Cafe Highlands

Special brunch menu offered on weekends and the eggs Benedict were amazing! Make sure to try the Homemade jam and ketchup! Cute dog friendly patio

I want to update my review of Café Highlands. They seem to have their act together now and brunch was wonderful today. I was so happy to see that they had moved the host desk to the patio. I complained about the location of the desk in my last review. Now the entrance to the restaurant is open and people don’t have to stand in an unorganized clump to be seated.
We were seated immediately. Our waitress was wonderful. I wish I had asked for her name, but there was so much chaos with my mother, who has advanced Alzheimer’s, Everyone in our party of six loved their food. This restaurant is about a 2 minute walk from our house, so we were hopeful that the restaurant would be successful.
I ordered the cheese and egg croissant, minus the ham, with grits. I assumed that the blackberry jam would be served on the side, but it was actually in the sandwich. I never would have ordered the sandwich if I had known that. I’m not crazy about jelly or anything sweet for breakfast. Surprisingly, the jam was wonderful on the the sandwich. For those who have never had grits, this is the place to order them from. I have never had better grits, and I’m a huge grit lover.
The chef came by our table and asked about our meals. He was awesome the first time we visited and he was just as awesome during this visit.
Unfortunately, my mother, who has advanced Alzheimer’s, had a meltdown and started pounding on the table and yelling. I wish I had asked for our server’s name, but with all the chaos, I just wanted to get Mom home. We requested that Mom’s breakfast be delivered ASAP. Our server immediately brought us a biscuit and jam, since it was impossible to prepare her food that fast.
I just love Café Highlands now.

I’ve been looking for a new breakfast place since Manuel’s closed and have tried here several times, but this isn’t the place for me. The food is fine but underwhelming in general and the service is consistently slow. After I was sat, it took a couple minutes for someone to come over to my table. At that point, I knew what I wanted to eat, but apparently the waitress only wanted my drink order and was annoyed. She left, then a different waiter came back to ask me all the same clarification questions she had already asked. The food took a while to come out. Then I had to wait for my waiter to come back to ask for my check. He handed it to me and I immediately put my card in it. 20 minutes later I was still waiting for him to bring it back. I finally walked in (I was out on the hot patio — the fans would have been super helpful on a relatively warm day) and asked for my card back. I can’t wait for Manuel’s to reopen.

Great find!!! Had the mesclun salad w/​smoked beet hummus & grass-​fed pimento burger. Absolutely wonderful! Never been a fan of ketchup, even as a kid, but their homemade ketchup made be a convert!!!

I had the Nashville Hot chicken and the Career salad. The salad was ok but the sandwich was phenomenal! The draft selection was good some IPAs, brown ales, and a saison, all the makings of a small but encompassing draft selection. Why this restaurant is special is the detail they take in their food and booze. They make their own stocks, gravy, and their own cinnamon whiskey (fireball). I got this information from the bartender who knew his cooking and booze. The food is good and made with a labor of love. Hats off!

I took a friend visiting from out of town. Staff were friendly and prompt. We ordered the smokey chicken dip & pita for app, tasty and plenty for 2 or 3 people as a starter.
I ordered the Caesar salad with salmon for my entrée — disappointed. the piece of salmon was like leather, very salty tasting and sat on the side of plate looking like it was thrown on the salad and not plated properly. I could not see any Parmesan cheese. The salad was covered in croûton dust. Yes croûton dust, the server confirmed it. A brown looking fine granular substance completely covering the entire lettuce surface. It looked ugly and tasted like heavy duty salt — all in all a salty tasteless ugly salmon salad for $ 14. I don’t think Chef Stephen would allow a dish looking like this to leave the kitchen — Chef were you there overseeing service? I will give Café Highlands a second chance. I loved Café 640. Maybe the other hot entrees are better, but definitely thumbs down for the salad.

LOVE this restraunt! The food is always amazing. The blackeyed pea falafel is to die for. The yogurt sauce is so delish. I substituted squash for fries. That was a great choice also. Brunch is incredible. The lemon and ricotta pancakes rock! My friend loves the hot (as in spicy) chicken sandwich. You can’t go wrong here. There is free parking at the hotel. The server named Russ is the best ever!!! Chef Stephen has nailed it. What a great addition for the Poncy Highland neighborhood.

Awesome meal. This restaurant has deconstructed Brussels sprouts! My sweetie loved the hanger steak. And my spinach tag pasta was incredible. Great job Catherine! Our very helpful and cool waitress! We will be back.

