I have been intrigued by Six by Nico for a while now, mainly through posts on the Instagram. So, for my birthday meal I decided I would give them a go. I had booked us into the tasting menu, entitled Sherlock Holmes at Six by Nico. There were six courses and the cost was £49 per person. I have been wanting to try a tasting menu for a while now, but the cost has always been slightly prohibitive, even for a birthday meal.
We had to book a specific time and it looked like the place would be busy and popular. We were given a lovely warm welcome from the waiting staff and shown to our table. This was a set menu, so no choices to be made, however on the table was not so much a menu, more of a journal.
One of the waiting staff came over and explained that this was a mystery and we would (as assistants to Sherlock Holmes) have to solve the mystery. What I hadn’t envisaged was that there was also a Sherlock Holmes mystery to solve as the food was served. As we ate there were additional clues provided. I won’t go into the mystery, but it was very clever, and we did manage to guess the prime suspect before the final set of clues.
Less of the mystery and now onto the food. I should say at this point that the food was excellent, any criticism should be seen in the light of that, these weren’t negative aspects, just things that I wasn’t keen on, or I think could have been (slightly) better. Overall the food was amazing, delicious, and I really enjoyed the whole experience. Now for some of the detail.
We had some bread and chicken butter to set us up for the meal. I always like a bit of bread and butter, and this was nice bread, the butter didn’t really taste of chicken that much.
Course one was Sherlock’s Nightcap, a mushroom velouté, brioche soldier, pickled walnut, truffle emulsion, mushroom “pipe ash”.
The velouté was delicious, it was smooth and had a deep mushroom flavour; it was served in a small saucepan and alongside was the brioche soldier which was also really tasty. I liked the way the brioche soldier was dressed.
The second course was entitled, the Scene Of The Crime. This was Bubble & Squeak, which consisted of confit hispi cabbage, gnocchi, black garlic “ink”, aged cheddar.
I liked this dish, the cabbage was full of flavour, I liked the fried gnocchi, and the cheese bought it together. I did expect the aged cheddar to be more mature than it was.
Course three was A Haunting Meal, smoked ham hock, caramelized cauliflower, piccalilli, herb crumble.
This was a reversed sandwich with the bread sandwiched between two pieces of ham hock. The piccalilli enhanced the ham hock as did the pickles.
The fourth course was The Séance, sole ballotine, hazelnut ragù, burnt leek, sage, squid ink tuile.
This dish was the one I had been anticipating, and though it was nice, I was a little disappointed. I think my sole ballotine was a little overcooked. However the lemon gel did add some needed sharpness to the plate.
We had the extra add-on, Madame Seraphine’s Remedy, which was smoked pork, mustard & cheddar croquette, gherkin relish, served with avocado & cucumber gazpacho.
I had anticipated this coming as a separate course, but was an add-on the fifth course. I liked the avocado & cucumber gazpacho which was refreshing and interesting. The croquette was beautifully cooked, with a crips coating and a satisfying smooth interior.
The fifth course was The Smoke Room, which was lamb flank, salt baked celeriac, wild garlic, charcoal emulsion.
The celeriac puree was perfection, the lamb was nice, and I liked the different aspects of the dish.
The final course was The Atelier, ‘victorian sponge’, marmalade, toast crémeux, milk ice cream.
This was a rather tasty dessert, the toast crémeux was the highlight for me, and I liked the milk ice cream. The, what was essentially a marmalade sandwich made with cake, was nice, but the crémeux and ice cream pushed that part of the plate into the shade.
We left having solved the mystery and we had enjoyed our food.
