High Society — Restaurant in Melbourne

It was time for another brunch, and we decided to go with High Society. A couple of stops from Monash Uni, this cute little cafe is located in Armadale. I underestimated this suburb, and I was quite surprised by the vibe of it. We reached the place around 11:20 AM and the indoor seating was packed. As we were about to get some spots outside, a tablespace opened up to perfectly fit all three of us. I later regret choosing the table near to the window because of the direct sunlight. Well, can't complain since it is a naturally well-lit spot for clicking some great food pictures.

The staff was quite friendly and welcoming. As I strolled around the restaurant, clicking pictures, I ended up the backyard where it used to be a seating area before. The restroom and the wash area sits confined. I was finding it hard to close the door without my legs touching the toilet rim. I will explain why I mentioned it that way later on this review.

The menu was, to me, little limited. I wish all these places had a full-fledged menu along with the food images of how it looks like as a finished product. It would have help Instagrammers like me to post some #foodporn images. Also, it could help the customers deciding what they want to order rather than going through the Google images and asking the waiter for the name of the dish.

We ordered Baked Honey Glazed Ham Hock Benedict and Blue Corn Tacos. For drink, Red Velvet Latte and Hot Chocolate. Without any doubt, the Blue Corn Tacos is a perfect dish for Instagram or social media. Well cooked and seasoned pulled chicken, black bean paste, avocado and tomato salsa, and hot sauce. All topped with grated, quite generously, ricotta salata cheese. Blue corn tacos are a must try and out of two dishes we liked it the most.

The Baked Honey Glazed Ham Hock Benedict had a perfect poached egg topped with Balsamic Hollandaise, caramelized fennel, carrot ribbon, and everything rest on pork floss and toast. The first couple of bites tasted good, and then it started getting bad. I mean, it was way too oily, and the pork floss made the toast soggy. We hated it as the toast got mushy. The red velvet latte was disappointing, good for pictures though. We both hated it. I was expected something special with red velvet but ended up having red velvet syrup milk.

Although the food looked great, the wow factor was missing. Before our visit, we had a look at the photos of the restaurant, and in reality, it looked way washed out. The place lacked energy; even the outdoor seating is troublesome to sit when it gets sunny. They should put up some proper shades, and I wonder how people enjoy the brunch during summers. Many things went wrong; maybe we were way too excited, perhaps it was the sunlight or the food. I couldn't help but, giving a rating more than three out of five. This place requires a makeover, and the owners should take the time to revisit the menu to come up with something exciting. The menu seemed a bit overpriced considering the quantity of the food. A couple of dollars less would make it a value...

VERY DISAPPOINTING!!!

My wife and I invited a friend here for lunch. The staff were courteous and respectful… B U T …  ALL dishes were COLD (not hot), even the chips??  The “Corn Fritter” was far too heavily fried and tasteless.  The “Steak Sanga” was NOT the listed “Scotch Fillet”…or at the very least it did NOT have the texture & flavour of “Scotch”. The “piece of meat” was NOT Medium Rare (as I had ordered), but rather it was like a piece of over-cooked, dry, "tough leather"??  The “Lemon Pepper Calamari” was reasonable, but too cold to maintain it’s flavour.  The two Almond Croissants we ordered were BOTH NOT warm. They were so hard that they were difficult to cut with a knife. The crust was NOT crispy & flakey, but rather like dried-out cardboard??  We ordered ice cream with our Croissants, but it arrived AFTER our Croissants (at least the ice cream was OK!!).  Between our mains and our dessert, we had to specially ask the waitress to please clear the dishes from our table. I had the impression that they were short of staff??

It seemed that the items were pre-prepared, then “just warmed up” (but in our case they were NOT warmed satisfactorily) and NOT freshly made/baked in the kitchen??

At these prices I expected the “food” to be of a MUCH HIGHER quality. The quantity was OK, but the culinary standard most certainly was NOT!!!

This "Armadale Premises" is "pretending" to be of a standard & quality that unfortunately it CLEARLY is NOT!!!

In fact, I felt so bad that I apologised to our guest for the appalling luncheon experience!!

VERY disappointing. ...

My friend and I are really getting demanding for brunch and coffee 🥹. Thinking of going to Armadale to browse furniture buyers to buy a birthday gift for my friend 🎁, I came across this shop, and was attracted by the shop's face value from across the road ~ by the shop's decoration and also by the shop's sunshine and coffee aroma oooh !!!!

Recommended menu 👇 -Cheeky Benny🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 I highly recommend this cheeky Benny, Eggs Benedict with beef cheeks, topped with fried potato chips, the potato chips can show the chef's heart!!!! It's really thin!!! All of them go together really taste great together, and you don't get bored at all after eating them!

-Shakshuka I personally feel that this is more normal, it is baked eggs in slow-cooked tomato made into a sauce combined with Benny to eat together! But remember to eat it while it's hot, otherwise the Benny will be a bit hard when it's cold.

After talking to the staff, I found out that this shop is specialised in making coffee and food, and all the dishes here are made with the freshest ingredients. The sad part of the day was that the dish I wanted was last week's weekly special and they only serve it on the same day, so I couldn't order it. !!!! Next time, I'm going to check out their menu before I go hehehe 😁 Besides that, they also have a lot of signature drinks, cocktails, juices, smoothies, and...