Volcano’s Lava Rock Cafe

It’s like a diner in the mountains next to a volcano! Service is friendly, food is questionable, coffee is fine.

**EAT AT YOUR OWN RISK**
The first time we went the service was horrible, but the food was fine (ordered the Kalua pork with rice and fries). The second time the service was better but the food was not. I ordered Kalua pork with rice and a taro roll. THE BREAD WAS MOLDY. And not like a spot here or there; the whole bottom was covered in mold. It was warmed up, so they had plenty of chances to see that the bread was moldy before serving it to me. So, if you’re gonna go, be prepared for a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ chance of having a good/​average experience.

Amazing Food! If you are looking for some local Hawaiian come here! They had amazing loco moco and haupia pie.

Nestled away in a little group of buildings on Old Volcano Road is this sweet little café! After driving for about an hour, and having not eaten since early morning, this café was a much needed reprieve and refuel stop before my boyfriend and I checked in at our hotel. The facility is cozy and well-​kept, the food is delicious, and the service is wonderful!
The parking lot to this location is pretty small already, but they also share the lot with a gift shop, general shop, and a gas station.
The actual café is very homey. The place really does up the «volcano» thing, with floors that look like lava rock and portraits of active volcanoes along the walls. It’s fairly clean, aside from minor daily crumbs. One cool and unique thing about this café is that it offers a variety of seating, from bar seating (at their mini bar) to sofa seating for larger groups. That’s pretty neat!
The food was delectable. Their pastrami sandwich on rye bread was succulent with pastrami and a lovely thin layer of Swiss cheese to mediate the bread and meat. Everything was also hot and fresh from the skillet.
The waitress today was also very helpful, attentive, and hospitable. She was very personable and took the time to talk to us as people, not just as customers.
Overall, the experience at the Lava Rock Café was very good, and I’d come back for sure.

Good to catch a quick bite after visiting the National Park
The foot options right by the park are very limited and the next real town on the road back to the Kona side is like 45 minutes away.
If you turn go a short distance to the right coming out of the park you will hit a small village with a few shops and restaurants and and this looked to be the best of the lot.
The food was pretty decent, I had the pulled pork wrap and my wife had the grilled Mahi sandwich. Both quite reasonable and the service was good.

First let me say, we live in Volcano and will often dine out 3 – 5 times a week. Several times a year we entertain guests from the mainland and want to steer our friends and family to the best places to eat. We have had several meals at the «Lava Gut Café». This review is not based on a single experience, rather a series of visits, with the most recent being the last.
We arrived during the dinner rush and the main dining area was full with the exception of one table, so I asked the waitress/​hostess who just told me we were welcome to sit anywhere, if we could have the booth for two in the side area. It was quiet there and my husband and I have a problem hearing. The woman that received us told me «no, that is the overflow area», I asked again and was denied. To make the situation worse, she seated the very next couple in the table I asked for. Ok, so get over it? Moving along… The table we were seated at was filthy, and when my husband asked the bus boy that was cleaning the table next to us if he wouldn’t mind also cleaning our table again, he did it with an attitude. Then my husband watched him walk over to the woman that greeted us at the door and whisper to her, while glancing over at our table.
Time to leave, we had an overwhelming feeling we would be at risk of having our food spit on.
The conclusion; keep in mind that you are a tourist and not a returning customer, so they simply don’t care what you think about the dining experience and even less about the quality of the food, which is another topic altogether.

Ok not great… burger was ok but about the only choice we had bc they were out of everything else. Won’t go out of my way to revist.

We stopped here for lunch after a lot of travel. We were starving and had maybe an hour of sleep over the past day. I had the pulled pork sandwich and my husband had the pulled pork wrap. Both were very good. The sides were ok (very mayonnaise-​y potato/​macaroni salad and undercooked fries). Prices weren’t terrible and service was ok. We arrived in Volcano on a Sunday so there weren’t a lot of options and we might not have chosen Lava Rock if there were, but if you’re looking for reasonably priced standard American fare you won’t be disappointed.

