This is my second visit to Black Cat Café. I agreed to try today’s special, a vegan set meal of Nasi Padang and Durian Cendol. Globalisation at its best, my friends! Indonesian food lovingly served at an Indian-owned restaurant!

Service is efficient and the ambiance is warm and welcoming as always. There are new posters informing customers of the No Plastic Straw campaign, and as usual there are shelves of carefully curated books to read while waiting or dining.

The Nasi Padang is served with tofu and tempeh rendang (smothered in the right spices, absolutely delicious, would have liked more as there were only 2 chunks of tofu and 2 chunks of tempeh), lontong vegetables (firm and whole, not cooked into an unidentifiable mash, tasty without being too heavy on coconut milk or sodium), cucumber slices, tapioca crisps (added colour to the plate but emping belinjau would have made the experience even more authentic) and glorious eggplant sambal (eggplant is cooked to perfection, sambal is heavenly — fragrant, has a slight crunch to its texture, sweet without being cloying, spicy without turning your stomach inside out, just the right combination of everything).

The durian cendol was a bit different from what I had expected. It came in a sundae glass and had the slushy consistency of coconut shake. It tasted like coconut shake too and there was no more than a spoonful of durian in it. Still, I enjoyed it and found it refreshing.

This set meal really did live up to its description of ‘special’ and I’m just sorry it is not available every weekend. It’s a bit of a lottery what special set meal you can expect every Friday to Sunday at the Black Cat Café so maybe the strategy is to go often and hope you get all the meals you like. Or alternatively you could be sensible and call up beforehand or sign up to be on their whatsapp mailing list so you know what plant-based deliciousness you can look forward to each weekend.

(Postscript: Price is RM16.90 for the set meal, and RM13.50 after discount. Thanks, Kindmeal.my, for the MealDeal voucher!)