A partial notch loading technique for E-plane sidelobe reduction and gain enhancement of higher order TM₃₀ and TM₇₀ mode rectangular patch antennas is proposed. In this technique, out of phase surface current distribution regions of higher order mode patch antennas are partially removed to create new radiating edges. It is shown that superposition of radiated fields of these additional radiating edges and that of unperturbed mode can be used to achieve sidelobe reduction and gain enhancement in single-layer configuration. Two novel single layer, easy to fabricate higher order mode patch antennas, namely, notch loaded TM₃₀ mode patch antenna (Antenna 1) and notch loaded TM₇₀ mode patch antenna (Antenna 2), are presented. Antenna 1 shows a measured gain of 12.9 dBi and E-plane sidelobe levels (SLL) of −10.5 dB, whereas Antenna 2 shows a measured gain of 16 dBi and SLL of −12.8 dB. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the highest reported antenna gain for single-layer TM₇₀ mode rectangular patch antenna. Due to their high gain, proposed antennas are suitable for short range point to point communication applications.