The Black Sheep

If you are in to nepotism, this is the place for you.
Don’t expect that your wait will represent anything that looks or feels fair.
The food is very good overall.
In my opinion though, not worth the frustrating wait.

Ok so what had happened was… is how I start a review on a restaurant that serves TWO FOOT Subs! They called the sub I had The Sultana, I renamed it the burger salad sub.
Two feet of Lamb/​Beef patties on a french Baguette, topped with thousand island and what I describe as a salad. It was delicious!
The Mrs. had a one foot catfish finger sub with a really nice mixed «salad» on top. (Didn’t get a picture of her sandwich because I was to busy digging into my own.) The atmosphere is a comfortable jazzy background cozy petite restaurant. Great service and delicious food.
SIDES YOU ASK? YOU DON’T NEED THEM! The sandwiches are so large you wouldn’t want anything else. I love this place, but I have to pace my visit. Another FATBOY great adventure!

Stopped here for lunch after doing laundry. Was in Richmond with a Broadway Tour so I thought I’d try some southern faire. I only wish my iPhone Unilocal app showed that the brunch menu and dinner menus were only specific times. Had my heart set on chicken and dumplings but it was too early for that. Oh well, gave a half USS Roanoke a try with a side of the grilled brussel sprouts. Their battleship sandwiches are huge (even the half ones are very big) and you can definitely share one, or save it for later. Very fresh ingredients and great service. I ended up taking the brussel sprouts to go because, well, you can see the pic of the sandwich, and I really wanted to try the peanut butter pie, which did not disappoint!
I may try to go back tomorrow in the AM to get some brunch items.

Horrible Service!!!
Walked in at 2pm on Monday and was told they were closed. It’s not posted on their website, Unilocal or even the hours posted on the door!!!
WTH kind of service is that. There were several customers sitting and eating. Guess they didn’t want my business. I’m happy to oblige them!
I would give them NO stars but Unilocal won’t let me post unless I give them at least one.

I’m fortunate that I live in a neighborhood with a lot of great places to eat. However, I do experience the first world problem of having trouble stirring myself out of my ‘hood to try OTHER good RVA restaurants. One exception to this is the Black Sheep, which I will visit if I am out and about in the Carver area at a mealtime.
While I do have to dock them a star for taking its awesome aloo gobi hash off the brunch menu – seriously, I nearly cried when I saw that, please put it back, Black Sheep, pretty please – I have found more than enough stuff to (almost) compensate for the loss. You won’t go wrong with one of its positively enormous sandwiches. My personal favorite is the SS Sultana, basically a gyro on a roll, but you will always find something to your taste. It has one of the more interesting brunch menus in the RVA, including pork grillades on cheese grits smothered with gravy and huevos rancheros on a grits hotcake. Try a pickle bowl, which changes frequently but never fails to be delicious. I haven’t had dinner here yet but like the rest of its menu it looks both ambitious and tasty. Its brief soup menu is worthy of a snork:
Vegetarian: because you care
Omnivore: because you don’t
And nothing against the peanut butter pie, which is great, but for dessert I keep coming back to the ingeniously named La Brea Tarpit, a chocolate crème brulee with animal crackers embedded in the crackly top.
The Black Sheep’s not a big place. Its patio is somewhat rundown and it can be loud, but the service is good and the food is excellent. It’s worth dragging myself out of Church Hill to come here.
/​please bring back the aloo gobi hash
/​/​I promise five stars if you do

If you are looking for a local spot that does one thing well, this is not it. That’s because everything that I’ve had here is done EXCEPTIONALLY well.
On this visit I had the USS Roanoke — you can’t go wrong with turkey, bacon, and melted provolone — but when you grace the top with arugula and teeny peppadew peppers, you end up with heaven on your tastebuds!
My friend truly enjoyed her USS Brooklyn with deliciously spiced jerk chicken, roasted banana ketchup, and a wonderful peach chutney. Major flavors in harmony is an understatement!
I’m sure you will not be disappointed with anything you choose from the menu. Make sure to go a bit go early or enjoy take out because this small but great space fills up quickly.

