Cafes / Reviews
The Black Sheep – cafe review
There’s a documentary on BBC One at the moment about pound shops. In the opening sequence, one shop worker informs the camera that the question he gets asked the most is how much everything costs.
I was reminded of this when in The Black Sheep, a new vegetarian cafe on Gloucester Road not to be confused with a mighty fine beer brewed in North Yorkshire.
is needed now More than ever
“It ain’t a burger if it ain’t got no meat in it,” a customer that looked the spitting image of Robert Peston explained to anyone who was listening as he weighed up his food options. “It is called a beef burger.”
“Well I’m not sure about that,” the patient member of staff behind the bar explained.
In the end, the BBC economics editor’s long-lost brother was convinced that a burger, despite it containing no meat, would indeed be for him, not made of dead animal but made of beans.
It’s one of three burger options here. The others are the halloumi (£5.50) and the quinoa, avocado and beetroot (£5). Three tapas for £12 includes funghi and zucchini croquettes, Spanish favourite patatas bravas, oyster mushroom escalopes and marinated olives.
There is also a salad and soup of the day, a selection of cakes on the counter, and a caramelised pink grapefruit with cinnamon and a choice of honey or maple syrup for £2 accompanied by a plea on the menu: “Go on, let us get the blow torch out!”
Look out front through the large windows and you’ll see a busy main road and a sunbed salon. Look the other way to the back wall of this cafe and there is a mural of a pastoral scene, a dirt track winding down beside a river and rolling hills to a lake.
Shelves on another wall contain everything from shallots to charades, while a small alcove under the stairs has been covered in artificial grass and packed with children’s toys.
Who needs meat anyway?
The Black Sheep, 61 Gloucester Road, Bishopston, Bristol, BS7 8AD
0117 9446 826