The Rim at the Volcano House

I’ve lived here my entire life and last night (6÷17÷16) was my first time dining at The Rim Restaurant at the Volcano House. We had such a great experience that we’ll be back for sure.
I had the kona Kampuchea and my husband has the Hilo coffee rubbed lamb. We both really enjoyed the flavors and both of our dishes were cooked perfectly! We had the mango crème brûlée for dessert… and it was delicious! Timing for everything was great, and our server skyler was awesome.
We were just a little bummed that when we called earlier in the day they told us we had to dine at 830 pm due to being booked — she also said they were so booked that we’d be third row. Then we received a call later pushing our reservation back to 9pm. When we got there (early for our reservation) the entire third row was empty and we were able to even sit first row. We felt a tinsy bit rushed (not by our server at all) but because we were one of the last in the dining room and would have happy come much earlier if allowed to (there was definitely tons space for our reservation earlier).
That being said — we loved our first experience here… and will have many more special occasions here!

Attentive staff. Delicious food. Nice Ambience. We were sat by the window; we made a reservation by 5:30pm but called that we were running late. Still sat promptly even though we were 20mins late. Live music was a lovely touch. It is on the pricy side. A slice of cheesecake was $ 10!

I had a group of 17 there on 5÷4÷16, all guests had a choice of 4 entrée items. Every person thoroughly enjoyed their meal as I went table to table to solicit feedback. The entrees were Teri Chicken, Mahi Mahi, Tofu/​vegetables or Kalua Pork with sides. Most guests had the Mahi Mahi and Kalua Pork. Service was wonderful, Jimmy and Hal waitstaff and bartender were efficient and friendly. The Executive Chef, Wayne came out of the kitchen to inquire how everything was. I was impressed.

–Nice place with a view to the volcano.
–The lunch menu is available from 11 till 2.
We came at 4sh so there were less options to choose from.
–We ordered cheese burger and Asian barbecue prawns.
–The cheese burger was juicy with a Hawaiian flavor, the french fries that comes with the burger was crispy and delicious. However, the Asian prawns were horrible. We were starving so everything we eat should taste good which means the prawns was that bad!
I love shrimp and prawns and I always thought I can’t go wrong with these two but after this experience i had changed my mind, the prawns tasted weird and the souse wasn’t as expected. The dish comes with rice which was greasy and tasteless. I ended up eating my friend’s fries to cover the prawn flavor so I can be able to swallow the prawns!
–the waitress was super nice though…

What an amazing view!!! It was our very first stop at the park after a long drive from Kona. It’s truly amazing to eat lunch and sit right next to the volcano watching all that smoke flowing into the air. The staff was really friendly and we truly appreciated our waitress’ advise on where to stop for best viewing experiences. She truly should have been a tour guide not a waitress.
Now the food. They serve local typical lunch only from noon to 2 PM, which was really disappointing because we arrived after 2. Outside from those hours, they serve appetizers. Not having any other options, we had to settle for those and the dishes were nicely prepared and sufficient, but it would have been nice to have a larger menu to select from.
There is a little gift shop next door and the restaurant is a part of the hotel. The gift shop had really cute souvenirs I haven’t seen anywhere else. I ended up purchasing coasters made from lava. Such an unusual souvenir.

We had the pineapple wrapped fish over a fried rice cake! It was absolutely amazing! The entire experience was very personal and our waitress Paulette made us feel so welcomed! We will definitely be back!

Me and my wife came here on our honeymoon. We called in just a couple hours before we wanted a reservation and they were able to give us a window seat overlooking the glowing volcano. Our server Paulette was very friendly and helpful. She catered to all of our wants and needs. Out Food was amazing.

We came here for dinner on our last night in Volcano. The food itself was okay, nothing terribly memorable or special. I had the squash soup and market salad, both were big portions. The soup wasn’t over salty (always a concern when ordering soup) and the salad was HUGE. My husband ordered the ribeye, he enjoyed it but wasn’t raving about the meal. The highlight of the meal was the bar special cocktail. It was beautifully presented and oh so good. I don’t remember was it was called, but it had lychee purée, coconut purée, and strawberry and toasted coconut as a garnish.
At one point they turned off the lights in the restaurant for ~2−3 minutes to give us all a good view of the crater. It was beautiful, but you’ll get a much better view from the Jagger Museum.

Excelente restaurante, comida típica de la zona, con una vista espectacular al cráter del volcán. La atención muy amable y el lugar agradable.

Get the blue Hawaiian to start! :)
The view is AWESOME and the Caesar with mahi mahi and the sliders were GREAT!