I’m not usually a big fan of sandwiches. Most of them taste more or less the same, and the hard bread often hurts the roof of my mouth. But the sandwiches at The Black Sheep… oh my oh my. Their «battleships» can probably conquer the world with their deliciousness.
The three of us had USS Congress, USS Wabash, and USS Roanoke. We’ve shared our sandwiches and ALL THREE WERE AMAZING. The flavors were so unique that I can’t really say which one was my favorite. I am certainly going to come back and try the other battleships!
The service was also surprisingly, but exceptionally, great. Our waitress probably figured it was our first time (or mine, at least) here, so she kept coming back to check on us to make sure everything was good.
Is a 24 inches sandwich (and 12″ for half a sandwich) too much? Probably. I mean, I normally don’t even finish a 6″ sandwich! But I almost finished my foot long sandwich. And my two girlfriends finished ALL their food. That’s evidence of how great these battleships are, fella Unilocalers. Don’t miss out!

This is a review from June 2015. Stopped by on road trip from Asheville to Philly, on the strength of best-​of internet reviews.
I had the SS Sultana, my partner had the SS Brooklyn. Both delicious and huge, both about 13 – 14 bucks. I thoroughly enjoyed it, as the sandwiches have pretty unique flavor profiles and sport some very delicious breads to encase their fillings. I thought the Brooklyn was a smidge more dynamic than the Sultana, but only by a bit.
Finished with the peanut butter pie, which was pretty good, though not up the standard of Lancaster, PA PB pies.
Overall, I can see why this place garners best sandwich nominations left and right. Would def consider stopping here again if I’m ever in Richmond.

This was the first place I’ve tried after moving to Richmond about a week ago. My taste buds were not disappointed!
Came at 4:30 pm so there was no wait and we were seated immediately. We took a while browsing the menu. Pricier than I expected for dinner at a small little shop. I think everything was about $ 12 and above. So we decided to share a half battleship (I believe we had the USS Manassas?). These caught us off guard, the half is 12-​in and the full was 24-​in. goodness gracious!
It was a baguette stuffed with fried catfish and an assortment of tasty vegetables. The sauce was super yummy and complimented the sandwich well — tasted to me like spicy mayo. I finished my half of the battleship and cleaned the sauce-​drenched lettuce crumbs off my plate with a fork because it was that good.
They have happy hour on the patio, so you have to go around to the back (separate entrance).
All the other battleships seemed to have unique ingredients so I definitely be back to try more!

My husband and I stopped here for lunch while waiting for the rain to pass before we tried to go to Kings Dominion for the day. I of course had researched The Black Sheep as a possible lunch spot before leaving and also had wanted to try because of Man Vs Food episode years ago.
This was a very small place in the middle of no where. My GPS found it so that was a bonus. Upon entering they had about 4 tables open. We sat a two seater and ordered our food. The food was delivered quickly.
My husband ordered the USS Brooklyn. This sub was Jerk barbecued chicken, loaded into a toasted french baguette with shredded cabbage, roasted banana ketchup & peach chutney. The half was a decent size portion and he enjoyed all of it. He was able to cut into two so it was easier to eat.
I ordered the SS Sultan. This bad boy had: Grilled spiced ground lamb & beef topped with chopped romaine, cucumber, green onion, tomato & russian dressing, loaded into a toasted french baguette. I was a little off put by the «Russian dressing» as it was creamy. I never had Russian dressing like that before. I enjoyed the flavors of the meat but I would have preferred something less creamy.
I would love to try more things here because a lot of other Unilocalers had posted pics that were worth of being called food porn in my book. Every time a person had food bought to them while dining, it seemed like everyone in the restaurant was eyeballing their meal and drooling.