Uncle Georges Lounge at The Volcano House — Restaurant in Hawaii

WORST EXPERIENCE OF OUR LIVES, AVOID at all costs!! They made us wait 1h and a half with a baby in tow and still they didn't allow us to enter the restaurant. Staff didn't care at all about us and are horrifically rude and incompetent. No kindness, no social skills, no empathy to speak of, doing their jobs poorly.

Since it's a tourist spot (trap?), it's always crowded so they don't care at all about you. Their numbers likely always look good so they can afford to treat you like trash. We regret wasting our valuable time and getting treated so badly.

TIP: If you are hungry after hiking, drive away and 5 mins from the national park, there's many lovely restaurants where you can get faster, cheaper and better service! We should have known better. We will never, ever set foot there again.

Here's the whole story of how they treated us:

On the second day of Christmas we went there with our toddler since we were really hungry after hiking. The server (a tall, slim guy with glasses and two earrings) at the entrance wrote our name on the list because there was a line and he said it would be a 20-30 minutes wait. This was at 2pm. The whole time we are sitting in the sofa next to the entrance and hear tons of names being called out real loud "SHELBY! table for four!" and so on. We never hear our name. At 2:40 we go check what happened. After waiting another 20 minutes for the server to actually be at the door so I can talk to him, guess what? He says he called us already. I can only conclude that American names get called real LOUD, while foreign names like ours get called in a meek voice. Because who cares, let's skip over a few sheeple anyway, there's plenty of wallets waiting anyway. Or y'know, let's treat Americans with respect, but nevermind these tourists, there's enough of them anyway.

By now it's 3pm and mind you, our toddler has lost all patience, we the parents are ravenously hungry and frustrated. I ask the server to try to fix the situation and seat us, since we already waited one hour. He refused, he didn't apologize, he was impertinent and rude, he really didn't care at all about us. He wanted to put us back at the bottom of the list, zero empathy whatsoever. Meanwhile, he was allowing many others get seated, though we waited the longest due to HIS mistake. Even assuming it's our fault because we just didn't hear, this kind of misunderstanding should be apologized for and people quickly accomodated.

I ask to speak to his boss. The server rudely storms off to bring him and I explain the situation. The manager says he'll try to get us seated. We wait some more outside the restaurant. Now get this: He brings a big plate of sweet potato fries, says it's on the house and gives it to my toddler. I step in and say that he has allergies, he can't eat that. So he snatches the plate away and storms off before I can get a word in. We, the parents, the adults, could have kept the fries. We also needed a snack while we waited a second time to be seated. It absolutely did not have to be "on the house", we happily pay for our food, we were not beggars waiting for free food, we were paying customers waiting to be seated and to be treated decently. This clearly shows me that the manager only focused on my child and didn't care or think at all about our needs as adults.

So how does it end? At 15:40, we finally leave since nothing was happening anyway. The manager never came back so clearly they clearly didn't care at all. And after waiting nearly two hours, we were not going to patronize a business that can actually treat us this way.

We left, we drove to a small restaurant 5 mins away in Volcano village, it took only a few minutes to be seated, paid a lot less and got delicious food. At 16.30, by now it was dinner instead of lunch!, we finally got to eat and feel like respected human beings.

Conclusion? Shame on them for not knowing how to do their job! Too bad I won't get compensated for all the precious time I wasted waiting for their average,...

Lunch with a View – But Lacking in Hospitality and Culinary Balance

We stopped here for a late lunch around 2:30 PM. At that time, the place was relatively quiet, and we managed to get a small table in the second row with a partial view of the Caldera – a nice touch.

One of the waitstaff came by promptly to bring us the obligatory water. Shortly afterward, another waitress asked for our order. We went with the Hawaiian Fish & Chips and two soft drinks.

The food arrived quickly, served in small porcelain bowls. Each portion came with a small side of ketchup and tartar sauce. The fries were pleasantly crispy but severely oversalted – the chef must have been very much in love, as the saying goes in Germany. It almost felt like a strategy to boost beverage sales, but unfortunately, it made them barely edible.

The fish itself, in a crunchy batter, was quite good – but there were only two finger-sized strips per portion, which was acceptable in size, though not generous. The sauces were standard fare, nothing remarkable.

Overall, it was an acceptable meal – had it not been for the excessive salt. The atmosphere leaned more toward efficient tourist processing than warm hospitality, although the view remained a redeeming factor.

The bill: 2x Fish & Chips + 2x soft drinks came to just under $58. With tip, we paid $70. Even though 20% is customary in the U.S., we didn’t feel particularly welcome here – unlike at many other restaurants we've visited. It felt more like being processed and charged than being hosted.

The tip was not even acknowledged with a simple thank you, which was disappointing.

Frankly, I regret how in the U.S., tipping has become less a recognition of good service and more a default component of staff wages. The expectation of receiving 18–20% regardless of the service provided no longer aligns with the original idea of tipping. It feels like businesses are shifting part of their payroll onto the customer, which is inappropriate and frustrating.

Sadly, there's little a customer can do without punishing the staff – a real dilemma.

Bottom line: A restaurant with a touristy vibe and mediocre food quality. The attached fine-dining area may offer a better experience – we didn't get a chance to try it.

My suggestion: Have a solid breakfast, maybe pack a light snack, and enjoy your visit without relying too much on the food here. Afterwards, look for a better restaurant elsewhere to enjoy a proper meal in a more...

We stopped here for dinner after doing volcano stuff and a recommendation from a local. Early in the day we had tried calling to make a reservation, left a vm, received no call back. Decided to try anyways. Unfortunately, it was cloudy so didn't get the good view. We were hoping for good food but that didn't happen either.

We had several people in our party so tried several things: Fish & chips were ok but bland, 2 long but thin pieces; wouldn't get again. Chicken Katsu had good flavor, moist, good portions; would get again. Macaroni salad was not good, can't describe flavor, just don't recommend. Tomato Bisque & Grilled Cheese was good, but soup was a little chunky. The grilled cheese were 2 small pieces, total about the size of 1/3-1/2 a sandwich; wouldn't get again because of size of sandwich for what you pay. Chicken wings were good. Really good BBQ sauce; would get again. There were a few other things we got, but the flavors just weren't there, they were bland. Tried several desserts: Tiramisu was not good. It was thin and runny and flavor was way off; wouldn't get again. Chocolate layered cake was ok. Frosting was too thick but raspberry drizzle was good; might get again. Cheesecake was ok. Flavor was just ok; wouldn't get again. Chocolate lava cake had a good flavor but wasn't served right, it came out cool when should have been warm; would get again.

The service initially was ok, except it did take around 20 min or so to get a beer. After dinner we were left hanging for over 30 mins waiting on desserts after we paid for everything. We even asked the waitress where our desserts were, she said she would check. 15 mins goes by and she never came back! Finally, we get the desserts and finish. Catch the waitress going out and let her know that in the future, she needs to come back and let costumers know what's going on after she says she's checking on food. Her response was there was another restaurant (The Rim) and walks away.

Overall, because of the flavor of food, over pricing, and the service, we do not recommend...