The view is great, especially if you live in Hawaii and you are not used to the colder temperatures. The cocktails looked good as well, but I wasn’t drinking.
With that said, the food and service were disappointing. First, we were told it was an hour wait, even though the restaurant was only ²⁄₃ full. We asked about the bar and we found a table immediately, much to the chagrin of those who had been waiting. Good for us, but bad for them.
I ordered a salad from the bar and paid the extra $ 6 for chicken. We also got the Kalua Pork Pizza. The pizza was fair. Although the flavors were fine, the dough was a bit soggy. The salad was very good, but for $ 6, I got three small strips of chicken. It was a half-​breast at most.
All in all, it wasn’t very expensive, but you pay for the view and not the food. For food, head to Volcano. It’s only a five minute drive.

This place was so disappointing. They charge an exorbitant amount of money for the view which really is just the «glow» over the crater than you can’t see. The food was very much sub par. I got the chicken which was dry and tasteless on a bed of runny mashed potatoes. My fiancé got the fish, which was better but still subpar. The service was very good at least and I felt like my servers knew what they were talking about and were efficient and attentive.

Great food and cocktails with a great view. You can’t go wrong if you’re in the area.
Whatever you do, get the Hawaiian avocado dip with island chips appetizer. Amazing!!! This is my favorite here and one of the best tropical guacamoles I have ever had. The avocados are perfect and come from the Johnson farm, which harvest my favorite avos on island, and the mango and red onion are a perfect pairing in there along with the best taro and ulu chips to dip. A must try if you love guac.
If you’re a tourist visiting the volcanoes national park, it’s one of very few options nearby so you definitely should go. If you’re a local, it may not be an option if you don’t have an annual pass and don’t want to pay to get into the park. But if you get the chance, grab a few drinks and pupus. One of the bartenders is a gem and makes the best dirty martini and vodka lime on island… which is hard to find around here, heck any decent drink is well hidden on this island unfortunately.
Small menu. It’s posted here. Tourist prices but not bad. Bring a jacket.

Breakfast: The most important meal of the day. This review will be exclusively about their breakfast buffet services. My boyfriend and I have gone to The Rim for breakfast twice, and it hasn’t disappointed. How could it? Endless crispy bacon should automatically be a 5-​star rating, right? Luckily I am not so subjective to the seduction of bacon. The location is excellent, the breakfast food is delicious, and the service is pretty good.
The placing of this restaurant (and the lodge itself) is excellent. It’s settled on the rim of the caldera (hence the restaurant name «The Rim») with a clearing that allows you to see ALL of the caldera. On a clear day, it’s absolutely stunning. Aside from the view, it’s right by the entrance to the park and directly across from the visitor’s center, so it’s not difficult to find.
The breakfast buffet is a good size to tackle — nothing overwhelming. They have sections for coffee/​tea/​cereal, eggs/​bacon/​potatoes, and fruit/​grain. They also offer a waffle/​omelette station where a breakfast chef customizes each. A neat feature for the waffle station is that they have mango chunks, guava, and pineapple sauce (along with whipped cream) as topping choices, as well as regular and lilikoi butter. All are amazing, and all are recommended.
Our server, whom we just called «auntie», was the sweetest and most personable lady. She went that step further to get to know us, probably her covert way of finding out if we were kama’aina (local), which she gave us a discount for. When we returned a second time, she welcomed us back and picked up convo right where we left off. That’s what I call aloha!

Came for the view for dinner with some friends. I ordered the Mauka to Makai (Surf and Turf) the steak was well flavored, pink in the middle just as I had ordered but the kicker was my lobster was raw– glassy in color, cold and smelled fishy. The menu states the lobster is supposed to arrive warm. The tail of my lobster was completely raw. Unfortunately I wasn’t the only one with a raw lobster on my table and we both had to send ours back to the kitchen. When it arrived back on mini plates, it still wasn’t warm enough and in some places the lobster was still raw. At that point I gave up. My friend sent his lobster back for the 2^nd time before he could consume it. For $ 39 a plate for the Surf and Turf, you would think the lobster would arrive cooked.
My only recommendations are:
Try the Lychee Sake Martini (it was pretty good)
For desert– Crème Brûlée or the Coffee Cheesecake
At the end of our meals, we were still engaging in conversation amongst ourselves. We did drive all the way from Hilo for triple date night to enjoy the view. When a hostess arrived at our table to ask how things were and to inform us that we needed to leave in the next 5 minutes from our table. Granted, we all thought it was pretty rude. We had just paid our bill 5 minutes ago and spent near $ 400 collectively on dinner plus a $ 15 park entrance fee. I wanted to like this restaurant, I really did. But it’s not comparable to Kilauea Lodge.
Food: 3 stars
Service: 3 stars
Atmosphere: 3 stars

Have to eat in a national park right? That’s exactly what this is for; don’t expect good nor cheap food, just eat to get some food for the day. I got the pork sliders and the pork was smothered in sauce, the bread was soggy on the bottom and a bit too sweet, and there was barely any pineapple coleslaw although I did appreciate the one slice of thin pineapple provided on the empty space on my plate. My food was $ 9 pre-​tax, and neither the quantity nor quality was worth that. Our server was good though, and he was quite friendly. I wouldn’t suggest eating here, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to go to a national park.

