High Ground Coffee House, Mission Viejo CA

Never been disappointed in the drinks and food, everything is so delicious! The staff is so incredibly friendly as well! Also the ambience is very calming and inspires good study sessions.

Coffee was good, customer service was alright, but there was a huge dog making messes and disturbing customers. I’m pretty sure only service dogs are allowed in service restaurants due to food safety.

Came here on a Sunday for the first time and enjoyed my Breakfast:
Service: 9/10 really nice manager- maybe owner walked us through the menu and helped us order the best pastries and coffee beverages. Some guy took one of our coffees so had to wait to get the second.
Pastry/Croissant: 10/10 got a doughnut, desert toaster pastry, and an Almond Croissant. All were fantastic and they heated them up first to perfection.
Egg/Omelette: 9/10 got a breakfast burrito with egg potato, cheese and spinach. It was on the smaller side but was delicious.
Coffee: 9/10 got a Latte and it tasted perfect the only thing I’d change is since I was dining in, would have liked it in a cozy mug Vs a to go cup
Location: 9/10 easy to find and park in Mission Viejo.
Ambience/View: 8/10 cute inside with some subtle music playing. A couple small tables outside but would be very close to the parking lot and no views outside.
Menu: 9/10 great choices for some simple breakfast and pastry items. Customized the coffee with almond or oat milk and plenty of great beverages.
Price: 10/10 very reasonable pricing on the lower end and would be a place you could go any morning.

Always a favorite place to hang, chat, work. Pleasant staff. Great alternative to national brand coffee shops. Lots of tables inside and out. Cozy couches and big cozy chairs. Beverages are all standard and tasty - feel free to ask for any specifics, more of this, less of that, different milks, etc. Food is simple pastries and sandwiches.

I walked here at a busy hour since I was working at the farmers market nearby and the staff was very friendly and helpful. The drinks were very well-priced and the atmosphere was relaxing. The drinks took a little long to make but it makes complete sense since I did come here at 9: 30 which is busy time. The drinks were pretty good, I got the peppermint mocha and I would get it again.

The BEST coffee! Rich without bitterness, smooth, and full-bodied. Ordered the “eye-opener” made with dark roast and one shot of espresso. PERFECT! Along with that I got the most delicious lemon poppy muffin. Amazing combo. Friendly and knowledgeable staff made my first visit a good one so went back the next day. This is my new fave coffee place!

I come here most mornings to work and study. The chairs are comfortable to sit on for extended periods of sitting. There's adequate spots for a laptop and a notepad in the shared table and on the individual tables. The coffee is reasonably priced and tastes good. The baristas are friendly and accommodating. You even get to dog spot a lot because people walking their dogs come here often to just relax and chat. The music isn't overbearing. Overall, highly recommend getting a coffee in this place.

Very good coffee, very good pastry, friendly staff.lots of seating and parking. What's not to like?

Looove this cafe! It’s awesome.comfy chairs.i don’t drink coffee but i love cafes (ironic i know) but they were so kind to make me a mocha frappe without coffee (yes basically a milkshake) well it was great and i highly recommend it.i spent the whole afternoon here editing photos comfortably! Thanks!

Great coffee spot with lots of yummy coffee drinks and pastries. Chill vibe, great for business meetings or just to hang out.

A nice little coffee shop with outdoor and indoor seating. Breakfast burritos are delicious!

The Everything bagel breakfast sandwich and honey cinnamon latte were delicious.the bran-carrot muffin slapped my taste buds in an unpleasant and unfriendly way. I wanted to give this place 5 stars, but the muffin had other ideas.

I used to be a regular customer of this place under the old management, and when the name was "It's a Grind. " Today I stopped by to check the the place out under the new management and. It looks good. And these were happened: they asked for my name during the order process. However, they didn't announce my name with my order, and I had to play the guessing game to find out if the order belonged to me. When I was picking up my order I thanked the two girls who were prepping the orders, and out of the two, only one barely had eye contact with me with no reply or feedback; the "hot latte" was quite warm and tasted like warm milk with a hint of coffee. These were reasons I never go to any franchise coffee places and try to explore and support local shops instead. However, I believe I wasn't a lucky customer for that day, and this place will deserve another chance.

The staff are very friendly, even offering our dogs treats. Coffee was excellent too! Breakfast burritos are tasty too!

I had a coffee with a great tasting blueberry muffin. I sat on a very comfortable couch and worked for 2 hours. I loved it.

Terrible place. The coffee was cold and they didn’t even offer to replace it when I complained.

This is another great privately owned coffee shop in Mission Viejo. They have a robust menu and some seriously delicious avocado toast. You can get a discount if you pay with cash and the ambience is casual and unique.mismatched couches for lounging and having a meeting and tables that were hand made with concrete for the tops. The bathroom is clean and hospitable and the patio outside is perfect for enjoying a cup of coffee in the southern California morning air and sunshine. Overall, this is a great place for coffee off the beaten path in the heart of Mission Viejo.

Overall pretty middle of the road. Would likely be higher in a state with less competition.

The interior design is similar to a lot of the second wave coffee joints; it does not *feel* like speciality coffee in that sense. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - just depends on what you're going for. It's nice for what it is.

I am less impressed by the baristas and quality of my drink. I ordered a latte that the barista airated for approaching 8 seconds (!), which may not sound like much, but if you're a trained barista you'd know that even foamier drinks like cappucinos aren't even close to *that* long. As a result, the drink was a foamy mess in that regard (pic attached). No effort at steaming the milk such that it can be poured like a traditiona latte-just dumped the milk in. Perhaps the experience would be a bit different if one opted against milk-based drinks.

Although less important to this review, the internet is also bit clunky.

TL;DR: It's alright and it'll work in a pinch. It's better than Starbucks or Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, but I would rather go to almost any other specialty coffee shop-Orange county has a lot of them.