Six By Nico has joined the ranks of restaurants across Aberdeen city centre in taking part in this year’s Aberdeen Restaurant Week.
The Union Street establishment opened in 2022 building on the success of sites across Scotland.
Six by Nico’s simple concept, and rapidly rotating menus has made fine dining a little more accessible – and affordable – to many in the city.
And while this year’s Aberdeen Restaurant Week deal doesn’t offer discounts on the food itself – those who visit to try out the newly launched Neverland menu during the foodie fortnight will receive a glass of prosecco if they quote ‘ARW’ when booking.
If you’ve never been to a Six by Nico, the concept is pretty straightforward. They have a single menu, built around a theme, with vegetarian/vegan options available which tend to play on the same flavour combinations as the “standard” menu, all for £37.
You order either a whole menu, or combination of dishes from across either the veggie or vegan menus if something else catches your eye for a total of six perfectly formed dishes. You also have the option of ordering a snack and an aperitif cocktail for a little bit extra.
The brand’s sommeliers have also created a paired wine list to go along with each menu, that will set you back an extra £30.
The food
Launching earlier this week, the Neverland menu takes playful ideas and adds a very serious hit of flavour.
The snack for this six-week cycle is Happy Thoughts, a bold name that the two mac and cheese bites lived up to. Perfectly cooked pasta, golden crumb with balance for the cheese coming from the gherkin ketchup and a little warmth from the chipotle emulsion.
Alongside this, I ordered myself the Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust aperitif, a wonderfully refreshing apple cocktail with floral notes from an elderflower liqueur and a hit of lime to balance the sweet green apple.
The first “proper” course was a playful take on the flavours of a pizza. A spicy pepperoni ragu was topped with a rich parmesan espuma (essentially a sauce lightened with compressed gas to create a foam).
A textural hit was provided courtesy of a scattering of small croutons. For me, it had all the tastes of an incredible lasagne – minus the pasta – rather than a pizza, but incredible is still incredible.
The second course was a take on my fiancé and I’s favourite snack – a ham and cheese toastie.
Instead of bread though, the “toastie” was made up with layers of filo pastry. It had all the flavours and textures of a fantastic grilled cheese sandwich, with a powerful black garlic emulsion complimenting it well. A golden raisin sauce helped provide a bit of sweetness to balance the salt.
For course three we split our options. I opted for the standard menu, while my fiancé ordered from the vegetarian menu.
My shellfish risotto was perfectly cooked and unbelievably creamy with hits of smoke from the cod bottarga. My partner has a vibrant green pearl barley “porridge” with salty pecorino and big hits of garlic. Both dishes were delightful.
Course four, the fish course, for me was the weakest of the night.
The Black Pollock itself was well-cooked, golden and crispy on the surface with flakey white flesh, however, the bang bang sauce lacked the punch I was hoping for, and I felt it was hidden away by the strong satay emulsion. The charred cucumber for me was lacking that char flavour.
The final main course of the night “Food Fight” featured a confit chicken ballotine served with a four strong sauces.
My ballotine was lovely, moist chicken, flavourful filling all wrapped in salty bacon. Individually each of the sauces – a blended piperade, a rich romesco, saffron emulsion and tarragon salsa verde – were fantastic, together though, the flavours started to compete a little with the aniseed hit of the tarragon salsa verde often winning out.
The final course, and always my favourite, was every bit as good as I had hoped. The baked salted caramel delice was beautifully smooth and delicately balanced, eaten with the caramel mousseline a match made in heaven – add in a little of the sour apple gel and the whole thing was incredible.
I would be amiss not to give a special mention to the intricate maple leaf.
The verdict
Overall, the vast majority of the courses were great, I just felt the fish course let the overall experience down, but as a fan of a spicy bang bang sauce I had hoped for a bigger hit.
The first two courses, and the final course were standout though, essentially faultless. I have every intention of trying to replicate that pepperoni ragu to make a super rich lasagne in the next few weeks!
A minor complaint from me – and it’s something I’ve noticed on most of my visits to Six by Nico is the audio volume.
The combination of low ceilings and a packed restaurant can be loud, which can be a nice ambience – the choice of 80s/90s pop complete with catchy lyrics on top though can be a little annoying, perhaps switching out the music to something a little softer, or just without lyrics would help.
Information
A: 367 Union Street, Aberdeen AB11 6BT
T: 01224 002 555
W: sixbynico.co.uk/aberdeen/neverland/
Price: £37 per person, additional snacks, aperitif and paired wines, extra.
Aberdeen Restaurant Week promotion: Free glass of bubbly for those using ARW when booking.
