in house instead of that night’s pumpkin pie. I really appreciated that she was honest enough to admit the pumpkin pie wasn’t great.
The view was wonderful, but I wish we had more of a hilltop view and less of a view of Bluebeard’s Castle’s disappointing swimming pool. Next year we plan to call early and reserve a better view!