The Mouton Noir bar and restaurant of Pamplona It has become a reference for its homemade and traditional cuisine. Pig’s trotters, tripe and snouts are some of the specialties of a place where, from the dining room, you can see how they work in the kitchen through a glass window.
The Black Sheep is located in Irunlarrea street 13 B in the Mendebaldea district. The place is very cozy, not very big, with very careful decoration, and also has a large outdoor terrace in a pedestrian area. Closed only on Tuesday.
It is very close to other establishments that we have seen in this section of the local commerce of the Navarrese capital. As is the case, for example, from the Kanel store, the new workshop that surprises and delights with its Argentinian cuisine.
The owner of the Black Oveja bar-restaurant is Yolanda Sahún García, 53 years old, which will soon celebrate ten years since its opening in 2015. He came to study in Pamplona and stayed in the city. She is now originally from Pamplona: “I made my life here and my children were born in Pamplona.”
Yolanda studied engineering, but quickly realized that cooking was her thing: “I enrolled at the Burlada hotel school. I did a higher diploma in catering. “I worked in prestigious places, I learned a lot and my dream was to have a little corner of my own.”
“Almost ten years ago, I had the opportunity to open this store. We attach great importance to the dishes being entirely homemade. We do everything ourselves. That’s why we have windows where you can see how we work in the kitchen at all times. “We don’t even have a microwave.”
“We have a menu that we always maintain. The most emblematic dishes are pork trotters stuffed with Iberian ham and tripe, legs and snout These are labor-intensive dishes that are usually difficult for people to prepare at home,” says Yolanda.
There is also a daily menu “which we change from time to time so that the regular customer does not get bored or tired. Each week they have a different theme, either typical cuisine from a region of Spain or from another country. “Now we have a fall kitchen with lots of seasonal produce.”
Regarding customers, Yolanda emphasizes: “The regular customers we have are almost like family and the team I have is fantastic and we have been together for many years. The one who has been with me for the shortest time is three years. “We are defending ourselves despite the difficulties.”
The name “Le Mouton Noir” is due to a family joke: “My mother didn’t like the idea of me studying hospitality after having been an engineer. She joked that I was the black sheep of the family and my son, who was then eight years old, told me said that if I ever had a restaurant that I wouldn’t dare call the black sheep, and I gave it a slightly different and different name, that’s what we propose.”
Yolanda points out that on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays they are open in the evening for dinner. Regarding his work team, he emphasizes: “My chef has been with me for almost fifteen years, Mikel Alfaro, and this is the execution arm. Irina and Andi are in the kitchen. In the room there is Maika who takes care of almost everything, in addition to Cristina and Keisa,” concludes Yolanda Sahún.