I came the same weekend as a patron below for a Valentine’s Day Brunch. My boyfriend and I live right by here and have popped over for brunch 2 or 3 times before and have had excellent service as well as delicious food. (Hence the 2 stars)
Sunday morning we had been talking it up to one of our couple friends and asked them if they wanted to have a double date brunch with us– they agreed.
After walking up to the host stand I could tell it was pretty busy but nothing they couldn’t handle-​this place isn’t that big. No one greeted us at the host stand for a considerable amount of time and line began to form behind us. A girl walked up behind me and said excuse me and I moved over to the side only to hear her say it louder and in my ear. Next she ran right into me– I looked at my friends with a weird face and they were confused. Turns out this was a server running in to start her shift. Not just a server, our server. (great start!)
We got seated at a 4 top by the bar and everything went downhill after that. This was probably the most rude server I have ever encountered in my life. After being a server myself through college I try to give people the benefit of the doubt– maybe she has had a rough morning, maybe she is new– but none of it justified all of the issues we had here.
She was rude with every encounter she had with our table and some of the stuff she said was just unnecessary. The worst part was it wasn’t just me-​our entire group was pissed and did not want to be served by this girl. My friend even tried to find a manager to let her know what was going on but had no luck finding one.
Our waters were empty, our food came out wrong, and no silverware was brought to our table until our food was cold. My friend got the poached egg breakfast and it was a hard boiled egg when she cut into it. When my friend asked her to bring out a poached egg she was annoyed, not apologetic! She never apologized for any of it. Finally she messed up our checks and we just threw some cash down and left. Cannot believe we talked this place up so much to our friends and then it was literally the biggest disaster! Do not think we will ever be coming back here for fear we might get this insane server. Thought we found our weekend brunch spot, super disappointed!

I tried it for the first time tonight. My friend and I shared the fried pickled okra and green beans (the green beans are pickled, too, which we didn’t understand from reading the menu) and then we each chose a side dish. She chose collard greens, which were very well seasoned with a bit of sweetness to them (I think the server said it was honey) and I chose the pimiento cheese mac and cheese. We both really enjoyed everything, though I could have used a few more pimientos in mac and cheese. The piece de resistance was the bread pudding — made to order (as everything is), it was hot and decadent and had an orange-​ish (or maybe almond extract, which, to me tastes somewhat citrusy) flavor and a caramel drizzle on top with a generous spritz of whipped cream topped with thinly sliced almonds.
Our server not only conscientiously answered our questions about things that piqued our curiosity on the menu, but was thoughtful in how she served us, taking into consideration what we were hungry for (or thirsty for) for our dinner.
Parking is a bit confusing; Café Highlands is part of the Highland Hotel and you need to park in the hotel parking, which is to the side of the hotel and down a hill. But once you’ve done it, you’ll know where to go in the future.
It was quiet when we went, so I can’t give an accurate assessment of noise level, but when i first arrived, there was a family with small children dining there, so it must be kid-​friendly.
I’m looking forward to coming again.

A wonderful location. I was there with a party of 6. We started off with an appetizer of fried okra with smoky tomato aioli sauce and Mac and cheese bites. I’ll put it this way we ordered 3 rounds of the fried okra and sauce (smoky tomato aioli sauce is amazing, we ordered it for other dishes as well). The Mac and cheese fries into balls was delicious and a nice change from regular Mac and cheese. Beverage wise had four roses on the rocks and a Manhattan both come out quickly and were well presented and a good mix on the Manhattan. We also shared the PB & J club for an appetizer, what a creative take on a simple sandwich! In house peanut butter not I really crunchy or overly creamy a very nice balance and favorable. The jelly was also made in house a blackberry jelly delicious. The club included sliced banana and apples which gave it a nice crisp to the sandwich. Finally for dinner I had the sloppiest joe with fries. The sloppy joe was tasty with a sweet and spicy flavor to it and was made well enough that the bread did not fall apart like others I have had in the past. The French fries were well seasoned and served with house made mayo and ketchup. The ketchup was not sweet like typical ketchup it has a lighter taste and my wife who does not like ketchup loved it here. The staff was extremely professional making sure we had everything we needed without hovering. They put up with our party for over 4 hours. All of this being said the clincher for me was the price. Very reasonable price did not have a single thing on my bill over $ 10. Highly recommended and I look forward to going back and having other items off the menu!

This was an old haunt of mine when it used to be café 640. I was excited to see the spot reopen so quickly. The interior is minimally decorated, but still feels complete.
If nothing else, you need to come order the poutine and ox tail fries. It is insanely delicious. My vegan wife really enjoyed their remake of the classic pb&j. I had the Nashville hot chicken, and it was wonderful.

They took a once successful restaurant, that lost their lease, reopened it and ran it into the ground. Sad, so sad. Not the same menu, not the same drinks, not the same servers. We should have known better when we received our cocktails. My Bloody Mary, now in a smaller glass, was delivered first — 5 minutes. Kelli’s mimosa came next — 10 minutes and Tiffanys Cosmo took 15 minutes to arrive. I believe we all agreed the food isn’t as good as what it was before and our favorites disappeared off the menu. They supposedly reopened several months ago and if this is as good as it gets in that time period, it’s time to search for a new place for brunch.

Went for light dinner. My Manhatten was presented nicely and tasted OK. My turkey sandwich had two or three tasty bites but for the most part was too salty. On the way home I was able to recall gruyère on the menu but not on the sandwich. I expect restaurant food to taste as good as, or better than I can toss together from Kroger. How salty? Third glass of water salty.

My friend and I went here during their soft opening and everything was on point. My friend got the chicken biscuit with tarragon gravy and a side of eggs and hashbrowns. I got an eggs Benedict with ham and a side of grits. The chicken biscuit was delicious and the gravy was light without being too salty and rich. The hashbrowns were perfectly crispy. My eggs Benedict was great. Even though I’m not a fan of grits, they were delicious. Our service there was steller. Our waitress was very knowledgeable about the entire menu and told us about how a lot of the ingredients are either sourced from local restaurants or made in house. I would highly recommend this place and can’t wait to try the other menu items.