From frozen dinners to fine dining: My first set menu experience at Six by Nico

I’m from Wishaw - or as we say there, am fae Wishy - we don’t really have fine dining restaurants there, it’s rare to be offered a set menu with matching wines experience.

Like many Lanarkshire towns, there’s a bunch of fantastic cafes and plenty of takeaways - but a sit-down restaurant? Choose one from these three options.

• Artisan, a Scottish restaurant and Whisky lounge which is admittedly uncharacteristically fantastic
• The New Pak Yee, a Chinese restaurant at the bottom of the Main Street
• And the Boofi village, an Indian Buffet.

They’re treasured in the community, but it’s a different hospitality from the rarefied air of Glasgow’s West End. When I got an invite to the launch of Six by Nico’s new menu on Byres Road, I was intrigued by the opportunity to try their entry level version of fine dining.

In recent years I’ve been trying to expand my culinary horizons. A Middle Eastern meal here, a Mexican burrito there, ocassionally a vegan option. But surrendering to a tasting menu - the full six courses? Unheard of.

I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was to try Six by Nico for the first time, and truth be told I’m still buzzing about it.

With the cost of living crisis, I’ve been living day-to-day mostly on frozen dinners - massive shout out to Morrissons for their new frozen range, sweet & sour chicken and lasagna for 85p a pop? Don’t mind if I do.

This prelude is to establish the type of palate this writer possesses. It’s unrefined.

My favourite thing about Six by Nico has to be the affordability, for £39 you get the full six plates - and for an extra £30 you get wine pairings with each dish.

Now at that price I was expecting little more than a mouthful of wine per dish, but in fact you’re getting a pretty fair measure in the glass with each plate. Enough to provide a warm glow as your dining experience is complete.

It’s accessible to a lot of people like myself who wouldn’t be able to afford a full on fine dining experience otherwise - and make no mistake it really is an experience. You’ll be sitting down for at least an hour and a half as you go through the courses, there’s plenty of opportunity to ask questions and each dish is explained to you at your table.

If you haven’t heard of it before, Six by Nico revolves around the concept of six dishes inspired by a cuisine or idea that change every six weeks.

The theme at Byres Road this month is ‘Once Upon a Time’(Chapter 2), based on childhood fairytales, the dishes evoke a comforting sense of nostalgia.

The Once Upon a Time Chapter II menu will be running at the Byres Road Six by Nico until September 24 - if you want to book a table, you can do so here on the Six by Nico website.

In this review we’ll be going through the dishes one by one.