The food wasn’t horrible but it certainly didn’t leave an awesome impression. For the price of the veggie fajita I had, it was lack luster. The guacamole tasted like a nasty guacamole that a subway franchise would have served, the salsa tasted like a tostitos salsa… The veggie burger that I got with it was clearly just one that came prepackaged that they slapped in the microwave to warm up. I definitely wouldn’t go back.
The waitress was friendly and nice.

We ended up here because we had no choice. After getting sun-​burnt and baked at the Green Sands Beach we were hoping to make it to the Kilahuea Lodge but they had just closed for dinner prep. So, we ended up here. And it’s as sketch inside as it is outside.
First, a warning: Tour buses unload their herd here so get ready for that. Next, a local ukulele player will serenade ONLY the tourists while the rest of the restaurant feels like it’s still under construction, or maintenance, or something. The place has a major ‘cheap’ feel to it, with decorations that would make a standard Chinese buffet jealous. You ever walk into a place and feel like the place is all sticky and greasy? yeah this is it.
Now, I gave it a 2 stars because the ONLY thing good was the food, but it wasn’t GOOD like, decent, it was good because it wasn’t scary like I imagined. The burger I got was. basic. The fries, were Ok.
Our waitress was a hot mess. And I think others have written about her too as there seems to be just one. I will not talk bad about someone because I’m not that kind of dick, but I think shes overworked and it isn’t very fair. She did forget about us and paying was a hassle as she didn’t even know what we had or had a check for us. The tour folks were rude, loud, and pushy in line,.
Overall: I’d never come here again. I hope they get their act together. In a tourism-​heavy area, it’s CRITICAL that no shortcuts be taken. I’d never come here again, and I would not recommend it.

Had dinner and lunch the following day at this casual café/​bar in Volcano during our recent visit to the national park. We experienced great and friendly service from the waitstaff. We loved the lilikoi cheesecake! Would absolutely recommend and return here if we come back for another visit in the area.

between viewing Kilauea daytime and night time, we stopped by here for a meal. They were serving the end of lunch and about to start dinner. So when we asked, they let us peruse over both menus.
We decided on the chicken katsu and loco moco.
We picked the house dressing for the salad, which is a passionfruit/​Lilikoi vin. What a unique and delicious choice, despite the salad not that impressive, the dressing really heightened the quality of the salad.
The katsu was very well executed, however I did feel it lack a bit of sauce. The tonkatsu sauce it came with wasn’t enough to dress the katsu.
It was my first locally made loco moco. The last one I had was in SD over 6 years ago but was not impressed by it. As I finished my trip, eating at other Hawaiian style places and repeatedly ordered loco moco, this has the most flavorful gravy IMO. The burger patty was a bit overcooked, but the eggs, gravy, and rice were perfect.
The prices is a slightly bit higher, being that it was so close by the park.
Service was alright and nothing to write home about. I did read other reviewers’ horrible experience with their service but that didn’t happen to us. Consistency is key though.

My husband liked the Loco Moco. It was his first, so nothing to compare it to. I had the chili and it was OK. The food wasn’t the issue, it is the wait staff. One seemed completely out of it and the other was mean at one point they had a huge loud discussion about who’s tables were who’s. Unfortunately we had the mean one and she made sure to let us know we were an inconvenience. Maybe avoid this place.