Great view at an amazing place to visit, but from a food and drink perspective, they could do better. The Hawaiian pizza was way overpriced, tiny, and had very chewy crust. The mango guacamole was runny and lacked much flavor.
The drinks were the real spoilers of this meal. I can’t think of a time I’ve ever left alcohol on the table, but I did here. Also, I can’t think of a time when I said a drink was too strong, but I did here. The rum was soooo strong in the Mai Tai and the Zombie that we couldn’t taste anything else. They were tough to get down.
Bring in your own food and drink for your time in the park and make your own picnic at one of the many amazing campsite/​picnic areas.

Ok so… first things first
In order to dine here you need to pay the park entry fee of $ 15.00. In my opinion the rate should be discounted with validation but I guess there’s no real way to control who may be dishonest and wondering around the park.
The dining area could definitely use a face lift and some new furniture. The screens on the windows were dusty, which I didn’t like at all.
So right off the bat (-) x 2!
However, the view is absolutely gorgeous on a clear day. We had reservations for 5:30pm so we’ll have to do lunch here to see the difference. It started off cloudy but it cleared up while we were waiting for our food. I had requested a window seat so the view was nothing less than spectacular. It felt a little mystical to watch the clouds rolling off the tree tops, exposing the crater.
The hostess wasn’t very friendly but our server was top notch.
The food was a bit pricey but we do live in Hawaii so I expected that this type of dinning would come with a comparable price.
We both ordered the «Mauka & Makai» which means Mountain & Ocean. The entrée was $ 39.00 a plate and consisted of lobster tail, New York steak, sautéed hamakua mushrooms, steamed green beans & local purple sweet potato. The steak was seasoned & cooked to perfection. I would have preferred my lobster steamed rather than grilled but it was fine & complemented the steak nicely. I would definitely order this dish again. Both my husband and I enjoyed it.
The crème brûlée was ok. Nothing fabulous but good enough. My husband was very happy with his chocolate banana coconut pie.
I’m looking forward to going back. I hope everything on the menu is as good.

Great location at the Volcano House with an amazing view of the Kīlauea crater. You literally sitting on the volcano itself, which was an amazing experience for a perfect lunch in Hawaii.
Their pineapple pizza was pretty good, not too greasy. You can tell that it is freshly homemade because the pizza was not made in a full circle. The bento box was okay, but I wouldn’t get this again. The pulled pork was tender but didn’t have much sauce; the sauce given did not have much flavor so it didn’t add much for the pork. You can definitely taste the real pork juice flavor. The coconut dessert that was included in the bento box was really good, I would have to say the best item in the bento box.
Restaurant basically only for their view…

The view and ambiance deserve 5 stars. What an experience dining with a view of the smoldering crater!
The food unfortunately was not impressive. We started off with soups and an appetizer special (that never showed up). My squash soup was delicious and comforting as it was a cold, rainy evening. My husband’s Portuguese cioppino was ok, but I felt it was missing something. Maybe spiciness? My husband enjoyed his fish of the day entrée. I personally thought it was bland. I wasn’t a big fan of my pineapple-​wrapped fish entrée either. The coconut broth served with it was more of a cream sauce and the fish was drenched in it.
It’s probably worth dining for the experience but not the food!

We stayed at the Volcano House and had breakfast and dinner at The Rim. The breakfast buffet is $ 15 and offers a good selection — omelet and waffle bar, granola, yogurt, dried and fresh fruits, as well as the standard meat and potatoes options. They also have muffins and croissants and juices. Breakfast here is solid.
Dinner is a bit of a different story. The prices are very high given the quality of food you get. I had mahi mahi, which was served with a panko-​crusted patty of sticky rice, mushrooms, and a ginger sauce. I enjoyed the dish. DH ordered chicken, which looked pretty sad and sparse. He ordered a side of foccaccia (3 tiny strips of bread with a tiny bowl of marinara) because he was still hungry. I guess what you pay for is the view of the crater at night. But the view can be hit or miss depending on the weather. Service is good and courteous.