Review Highway 54 Cafe Bar And Grill - Hawthorn

Highway 54 is an authentic Filipino restaurant in the heart of St Kilda. We went there on a double date with another Filipino couple. Their specialty is Kamayan, or boodle fight. This is where the whole table is cover with banana leaves, topped with rice and then covered with grilled meat. Then diners eat all of this with their hands. The table next to us were doing this and they had an amazing time! I ordered the Pinakbet with Prawns. The prawns were super fresh and tasty. The okra had a satisfying crunch. I didn't really enjoy the bitter melon, but through no fault of the restaurant. The whole dish was a fragrant treat. Janeca tried the Ginataang Kalabasa at Sitaw. The soft shell crab was so melt-in-your mouth delicious, and paired well with the coconut curry below. Both dishes came with some fluffy rice. Ginataang Kalabasa at Sitaw Our friends had the bisteak and the lechon kawali. They were pretty pleased with their dishes. The restaurant was quite understaffed that night, but the servers were accurate and accommodating. If you're looking for a Filipino feast in Melbourne, you can't go past Highway 54.

I think people just like to whinge...Good food is worth the wait! Good quality, authentic Filipino food. Had the Chicken Inasal with rice and a bottle of San Miguel beer! The chicken was served nice and hot, I had to let it cool for a bit before I dove in and thoroughly enjoyed the meal.

If you're looking for a very good and satisfying Filipino dish, Highway 54 is the way to your tummy.😊😊😊 #Boodlefightmeal #taho Highly recommended 👍👍👍

Came here to try authentic Filipino food and wasn’t that satisfied. We order the raw fish, calamari and lumpia.. the fish was horrendous and left it all on the plate, the calamari and lumpia were a lot better and you could tell they used fresh calamari... the venue is quite big considering it doesn’t look like it would be from the outside and the owner/staff were really friendly. There was a lot of people that came ate and left and a few guest actually had the big buffet spread on the table which was fun even watching them prepare it. I don’t remember any music in the background but overall it was a nice setting and friendly staff and patrons.

Delicious food and incredibly comfy atmosphere plus friendly staff, I'd highly recommend going here to sate your hunger! :)

Very nice simple place great food great service good price good place for Saturday or Sunday brunch

Great coffee. Can't understand its low rating. Been there twice in last fortnight, very friendly. Chicken-avocado Toastie excellent and Egg & Bacon roll looked damn good in a toasted Brioche Bun. Cycling-friendly too. Service was a little slow but still 5-star rating.

Its one of those few Filo restos in the eastern suburbs. It is the closest you can get if you crave for Filo food. The space is a little bit limited, the food is a-okay but not the best. The service staff are friendly although the waiting time is really long. Of all the food I have had, their barbecue is by far the best. The boodle fight is unique as well and its great to bring friends from different backgrounds just for the experience, but its a bit expensive.

Went here after I heard so much about this restaurant together with my family. This review is only about the ala carte part of the restaurant not the boodle fight. Location was easy to find although it might be a tad difficult to find parking. We entered the restaurant and I found it to be cozy and homely. Lighting was good as it exuded a bright atmosphere and it really looked Filipino with a modern touch. We ordered sisig, escabeche (which they termed market fish), Bicol express, Lechon kawali, lumpiang sariwa and halo2x for dessert. Their Lechon kawali was already cut into bite sized pieces so that's a plus if you don't want to get messy. My mum would have liked the market fish to just have a tad more sauce as she said it was a bit dry although it tasted fine. We liked the Bicol express most of all from all the food that we ordered. We ordered a halo2x for dessert and the price was too much for the taste. It's $13.50 and there was not even enough ingredients on it even without the ube they said they did not have. Furthermore, it was quite small. I have no qualms paying $13.50 for a halo2x if it tasted good but frankly speaking I was disapppointed. Last but not the least, I was surprised when I finally had a proper look at the receipt when we got home. I calculated the amount we would have paid taken from the prices in the menu they gave us and it would have come to $113.20. They charged us $119.60. Fortunately I got the waitress to give us an itemised version of the receipt for tax purposes. It seems there was $1 to $3 added for every dish we ordered barring the halo2x and the extra rice. If your prices have changed, update your menu. You are not some cheap as restaurant who forgot to update the prices in your menu. All it takes is a simple marker to change the prices in your menu. So for those who are wanting to come and eat at this place in the future, look at your receipt closely.

My family was here today, excited to try this new pinoy resto. I got too excited with their menu. We then ordered 7 dishes from their ala carte menu. We were told that there is a 30minute wait for the food which was understadable. 30 minutes came by, no food yet. After around 45 minutes of waiting a staff member came to out table to tell us that one of the dish that we ordered was not availabe ( Sinuglaw ). We then accepted the fact that that dish was not available so we continued on with the other dishes that we ordered. The food was okay...nothing really special although the Okoy was too salty for our liking. We also wanted to order their Taho and Halo- halo, but unfortunately they are not available which was really disappointing. Overall, it was not a great experience for us. I am not satisfied with how our visit went today.

