Highroad — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

How many waiters does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

It’s such a shame - the food here is good, and the space has a lot of potential, but the staff on average are terrible. I fully intended this to be my regular cafe but due to poor service I’ve sought a new place.

It is impossible to get table service, the coffee machine is a chaotic mess, with wildly varying wait times and faff in their process. The majority of times that I have ordered food, it has arrived without cutlery. Tables are regularly left dirty and the triaging of customers is disjointed through awkward handoffs. When you walk through the door it’s like they’re shocked to see you.

For the level of pretentiousness around ordering “a coffee with milk” as opposed to a latte, your coffee has a long way to go before your baristas can be that arrogant.

This cafe operates as though it is massively under the pump and not enough staff to properly operate. The real problem in all of this - there are a huge amount of wait staff, but it is not uncommon to see them casually hanging around and talking to each other or mindlessly shuffling cutlery from one side of the cafe to the other - all the while never looking at the tables or customers. Last time I ate here, I watched 2 staff stand at the front of the cafe having an unbroken conversation for around 1 hour.

It’s clear staff are not properly trained or monitored by management. I highly recommend there is more oversight of staff and a reassessment of workflows. It is clear this place is really inefficient and the service suffers...

I have been a regular customer at Highroad for some time, but my experiences with one of the baristas have consistently been disappointing. Each time I visit, this particular barista never smiles or greets to me warmly. On multiple occasions, I have felt that her attitude towards me is particularly unfriendly, bordering on rude.

For instance, whenever I request any assistance, such as changing my coffee cup to a takeaway, she seems very reluctant and impatient. One time, I asked for ice cream with my coffee, which I have done before without any issue. She ignored my request initially, and when I reminded her, she rolled her eyes and informed me that it wasn’t possible, contradicting my previous experiences.

What concerns me even more is that this behavior seems to be directed at me specifically. I have observed her being friendly and polite to other customers, especially those of different skin colors. This makes me feel like I am being deliberately targeted, which is very upsetting.

I believe that good customer service is crucial, and a little kindness goes a long way. Unfortunately, this barista’s behavior has made my visits to Highroad very unpleasant. I hope the management takes this feedback seriously and addresses the issue, as I enjoy the cafe otherwise and would love to continue...

I can see many one star comments saying this place is ridiculous but I waited till my second visit to give a fair one star. The first time I had brunch and the food was towards the horrible end, while the service was worse. Waited for about half an hour for my cake but turned out my order was forgotten (even I followed up once and was told it s coming), leaving me and my puppy sitting outside in Canberra winter, without any service, for over 30 mins. Had my second visit just now, with the spirit that it might be better, which has been proven wrong so easily. Ordered a banana latte and a piece of Earl grey cake. Waited again outside for about 20mins, then a waitress rushed out told me they are closing soon so my order will come in take away. Fine. I can take away. Then, my $13.5 drink came as in the photo, with watery taste and syrup sticking at the bottom. After another 10 sth mins, another waiter came and told me the cake was sold out……. So recommended me to change to another. The cake got strong artificial sweetener taste. Not my thing. Not coming back for the third for sure. And really wonder how this place can be...