High Road Brasserie — Restaurant in London

Hard to write this review as I do love the location of this place and have been coming here for a while.

I've had breakfast here a few times in the last months and have been a bit disappointed. Each time I put it down to an off day but after 5 off days...well. Firstly, service. This can be a bit up and down. The staff is generally unsmiling here so I'm used to that. On a couple of visits though, they really looked as though they just didn't want us there. Maybe it's not a nice place to work, I don't know, but it generally feels like you're being a bit of a nuisance from the moment you sit down.

Now the food. I've eaten in here a few times but mostly I go there for breakfast. You won't go far wrong if you're having something simple like scrambled eggs on toast... but generally something on the plate is hit or miss. On one occasion the scrambled eggs could have been lifted off the plate in one lump. When I had a full English, the side of spinach was so dried as to be inedible. Bacon is crispy, which I like, but it's so extraordinarily salty I was convinced it might also have been seasoned. This week the sausages were so hard it was an effort to cut through them. Fried eggs 'not over runny' come back looking like a pancake... my friend actually pointed at my plate and asked what it was!

Lattes are served in the smallest of glasses you end up needing two to feel you've had a cup.

I love this place a lot, for its location and the fact that it is more sheltered from the street than others on the same stretch. But it could be so much better. I'll keep coming here but I doubt I'll...

I had one of the best meals I have had in a long time, here. Every item ordered was so delicious and had huge portions. I came out of there absolutely stuffed and my belly was fully satisfied.

The menu is small but it makes up for that with the quality and taste of its food. For starters we had the haddock soufflé and chicken liver parfait. The soufflé was so tasty and it came with a creamy sauce which elevated the dish even more and the parfait was smooth, creamy and delicious. For mains we had the special which was fried skate with capers. It came swimming in butter and was so decadent but so good. For dessert we had the tiramisu which was divine and is on my list of top 3 tiramisus I have ever had and I have had many! Perfect consistency with a perfect balance of sweetness and bitterness. My friend went as far as to say, that it was on par with Venice. The truffle fries with cheese also demands a special mention, so delicious and crispy with just the right amount of truffle which they did not skimp on, yum!!

It was a Thursday night, not so busy which impacted the atmosphere as it felt empty. Also lost count of how many different waiters served us. All very friendly and helpful but too much attention and came round too often for my liking. Hence the scoring.

Otherwise, great place for great tasting food. It’s not cheap, we spent around £95pp but the £55 charge for wine definitely contributed. Next time I will just go for a full bottle which is cheaper, rather than 2 half bottles. But overall worth a visit.

Highly recommend, I am already planning my next...

We had planned a very special brunch a few months ago to meet my boyfriend’s mother for the first time and thought High Road Brasserie would be the perfect choice. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we were left standing for over 10 minutes before finally being approached by a staff member—who seemed irritated —and asked what we wanted.

After explaining we were obviously there to eat, we were seated, and ignored for another 20 minutes without service before having to go inside to order ourselves. As a result, the atmosphere of the brunch was incredibly tense and cast a shadow over what was meant to be a warm, memorable afternoon.

Still, hoping our first visit was just an off day, we decided to give it another chance last Sunday. We arrived craving Eggs Benedict and Royale, only to be told after sitting down that there was no ham and no salmon available along a list of several other things. Reluctantly, we agreed to try it with bacon, and what arrived was two very small eggs, with 3 pieces of streaky bacon on a very thin slice of toast —hardly justifiable at nearly £20. We were then told there were no muffins available as well. Both of us were shocked and disappointed, especially as this was the second time we’d left feeling let down.

To his credit, the manager on duty was sympathetic and kindly comped our Bloody Marys, but by then we were already heading elsewhere...