Abstract: Owing to its eco-friendly manufacturing route and superior mechanical performance, basalt fiber (BF) has emerged as a promising reinforcement in aerospace, infrastructure, and new energy sectors. In recent years, China's basalt fiber industry has experienced rapid growth, with the national annual output reaching approximately 60,000 tons in 2025, accounting for over 60% of the global total production, while the market scale continues to expand. Nevertheless, its inherently smooth and chemically inert surface severely compromises interfacial adhesion with matrix materials, which limited their further development of basalt fiber-reinforced composites. In this review, the research progress in basalt fibers’ surface modification over the past five years has been systematically summarized. Based on their underlying mechanisms, modification strategies are categorized into three main groups: physical modification (including physical coating, catalytic chemical vapor deposition, etc.), chemical modification (encompassing bulk composition regulation, acid–base etching, etc.), and synergistic modification. The available literature indicates that with proper surface modification, the mechanical properties of basalt fiber-reinforced composites can be substantially enhanced, with improvements generally exceeding 10%. Under this framework, we critically compare the principal merits and limitations of each technique, with particular attention to process feasibility and their respective impacts on the tensile strength retention of the pristine fiber. In addition, we highlight several emerging interdisciplinary methods developed in recent years, such as microbial surface etching and coordination chemistry. These novel approaches exhibit distinctive promise in terms of low carbon footprint and multifunctional integration. To conclude, we identify key scientific challenges that remain unresolved, including the trade-off between surface roughness enhancement and fiber strength preservation, as well as the relative dominance of chemical bonding versus physical interactions in interfacial performance. And future research directions are also prospected, including the systematic integration of multi-technique synergistic modification and the expansion of intelligent functionalities of fibers, aiming to provide a theoretical reference for interface engineering of high-performance basalt fiber-reinforced composites.