Highland Bakery Emory

Delicious food but ABSOLUTE TERRIBLE service. You could order your food to go (because you’re obviously and clearly in a hurry) and you’ll be sitting there waiting for 40 minutes! On top of that, most of the staff is unapologetic and doesn’t really care too much about the quality of customer service. And the kitchen is slow… there will be spells of 0 orders being turned out for a span of 20 minutes. Overall I’d say eat here at the risk of wasting time on food that you could honestly make yourself.

Coffee was decently hot and ok tasting… until I broke out in hives. Whatever coffee they brew, it’s cut with wheat, so if you’re celiac/​gluten intolerant, avoid!

Good place for coffee while you finish a project or study for an exam. This small bakery, located inside Emory’s business school, has both ample indoor seating and outdoor seating for meetups, study sessions, or group projects. The coffee here is decent and the location is spacious. I can’t, however, recommend the pastries. My friends and I ordered the blueberry coffee cake. The blueberries were good, but the pastry itself was a bit mushy. It wasn’t the most appetizing. Maybe the cookies and bagels will be better, but I didn’t try them. If you’re an Emory student, though, and want a quick dose of caffeine to study for finals, it’s an okay place to stop by at.

The term mixed bag was invented for the Emory outpost of Highland Bakery. The bag includes indifferent employees, sometimes slow service, forgettable food (couldn’t remember what I ate the first time I visited), delicious food (terrific lunch a few days ago), and hoards of b-​school/​law school students. Even past 2 PM, there were still many lunch diners.
This isn’t your Old Fourth Ward Highland Bakery. I’ve only been there once for brunch but I had such an awesome server and really adored my eggs Benedict.
For a midday meal, I recommend the $ 8.99 Half & Half combo: 0.5 of a sandwich of your choosing and 0.5 of a spinach or house salad. The Highland Ham and Cheese sandwich was practically the size of a whole sandwich, and the spinach salad wasn’t shabby in size or taste either. The strawberries, goat cheese, and walnuts were a nice touch in the latter. Really dug the crispy baguette and garlic mayo on the ham and cheese.
If you want water, you have to pay 25 cents for a cup. I saw a lot of patrons with their own water bottles. And since I’m doling out tips, the experts tell me about ordering ahead online which sounds promising. This HB aligns with student breaks so it may be closed between semesters and holidays.

It’s incredibly sad– every time Emory opens up a «local» restaurant on campus, the same thing happens. At first, lines are long, the food is good (albeit somewhat pricey, but hey you’re paying for it with Dooley Dollars). However, after the first couple months the quality begins to slip.
At Highland, at first it was a varying amounts of Hollandaise on the benedict. Maybe a couple potatoes were burnt now and then. But slowly but surely, things are getting worse. You try to deny it– «no, Highland is the best place to eat on campus!». That stays true, but it’s increasingly a testament to how crappy on-​campus dining than a particular location’s excellence.
As I type this review, I’m munching on a chicken benedict. Potatoes are okay (portion is small). The benedict, however, is a mess. The yolk is almost wholly cooked, and is about runny as an old bottle of glue. There’s only the barest smear on Hollandaise sauce on top (thanks for saving my arteries, I guess). Finally, the pieces of fried chicken are so small that even Tiny Tim would be cry.
But to end on a good note, let me share my fondest (first) memory of Highland. It was around the time the placer first opened up, which conveniently coincided with the Snowpacalyse. With classes canceled, I and a couple friends trudged across campus to Highland for the first time. It was warm and welcoming, not completely packed, but quite a few degrees above busting. I had the crab cake benedict (again, Dooley Dollars) and a soup. At the time, the eggs were poached to perfection. They practically quivered, and the slighest touch burst them, allowing the yolk to flow forth and play counterpoint to the generous serving of Hollandaise (if you haven’t noticed by now, I like Hollandaise).
Highland was once good. Hopefully, it can be good again.

A bit pricey, their hot chocolate is made Ghirardelli concentrate that they just water down … totally not worth it. They do have great cupcakes though! My favorite is the red velvet one! — Worth a try! There is no free/​street parking on site, Emory’s parking lot is an option that comes with a fee.

I love highland bakery — I really do… BUT this location is terrible. It doesn’t come close to the original location. The workers at the registers look like they hate their lives and give the customers so much attitude. In general the staff is really slow and I can see them trying to act like they care about you but they actually don’t. And on more than one occasion, they forgot about my order. Since they don’t make any of the pastries there, they’re all pretty soggy or really dry. They often run out of ice so it kind of ruins your supposed-​to-​be-​iced coffee or latte.
Don’t come here and let it ruin your impression of highland bakery… GO TO THE ONE IN THE OLD FOURTH WARD.

Good food but the wait time is not worth it. During lunch hours it takes 20 – 40 minutes to receive food and often the orders arrive missing some elements. For example, I ordered toast, avocado, and fruit and received it 20 minutes later only after I reminded the manager. I also was given no spread for my toast.
Many of their portions are also too big for students to eat quickly before their next class. Highland is great for a slow breakfast when it is less crowded but not so much for lunch.