Riverview Restaurant

My husband and I ate here and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We ate the country style buffet and salad bar, all the foods were good. Our waitress was so sweet and was very attentive. Where we got seated, had a beautiful view of the mountains and river! We will definitely visit here again if in the area.

2 stars for friendly servers and cashier. Staying in a cabin, which is very clean and comfortable. No food in the area within a 30 minute drive each way. 2 takeout buffets were very reasonable. Food on the buffet was only refilled on the very last scrape of the heating dish. Very few items and only sausage for the meat. Waited 15 minutes to refill the empty fried potato dish. Gave up and left as food I had was getting cold. This is a holiday weekend and very disappointing. By far the worst state park restaurant I've encountered. Too nice of a park to allow this to happen. Bring your own food if you're coming or prepare for a hour drive round trip for food.

Decent food option in the lodge at Cumberland Falls.There aren't many dining options around this area and the rooms at the lodge are very basic (I don't think ours even had a tiny fridge). So if you are staying at the Dupont Lodge, chances are very good that you will eat here for at least one meal.We had two breakfasts here. We stayed in the late spring of 2021, so with Covid stuff still being a thing, there were some interesting things still happening. Our first breakfast day, no one was allowed to eat IN the restaurant portion of the place at all. But the next day (both weekend mornings, by the way) they were doing seated table service....but that first morning, all food was to-go and could be eaten in your room, in the lobby/common areas upstairs, or outside on the patio area thing. We opted for outside, even though there were only 3 tables out there. It was just too pretty to be inside if we couldn't eat at the restaurant portion.Service the second day was fine. Nothing to speak to about it being great or terrible....just fine.As for the food, it is decent. I will reiterate that we only had breakfasts here. It is affordable and gets the job done. Nothing really fancy, certainly everything recognizable. I wish the potatoes had any kind of seasoning on them at all (even just salt and pepper). But really, our requirements were a good calorie base before a 9+ mile hike, and then a tummy-ful of food before hitting the road the next day. Those requirements were fulfilled. I wouldn't go out of my way to eat here.But if I was back here for a weekend, I know I would be adequately fed.

If you're staying at the Cumberland Falls State Resort Park and trying to decide whether to eat at the Riverview Restaurant or to drive a half hour into town (and a half hour back), definitely do the drive. Anything you find there will be superior.This "restaurant" has all the ambience of a middle school cafeteria, and the food is almost as good. It's just like every other KY State Parks food trough -- it'll get you fed, but don't come with ANY expectations.Because of COVID, my family ordered meals to take back to our cabin. The catfish was overdone yet edible. The fries were flavorful but soggy and cold, and the seasonal vegetables were boiled to oblivion. I stirred in some much needed salt and pepper, and they completely disintegrated into an inedible mush. Kid #1 said the "char-grilled" chicken was "meh" and that there was no way it ever saw an open flame -- but maybe a microwave. Kid #2 said it's pretty hard to mess up spaghetti, but they succeeded. The noodles were way overdone and the sauce was runny. They completely forgot my wife's salad, and she had to go back to the restaurant to get it. She said it was decent, but nothing special.

We were staying at the Dupont Lodge while visiting Lake Cumberland, and this restaurant is located inside. We had terrible luck with nearby restaurants (nearby meaning at least a 30 min drive out) So it was nice to have this place right by our room. We only had breakfast here, but it was really, really good! I'm not much of a breakfast eater, and I just went with their traditional plate of eggs, a meat and some potatoes, I was pretty impressed. Even though the dining area of the restaurant was closed due to covid, it has some great views of Lake Cumberland. Upstairs you can sit outside on the patio for a nice background while eating. They also had hot chocolate available during our Christmas season stay, which made hanging out in the lodge even cosier!

