I was a fan of Nico Simone’s first restaurant, 111 by Nico, and I am definitely a big fan of his second venture – Six by Nico. Nico Simone is a Glasgow based chef from Italian heritage who has his fair share of experience of working in restaurants such as the acclaimed Chardon d’Or by Brian Maule, and Edinburgh’s Michelin starred Number One, where he won Scottish Seafood Chef of the Year when he was aged just 20. So it’s no surprise that both his restaurants have enjoyed great success over the past few years. Both 111 by Nico and Six by Nico offer fine dining experience at a reasonable price – delicious food, fantastic service and great atmosphere is what you can expect in both restaurants.
However, Six by Nico offers something else to the table. With a six-course set menu that changes every six weeks, you can find your taste buds being constantly excited by new flavours, combinations and styles in the same restaurant. The restaurant opened in 2017 with its first menu Chippie which offered a new and fresh take on our fish & chips shop favourites. They continued with another interesting menu called Childhood which aimed to make us nostalgic about the food we enjoyed as children. They continued with the summer-appropriate Picnic menu, all-American Route 66, the fantastic and inspiring Illusion, the autumn Forrest, and the winter charmer Disney. I have had the pleasure of trying three of the menus last year and have been charmed every time. So this year, when they started the year with “Best of 2017”, I thought it’s a great opportunity to try some of the dishes I missed last year. Even better, I took the opportunity to introduce my family to Six by Nico with a chance to try some of the best Six by Nico has to offer.
We headed to Six by Nico for 7pm on a Thursday night and, as always, the restaurant was buzzing with people, chatter and staff running around the place. I love the atmosphere of the place and how, though a busy restaurant, you can still have a lovely and relaxing experience. We were seated a bit after we arrived and the staff were very courteous and helpful in their service. Though there was a bit of delay in getting our table ready, they managed it well and made us feel welcome. I always watch out how restaurants treat their customers when issues arise because it shows the real ‘soul’ of a place.
Once on the table, our courses started arriving one by one. Each dish was explained expertly by the waiters. We started off with a variation of chips, cheese and curry “Chips & Cheese”, which offered a delicate parmesan foam (espuma) with finely cut chips and just a hint of curry oil. Certainly, this was a dish for the cheese lovers… The second dish to follow was a sublime ‘steak pie’ which included beef shin, which just melted in my mouth, with three different types of cooked onions and served with delicious brioche croutons. This probably one of my most favourite Six by Nico dishes so far! Our third dish was a take on Mac & Cheese from the Childhood menu which had a chicken wing, paired with cauliflower and truffle. I don’t usually like cauliflower or truffle, but I had every last bit of the dish. Our fourth dish was the delicate Sea Bream Taco from Route 66 which was probably my favourite dish from that menu. It came with guacamole and a special lime and red onion salsa. The flavours worked so well together!
Our fifth and sixth courses came from my favourite Six by Nico menu so far – Illusion. I loved that menu because of how inventive it was with the way the food was served and made. The fifth dish was ‘Duck’ which came with wild mushrooms, blueberries, on a bed of cocoa and hazelnuts. The cocoa just exaggerated the flavours in the dish, while the blueberries, mushrooms and hazelnuts paired beautifully with the rare duck breasts. Finally, we finished with ‘White chocolate’ – a delicious white chocolate mousse, with passionfruit puree, lime curd and shavings of coconut. A truly delicious way to finish off our dinner. I have to confess that white chocolate and passionfruit is certainly one of my favourite combinations in a pudding, so of course, I was charmed by this dish. Not least by its presentation which certainly resembled a boiled egg! We washed our food down with a few of the delicious cocktails on offer. However, the menu also comes with an offer to pair each dish with a drink. I am yet to try a menu with the pairings, so perhaps I will be visiting again quite soon.
The whole menu was very reasonably priced at £25 per person. The quality of the food and the sophistication of dishes are definitely worth it so I would encourage everyone to visit Six by Nico at least once. Perhaps, like me, you will be charmed and will continue coming back again and again.
~Em
Food Notes 