It’s the most talked about new Bristol restaurant opening for months. Six By Nico has finally opened its doors in Cabot Circus and there’s a genuine buzz about the place.
Of course, there will be those hardcore foodies who are already dismissing it before eating there simply because it’s a big national chain. But then there aren’t many small independent local outfits who can afford to open in such locations and pay those kind of rents or staff wages.
This is the 12th Six By Nico in ten years from Glaswegian TV chef Nico Simeone and there are more to come. And the reason why the chain is so successful is because it’s a pretty unique concept.
The idea is basically to make fine dining accessible to the masses, rather than a chosen few with deep pockets. The six-course tasting menus are inspired by different themes and culinary destinations and they change every six weeks to keep things interesting for the diners and chefs.
Housed in the former Carluccio’s at Quaker Friars, next to Côte Brasserie, it’s obvious that considerable money has been invested here. It’s a stylish dining room with sumptuous fixtures and fittings, an open kitchen along one side and an outdoor terrace area for the warmer months.
To launch the first Six By Nico in the South West (until now, the closest site to Bristol has been Cardiff), the owner has chosen to showcase his signature menu – The Chippie. It’s described as a ‘playful reimagination of chip shop classics’ although that’s as close to a chippy tea as you’ll get as this is a fine dining version of the Great British takeaway.
The meal kicked off with ‘chips, cheese and curry sauce’ – or, to be more precise, a crisp potato terrine with mustard-coloured blobs of curry-flavoured emulsion and a puddle of intensely flavoured aged Parmesan foam. It was followed by a twist on scampi, which was a bite-size piece of perfectly cooked monkfish with a herby dill emulsion, punchy gribiche sauce, peas and a rich and silky beurre blanc.
Next, what was described as ‘steak pie’ turned out to be a dainty little pastry case of really good and properly seasoned aged beef tartare topped with a nest of crisp fried onions, accompanied by a small jug of beer and onion consommé with a real depth of flavour.
A course called ‘fish supper’ was a piece of really fresh black pollock with a layer of salt and vinegar scraps emulating the chips, a beer emulsion and crunchy pickled fennel. The fifth course was the best of the lot – a delicious dish of smoked sausage, smoked pork belly, salt-baked celeriac and burnt apple that certainly surpassed any post-pub chip chop saveloy.
And then came the most talked about dish on the menu. Described as ‘deep-fried Mars Bar’ – it was more of a posh chocolate delice with a gooey Mars Bar-like caramel centre, crunchy cocoa nibs and a dazzling Irn-Bru sorbet with that unmistakable bubblegum taste of childhood. It made me want to buy a can of Scotland’s national fizzy drink on the way home. And, yes, it lived up to the hype.
At £44 per person (plus the option to have the additional wine pairing with each course for an extra £30), the six-course menu represents good value for money. You’d pay at least twice that for a tasting menu at a high-end independent restaurant with a Michelin star.
That’s the USP at Six By Nico. It’s offering upmarket fine dining at affordable prices in a sumptuous setting where people can dress up and have a more luxurious experience than your local high street chain restaurant.
And with the menu changing every six weeks (look out for The Italian Road Trip and Murder on the Midnight Express once The Chippie ends), there’s all the more reason to save up for the next one and keep going back. And if it introduces more people to fine dining and they start to explore the city’s brilliant independent restaurants, everyone’s a winner.
Six By Nico, Unit SU9, Quakers Friars, Cabot Circus, Bristol, BS1 3BU.