This is not a review.A "review" implies some level a choice; That you're reading this rambling as you weigh whether or not to eat here. Maybe you think that's true, but you'd be wrong. The concept of "choice" doesn't enter into it.Here's the thing: If you visit Cumberland Falls long enough, at some point you will eat at Riverview Restaurant. It's inevitable. The reason I can so confidently make this statement is this:The nearest other restaurant is a 30-minute drive. One-way.When I say, "30 minutes," I mean it. I grew up in Rural Small Town, USA. I've driven these same windy, two-lane country roads all my life. Even at best speed: 30 minutes. That, of course, assumes you don't get stuck behind an RV or someone hauling their pull-behind up and out of the river valley on those narrow, curvy roads. Picture this scenario: You drove in early in the morning, and all day you've been out hiking the trails. You packed a picnic lunch to eat surrounded by nature. It was fun and a good hike, but now it's late and the sun is starting get low in the sky. However, your day at Cumberland Falls isn't done. Later that night the full moon is coming up, and the moonbow will appear. What are you doing for dinner?Do you want to make that 30 minute drive out (giving up your prime parking spot right near the Visitor's Center), go to the closest fast food and/or chain restaurant (that's pretty much all there is within the radius we're talking about), eat whatever (you're tired after hiking all day, so pretty much anything sounds good at this point), then make the half-hour return drive (in the dark), and hunt for whatever parking spot you can find (regardless of location) to go see the moonbow? Or, instead, are you just going to go here and save all that hassle?Exactly.Even after this long preamble, while we're being honest with each other, I need to tell you something else: You're getting the buffet.Oh, I know! You don't eat at buffets like some common plebe! As if! Buffets are so dirty! How long has the food been sitting out? I bet the flies have been in it!Never mind how you just had your grubby hands all over your lunch out in the middle of the wilderness, shoving handfuls of trail mix in your gob. Get over yourself, Chef Ramsay. Ya' donkey.As I said before, this isn't a review. In its place I offer a trail map to the buffet. You can put together a satisfactory meal here. Yes, the haughty, pretentious expectations of us Yelpers may require a bit of compromise. Hiking up and down the trails will take care of that for you. Buffet it is, then.Start at the salad bar. Assemble some lettuce, fixins', and a dollop of the dressing of your choice out of the food-service-sized containers. It's...fine. Pile enough raisins, cheese, and croutons on top of lettuce and any such "salad" becomes acceptable. Healthy? You're on vacation!For your main entree item, you can pile on the chicken wings if you want, I suppose. That's always a safe bet at any buffet like this. You can't really screw up fried chicken wings unless you make a concerted effort. There is something oddly satisfying saying, "Whatever!" and devouring a plateful of fried wings.There are bound to be other seasonal items on rotation. You can give those a try if you want. It's a buffet, so no harm no foul to sample a small portion rather than commit and pay for a full plate. However, let me make an actual recommendation: fried fish. It's actually crispy, and has a nice breaded coating to it. Yes, ten minutes before it appeared under the hot lamp it was in a bag in the freezer. But, like the chicken wings, as long as the breading has some flavor offset with a little bit of salt you could do a lot worse.For a side item, you'll find much of the standard fare you would expect at a country buffet like this. There are various vats of previously canned vegetables that are at least hot. I liberally seasoned my green beans to the point of acceptability. Personally, if they aren't roasted, I tend to stay with the safe vegetable choices: green beans and corn. Branch out at your peril and you may end up with steamed, bitter mush. I'm looking at you, Brussels sprouts!For dessert, there are small plates of pies, cakes, and other bakery items scattered around. Hot cobbler is on offer, as well. Any of these are fine because there is also a nice container of vanilla ice cream. Look, I live by one simple creed: A LA MODE ALL THE THINGS.Yes, you may be stuck in the valley waiting out the moonrise, but you can still get an acceptable dinner without the drive out and back in. Don't expect farm-to-table fine cuisine, but don't expect to regret your life choices either. There's a decent meal to be had at Riverview Restaurant. Don't forget your map.

Not open and they did not change their answering machine after 6 months. People stay at Cumberland falls lodge with the snack shack by the falls being their only food option for 25 minutes of driving

This place is almost MAGIC.Staff was super nice and kind!! The place has this magic view, you can see the river from your table. Restaurant is off the hook. As a Mexican I loved the flavor in it. Kentucky style baby! mashed potatoes was gorgeous!, the gravy was delicious, KY style chicken, catfish, soup was superb! and if you add the nice wood style of the restaurant, you don´t get a better deal around! place is super clean and IT´S A MUST FOR YOU TO TRY THE PIE!! blue berry, cherry pie and banana dessert was out of this world. the resort has a lot of places that if you are staying there you can easily enjoy the views that surround the restaurant. Definitively coming again if possible. Buffet was really cheap for the feast that we got! Safe travels!

very limited menu and food we had did not taste good to us, with the exception of breakfast. Not sure if COVID had anything to do with it, but the menus I've seen online are the same. So don't expect a nice meal like you would get at a steakhouse, OCharleys, Outback, etc.

We went admittedly during the offseason. During this time they seem to only serve a buffet. The food was decent. It was basic American food, mashed potatoes, gravy, fried chicken and fried catfish among other things. If you want to eat healthy you may be limited to the small salad bars, which was fine but limited to the basics. Dessert was the best, including a wonderful cherry cobbler. Service was good. The waitresses keep cups filled dirty dishes removed.It is a restaurant at a state park. So the decor has not been updated probably since it was built. If you went there 30 years ago it probably looks exactly the same. There is some nice tables by large windows that look outside.Pricing was ok. If you make sure you eat your moneys worth of a buffet $16.99 is fine.The location is great as there are no other sit down places nearby.