Black Sheep Restaurant — Restaurant in Gardens

Upon arriving on time for our mid-December reservation for 5 pax, and an empty but ready-to-be-seated restaurant, we were told to please wait at the bar so we could be seated by the manager, who was yet to arrive.

We stood around and noticed the waiters were also waiting awkwardly. Manager arrived in a huff and seemed to give wait staff a quick once-over check and pep talk. Our friendly waitress eventually showed us to our table, one in a dark corner under a staircase, and we squeezed in next to the empty water glasses and jugs of water. Whilst settling in another waiter pulled out and stood on a vacant chair from the adjacent table and began fixing a lightbulb, not that made a difference with the lighting. He struggled for a few minutes.

We ordered a bunch of starters to share, one of which was based off an ingredient we really wanted to try. Said starter arrived with the wrong 'star' ingredient so we noted this to the waitress who then sent the manager our way. The manager explained that their supplier had delivered an alternative product as they were out of stock. All good, except the main ingredient seemed very much like the one you can find from Woolworths, or any grocery store for that matter. This was all a friendly and honest conversation, and the dish was still really good. To our surprise, this dish was struck off the blackboard menu, and from the bill!

The ceviche was beyond disappointing, lacking flavour and decent sized pieces of yellowtail - they seemed more like bits scraped from the frame after processing the fish for it's fillets.

The swordfish curry was underwhelming, even by a child-friendly butter chicken standard, lacking any sort of fragrance, flavour or kick. It seemed more like a coconutty sauce with some protein and veg, and a bit of rice with one poppadom on top of it all.

Someone ordered an aubergine dish and my word, it was fantastic! Hands down the best plate of the night.

The kudu dish, supposedly one of their star dishes, was also nothing to write home about.

All in all, not somewhere we would rush back to or recommend (yet) but we really want to give it a other chance. Pity our first experience went...

I ordered the Christmas meal for four plus a vegetarian meal, to collect. From my very first enquiry e-mail, answered promptly by Louis, I was impressed. All my subsequent e - mail enquiries were responded to immediately and my queries dealt with efficiently. When I went to collect at the arranged time I was greeted by friendly (Covid compliant) staff and a bright, clean, pleasant restaurant, that has a welcoming and positive, sunny "vibe". All the dishes were packed separately with clear heating instructions. There was ample Pork shoulder (left overs for today 😊) and it was tender and delicious. To accompany the pork was braised red cabbage, carrots, pumpkin, cauliflower with cheese sauce, pepper apple compote, crackling (the best I've tasted - perfect) and gravy. Each side had it's own unique flavours. I don't usually like carrots but these were scrumptious. So many delicious roast potatoes (three guesses for my New Year's resolution)! The vegetarian dish was roast Polenta with courgettes, mushroom, gorgonzola with a caper herb dressing. Also an adequate portion (sufficient for my vegetarian family member to give me a portion to taste) and it was fabulous. All the flavours combined so well making a tasty treat that I almost didn't miss meat. The price was in my opinion extremely competitive given what other restaurants were advertising for sit down Christmas meals or in fact what you would pay for bleh "fast food" take aways for 5. Less time for me in the kitchen "slaving away" over a hot stove and more time enjoying a really fantastic Christmas lunch (safely) with close family members. I will most definitely support them in the future (while sitting at the bar on collecting my order I noticed they had a great variety of craft bears and cocktails as well). Cheers to Black...

There could not be a more fitting name for this restaurant as the Black Sheep qualifies as my least favourite dining experience of late. At first, after a fairly long wait, our food arrived cold. In retrospect, I should have noted this as red flag number 1. The kitchen did attempt to correct this though. At our table we ordered the highly recommended fish curry and the tarragon chicken as mains. Sadly, both were equally disappointing. The chicken was dry and overcooked and the odd tasting tarragon sauce, a mere attempt to conceal this. The fish curry equally tasteless with far too much salt added making it difficult to finish the meal without having to order more beverages. We tried to remain positive though, and decided to give the Black Sheep an opportunity to redeem itself through dessert. Unfortunately, our bad descended into worse. The waitress advised that the cheesecake was the dealbreaker and that it would not fail to deliver. If runny pudding on a tennis biscuit type of base, resembling a tiktok knockoff of a Woolies dessert is your thing… then I suppose the Black Sheep’s version of cheesecake has rights to remain in the dessert category. It was a cold night in Kloof street and the draught making its way in, despite the windows being closed, along with the tasteless food and suspicious cheesecake will only allow me to give the Black Sheep one baa (star). Had Baa Baa Black Sheep been in town, he would have objected to the scandalous use of his name. Give...