I can’t speak to how good or bad the food was because we didn’t make it that far.
We sat down and ordered but the waitress was beyond weird. She kept rolling her eyes and seemed pretty manic. She was very frustrated with everything we said or ordered or asked. It was beyond bizarre. After she left with our order we took a vote at the table and decided it was all too weird and we left.
We ordered the chow fun and she immediately left the table. She came back and said it was cooking. I asked what that meant and she said «they’re cooking it.» as if that were the end to the conversation. I asked if I could still order it and she said «they’re cooking it.» … So I asked again if I could order it she said «I could ask. Do you want me to ask?» I said … Yes. She came back and said it would be 30 minutes. So we ordered the stir fry. Which came with a side. So we asked what veggies were in the mixed veggies. After three answers that didn’t include an answer and eye rolls after each future request, she finally told us broccoli and carrots. When we asked what the veggie burger was made of (black bean, etc), again, she gave a few answers before actually answering that it was a frozen Boka burger. This is kind of how every part of the order went.
It was all weird. Prices were high. Service was weird at best — plain rude at worst. It was all just surreal. So we cancelled the order and left. She seemed totally fine with that.
I didn’t give it 1 star because it wasn’t … bad. It was weird. Or rude. Something. It was surreal. For sure it wasn’t good.

Food was reasonable, good selection of choices. Had a reasonably good chicken katsu.
I’d probably give it higher ratings but service was amazingly slow which also causes long waits for a table. The wait staff mix the drinks at the bar which causes a lot of slow down. They really need a dedicated bartender to free up the wait staff to do their jobs.

This place saved my bacon last night. Had a hungry tribe of grumpy ones after a long afternoon of volcano trekking. They were busy, I wasn’t hopeful.
Placed a to go order for 6. Standard fare but it was good. Pulled pork (kailua pig) wrap and the shrink/​crab wrap being the highlights. Mahi mahi sandwich was devoured on contact. My wife said the cheeseburger was also good.
Maybe we were extraordinarily hungry but it tasted really good even out of Styrofoam containers.
We were literally in and out before I could finish my Kona big wave. (which was nothing less than sad as I was hoping for round two). Polite, quick, good… just what we needed.

Cafeteria food.
Double the quoted wait time. Have to flag servers for attention. They need to open up something else around here. Or just eat at the volcano house on the park grounds.

There are mixed reviews, but I noticed that most reviews under 3 months were positive. Came here for breakfast, did not disappoint! I got an omlette with Portuguese sausage and cheddar with home fries and biscuit. Home fries were awesome, biscuit was fluffy, and omlette was cooked medium (hate it when I get a well done omlette)! No complaints here, the perfect amount of food for a good price! Coffee was good too! Shannon was a great server, as she refilled my coffee and water twice.
I would recommend getting the home fries with any breakfast!

I stayed in Volcano for 3 days to hike the park and each day I came back to this restaurant. They were an unexpectedly great find in such a small town. I enjoyed every meal that I had but personally recommend the Mushroom and Swiss Cheese Burger. Grass-​fed beef and local mushrooms… yum! The breakfast was also well done. I had an omelette that was simple yet delicious.
I highly recommend this restaurant for anyone coming to Volcano. Enjoy!

When you stay up at Volcano National Park, there are not a lot of places to eat. We stayed at the KMC, the military camp in the park. After having 1 dinner at the camp’s dining room, we vowed never to eat there again. This place looked pretty good and it was close, so here we go.
The Good:
— Full spread of burgers sandwiches and some plate dinners.
— Full bar (if you like that sort of thing)
— Kids menu
— Quickly waited on
— Interior clean and nicely decorated
— Low background music so you can hear each other
— Most plates just under $ 10 see pics
— Live music! Sometimes
— The waiter brought us the lunch menu even though lunch had officially ended 20 minutes before we were seated (ends at 5 PM). Very nice of them!
— Close to the entrance of Volcano National Park
The Not So Good:
— The restroom is out the front door and around the corner.
— Parking is not great, but I suppose it is sufficient for a small operation.
— A little expensive on the dinner menu. We ordered off the lunch menu, but the dinner menu was more money.
Bottom Line:
This is a small but nice operation that mostly has sandwiches and burgers for lunch. I’m not sure what all is on the dinner menu. It is close to Volcano, and it was overall very good food. 4 stars.