I am working in one of the biggest hospitality in Melbourne and I was so disappointed that the quality of the food is not good. Steamed rice that been given is with burnt part plus some of the dishes is too salty (that okoy). We travel to try and get what is on the menu but we ended up telling that those dishes is not available. How we can recommend other nationalities to try our own dishes of we can serve it to them??? Whoever is managing this restaurant, the person should think that proper communication to your customer is A must so they will not end up getting disappointed. I hope this will be a constructive criticism for the owner of this restaurant.

The whole dining experience was just so bad I wanted to walk out as my kids and I waited for more than an hour. *turned up at 3pm only to be told it's close until 5pm. Misleading operation time on their website. **came back at 5:30pm for early dinner, only to be served at 6:30pm. There were only 6 customers not sure what took them soooo looonnnggg to serve our food. ***no front of house staff to greet you. ****ordered caffe latte only to be served 1.5hrs later as they've forgotten about it **** few staff just standing near the counter **** ordered dessert half way through our meal . Served 45 minutes later! Seriously?!?!? Overall experience was not great, even when the food were of great taste but too pricey for its size. The staff needs to be retrained. One to greet, another to take orders, the other to be at the counter. And they NEED a manager or head chef to direct everyone. It was a very disappointing experience. Yummy food but customer service ruins everything!� Would love to come back once the front of house problems are improved.

Great food, great service! Priced well. Filipino hospitality at its best. Feels like your back in the Philippines from service to food. Highly recommend this place. Keep up the good work!��

The place and the food was fantastic and amazing...really yummy and delicious. ..you won't regret it..staff and the owners are friendly..you must try it....

It was an absolute pleasure to dine here yesterday even though it was 30 + degrees! We opted to order from the menu instead of having the budol fight. The food was authentic, delicious, reasonably priced and portion sizes were good! The filipino staff were friendly and attentive to all our needs. Looking forward to coming back. Oh and the halo-halo is a must try!

Food was absolutely yummy ! Staff were so helpful . We pre booked . A group of 7 and the food came out quite quickly ! Proud to be Pinoy ! After more than 20 years in Melbourne first time ever to have an authentic Filipino food and the Bicol express was top notch ! For me and my friends this place is the place to comeback to again and again !

Very good service, right amount of food. We even have leftovers which we brought home. The food is delish, will definitely be back to try the breakfast

Food was good last night (although some are a bit oily), the squid is to die for , the lechon and bbq were disappointing but the banana leaves though, not clean at all, we ended up cleaning them ourselves with the tissues provided on our table before they serve the food. Staff were too busy to attend us right away but very friendly. Overall it was ok , we had fun.

Just drove to this restaurant from North Melbourne for their Breakfast Buffet. I brought a friend to introduce him to Filipino Food. I rated this place 5 stars last year and now I’m changing it. When we arrived, we were then told that buffet is not happening and instead they will serve us a platter. That was fine. The reason is that they brought all the equipment to a Market. We had an appointment in Brunswick around 1130AM so we wanted to finish early. Everytning went well until we had to pay. Poor servers they didnt know that the eftpos machine was taken by their manager. So they had to tell us, and everybody else that we can only pay cash. It was very inconvenient for us because we are running out of time. As a fellow Filipino, I extended my patience and asked my friend to get cash out. While waiting, someone paid first with cash and then to their surprise, there is no change at all- there is no money inside the till. Now I had to call my friend and get exact money for our food. They should have made our coffees complementary due the inconvenience they did to us. I never do this type of complaints but seeing the potential of this restaurant, management must learn from this. Coming from a Hospitality background, the management should not leave their original venue behind unprepared. I feel bad for the waiters left behind because they do not know what to do, no eftpos machine and no cash. I have high hope for this restaurant because i had the best experience last year. Please bring back that detailed service from last year. I was thinking to bring my friends for the Boodle Fight but I am unsure now because I do not want to experience the same type of inconvenience.

The food was so very tasty/yummy and good serviced too(very friendly staff and chef). It's highly recommended to everyone. I myself and my husband will definitely keep coming back...We enjoyed the super yummy food very much.

I had never had Filipino food before and both my main and dessert were delicious. The lady serving us was fun and we stayed at the end for a little chat. Lovely staff.

Friendly staff and super delicious food. Very happy with the service , the price and quality of the food. Highly recommended

Passby this restaurant called authentic Philippines cuisine. Philippino food isn’t a common find, I have friends from manila the other day and we decided to give it a go. <br/>Not much knowledge or expectation, friend ordering for us. The dishes she ordered are all interesting to me. We have pig ears with raw egg ( like this the most), milk fish in super sour soup and some crab sauce on glass noodles and chicken adobo ( a national dish). <br/>Recommend to anyone who feel like a surprise meal.

