Banyan Cafe and Catering on Central

Order at the counter and be served at your table indoors or outside. I chose a delicious goat cheese, spinach and bacon omelette with a coffee. My companion had a salmon and egg bowl with a mimosa. The service was prompt, attentive and friendly. A great place to sit in the morning sun and people watch on Central Avenue in St. Pete!

Oh Banyan... I live two blocks from this cafe and have been dying to try it. My review will center on three areas; atmosphere, service and food quality. For starters, the cafe probably should have been closed due to an obvious problem with a kitchen exhaust hood. When I walked in at 8am, I was overwhelmed with smoke as I am sure the staff were as well. Despite this initial feeling of discomfort, I decided to place my order anyway and not allow this to deter my conviction to give them a try. I ordered the smoked salmon benedict, and I assure you that this was not influenced by the fact that I felt as if I was being smoked while deciding what to eat. The dish did not meet my expectation. The smoked salmon had the consistency of chunk tuna and was over smoked/cooked. It was also dry and lacked flavor. This may be due to it being a local product. I am a firm believer in supporting the local community but would not compromise quality to meet this end. The dish had what appeared to be steamed slices of tomato which did not appear to be fresh. Prior to getting my dish, I overheard the cook saying she was tossing the watermelon because it was beginning to rot. You can imagine that I was shocked when a piece of this rotted watermelon ended up on my plate. When I brought this to the cashiers attention, she disingenuously stated "im so sorry". She made no effort toward service recovery, perhaps another piece of fruit or just anything more authentic given she had knowledge of the aging melon. I overheard her scolding the teenaged kid who was serving for not properly checking tickets prior to bringing the food out. I felt bad for the kid. I would advise any business owner to instruct staff to handle performance issues in private and out of ear shot of customers. At this point, i had lost my appetite feeling like I was just as smoked as the salmon in front of me- asked for a to go box and left. From a pedestrian point of view, and out of fairness- perhaps the food is not awful... but the smoked salmon benedict is not at all good and far from great- and with everything else they had going on it was a push to give 2 stars. In St. Pete there are many great options- places like Uptown Eats and the Hollander are just a couple that come to mind. My first instinct is to not return because it is rare that I visit a place where the best attribute is its location. But even having said this, it could have been a really off day for them and I will probably give them another try,.

Great coffee. Quiet place. Good breakfast food. If you go in there a little bit before lunch, you can walk into the Moran arts building as well.

Always enjoy Banyan Cafe. Had the breakfast sandwich and delicious strong lattes. Relaxing environment, friendly and superb service.

Stopped for brunch over the weekend. They didn't have all the ingredients for a Cuban sandwich. I opted for the bacon egg and cheese sandwich. Although very tasty, it was very greasy and soggy. Also had a beer-mosa... Should've just had the beer. There was barely any beer in the drink. Overall, it wasn't a bad experience... Just not the quality of food I was expecting, considering that there is such a wide variety of really nice restaurants in the area. The staff were all very pleasant.

Nice spot to grab a treat, read or get some creative work done.

Everything was 10/10

Had a meeting in St Pete this morning and we tried the Banyan Cafe. Cute 1940 fans, ceramic collection reminding everyone Banyan is housed in the Morean Art Center. Excellent breakfast.

The waffles seemed under done. Not bad just too soft without the syrup and toppings. I dig the location of the restaurant right by the Morean Arts Center and in the heart of DTSP. I'm sure their other food is decent.