Coffee Quest #13: Higher Ground (No, Anakin!)
The massive red brick building with 15 meter high ceilings is an old power station converted into a cafe/restaurant. Higher Ground is wanky, pretentious, and extremely expensive and boy, oh boy, did I know what I was getting myself in for and it was still terrifying. (It's also, they proclaim proudly, an award-winning venue!) There was a line outside and you definitely have to wait to get in.
They're famous for their cocktails, but it's one of those 'look at the menu and double take and ask yourself if you're in the right income bracket'. I was underdressed and most people were here either on company budget or trying to impress someone to invest. I heard a lot of corporate chatter under plastered smiles. Over the years in multiple cafes, I've been privy to people loudly jabbering about insider trading, failed launches of multiple companies (famous ones too!), pilots reminiscing about the old days where they didn't need regulations to fly, and even some weird shit about Boeing - so none of this was really new. (I'm really trying to prepare your expectations for this place).
When in a cocktail place, you order a cocktail right? This is their Toffee Coffee.
It's white rum, the Five Senses Darling Blend espresso, caramel, and salt. (I'm going to assume a place like this would use sea salt).
The white rum comes through quite well with the espresso shot, and the caramel is there for the sweetness, but it felt rather basic. I suppose you don't mess with winning combinations, but at this price, I expected something more.
I am open to tasting Five Senses coffee again in a different cafe. Some of their blends were a bit disappointing when I had it in Sydney.
This is their Spanner Crab Eggs Benedict with 'Caviar' (it's just salmon roe - they wrote caviar on their menu).
It's too much. It's trying way, way too hard. For one, the crab taste is too strong (I'm guessing it's smoked) and because seafood naturally is very salty, they needed very strong herbs to match the crab as well. Instead of your regular hollandaise, this uses bearnaise sauce instead, and you can really taste the bite of white vinegar on your tongue over lemon juice. The muffin was fine - it had no bite, only a chew, which I suppose was chosen to match the texture of the soft crab meat, but it lacked its own distinctness.
I didn't enjoy this one, and I'd much rather they spent their time perfecting an eggs benedict (like Fields Cafe) rather than throw in all the expensive ingredients to try and shock you. Even my partner who loves seafood more than anything else shook her head. The eggs felt slightly overcooked too.
Disappointing, and at the price of more than double your regular breakfast, this is a place you can skip for sure.