I’m in love with Filipino food! I had Laing (taro leaves on rice) and Lumpiang Sariwa as starter. I really enjoyed both dishes. They tasted so authentic and unique at the same time. I’ll definitely come back 😋<br/><br/>(sadly, my phone died before i got to take picture of the Laing 😢)

Im a filipino myself, and I recently moved out of home so I was definitely craving that filo food my mum would cook for me. So after an endless intense google search, we came across Highway54 and decided to check it out. <br/><br/>Unfortunately, we were a bit disappointed. I ordered the Kare Kare and my boyfriend ordered Tocino with rice. It wasn’t worth the price we paid for and wont be coming back. Menu is way too overpriced. <br/><br/>However, we did enjoy the halo halo 😇 that was good!

Been meaning to try this place. Took a friend with me when we finally saw them open for lunch. We ordered the lunch special each which, to be honest wasnt worth it even for $9.90. And since we were still hungry after we decided to try the dessert which was impressive. We got the dessert platter which comes with all the Pinoy faves and we enjoyed it. If you was to try Filipino food and see what it's about give it a go. Despite the small lunch serve it was still tasty.

Came here with a friend the other week because we felt like trying Filipino food.<br/><br/>I had the BBQ pork belly and my friend had the chicken adobo which was recommended by the waitress as it’s a popular Filipino food.<br/><br/>The food was really nice! The pork was barbecued well without being over cooked or charred and it was very tender. The chicken adobo was nice as well. It was basically chicken marinated in some sort of soy sauce marinade, but I didn’t like it as much as the pork.<br/><br/>The people who served us were very friendly and service was good but the waitress forgot to bring out my friends latte. No biggie though. <br/><br/>Will definitely keep this place in mind when I feel like having Filipino food in the future.

Loved the food here. We had vegetarian options and they were so tasty. Awesome service felt really warm and homely. They do karaoke on Friday so will be back

Recommended by a Filipino friend. We decided to go with the traditional way of eating using hands called Kamayan. Rice is spread on the banana leaves on the table with meats are placed on top. Different choices of fried and grilled pork, chicken, fish and seafood. I love their grilled fish and pork. I would personally prefer more vegetables (only corn) and a bit less meat. It’s a fun experience. They charge $32 per head. Some of us couldn’t finish but we could take food home. Warning: service is slow particularly for Kamayan way of eating.

When you crave for food back home,this is the best go-to restaurant. Just make sure you visit at the not so busy times so the waiting game is not that long. They partner with Liven which is a great app as you can get such percentage of your bill that you can save! Sinuglaw and Sinigang are the best 👌🏻

Food was okay, service a little slow than usual. And some items were a little pricey, so need improvement for the price they want for the food. But anyway nice to have something different in Glenferrie 😊

Considering there isn’t many Filipino restaurants in Melbourne, I decided to try this place on the weekend.<br/><br/>The highlight for me were the spring rolls, inihaw na liempo(Grilled pork belly) and the halo-halo. <br/><br/>The only downside from our perspective was that the wait time for the food was around 45 mins. Generally this isn’t too bad but considering they weren’t many other customers in the restaurant, we expected it to arrive sooner.<br/><br/>The staff and ambience were good. Would return to try other dishes in the future.

Great to find a traditional Filipino food place that isn’t tucked out in the suburbs. Located on Glenferrie road, these guys do an all you can eat Filipino breakfast on sundays for $18 (which if you’ve had Filipino breakfast is awesome!) and also have quite an extensive menu. Not a lot for vegetarians as the Filipino cuisine is typically meat heavy, but the food they provide is great quality and very much traditional. The food took a little while to come out, but the service was friendly, and I can’t wait to go back and try some of their other items. Their longanisa and adobo was fantastic!

Authentic Filipino food. Service was quick with only a dozen or so diners, but may slow down at busier times, as most food is made to order and the menu is quite diverse, compared to many other restaurants. Many of the dishes have been swapped out since our last visit, the menu is more extensive now.  Vegetable/vegetarian options are quite limited, as is typical of Filipino cuisine, with a lot of meat and rice dishes, esp. pork, with usually sweet sauces (Bicol express is the only spicy dish on the menu).  The quality of the many dishes we tried was very good, in authentic style. I would recommend Pancit, Sinigang, Kare-Kare, or Adobo (esp. nice with a Red Horse).  One outstanding dish was the baked egg entrée which we have never tried before, but definitely will again! I would pass on the super salty Pinakbet next timeFor desserts, the Halo-Halo was better than most of those we have had in the Philippines, the Leche Flan (creme caramel) and Turon was excellent.