The Black Sheep Café lives up to its name: who would have expected to find good French food inside a cozy shophouse-restaurant along Mayo Street in Little India helmed by an Indian chef? Although the limited menu offers a selection of only five main courses, Chef Ratha's cooking has found a following amongst fellow floggers.
Warm and chewy bread to start off the meal.
I initially planned to order the duck confit but I eventually fell for the lure of the crispy pork cheeks. Although the pan-seared morsels weren't as unctuously soft as Santouka's braised tokusen toruniku, they were meltingly tender nonetheless. The slight gaminess of the jowl was smartly countered by pairing it with a sweet orange glaze. T'was even better than the duck confit in my opinion!
Moving on to the mandatory desserts, the towering Kahlua soufflé ($10) was a sight to behold. Lightly infused with coffee liqueur, it was as light and airy as it looked and contrasted well with the accompanying scoop of cold mocha ice cream.
The amicable chef offered us tiramisu on the house in exchange for our comments as he wished to refine his recipe for the dessert. This was equally worthy: we were both pleased with its light and smooth mascarpone and robust espresso flavor. My only gripes were that the sponge fingers were slightly oversoaked and that there was slightly too much cocoa powder. Being a fan of boozy tiramisu, I wouldn't have minded if the dessert came with a stronger dose of alcohol as well.
The Black Sheep Café is definitely the place to go for good and inexpensive French food. Do note that they are only open for lunch on Saturdays at the moment.
35 Mayo Street
Opening hours: 6pm-11pm (Mon-Fri), 12pm-3pm and 6pm-11pm (Sat), closed on Sundays