Review: Six By Nico Edinburgh West kicks off with The Chippie

It’s getting a little tricky to keep up with the latest progress in Chef Nico Simeone’s quest for culinary world domination. But as it’s part of my remit, I’m doing my level best.

His latest venture in the capital has seen an investment of £2 million into Six By Nico Edinburgh West and next-door neighbour Somewhere by Nico, a swanky new cocktail venue on the city’s Queensferry Street, on the site that was formerly occupied by Foundry 39.

The West End restaurant opened to the public on 1 July and kicked off its now famed six-course tasting menu with The Chippie. It isn’t yet open to the public when Rosie and I are welcomed out of the summer rain and into the brand spanking new and subtly elegant restaurant. It smells vaguely and pleasantly like a new car and has a distinctly art deco feel.

The menu is, of course, a six-course tasting affair and there’s a vegetarian six-course alternative too. We’re delighted to discover that we can mix up the two menus as we wish, so we celebrate the only way we know how – with cocktails. Rosie’s Seaside Spritz smells like a day at the beach, but she assures me it tastes much better and I’m warming up for the Edinburgh Festival with a classic Aperol Spritz.

We’re sticking with the sea with our pre-meal snacks. The sourdough bread, which when it came was actually brioche, was very lovely with a rich and salty seaweed butter. Firmly back on land we’re both quite taken with the black pudding scotch egg with piccalilli and home-made brown sauce.

We kick off the six with chips and cheese, but this is far removed from the carb-intensive post-pub favourite. A light, yet rich and salty parmesan espuma providing the fromage to the crispy wee potato terrine hiding below a fluffy cloud of grated parmesan. It’s a great start.

Next it’s the scampi, which we both try, despite being tempted by the veggie cauliflower beignet alternative. But this is really just a warm-up for my dish of the day. The Steak Pie. 24-hour beef shin delivering a great big hit of flavour with tangy burnt onion ketchup and earthy mushroom duxelle.

The Fish Supper followed for me and the Scrabster coley is fresh and tender with a crisp crumb reminiscent of chippie batter scraps. Rosie plumped for the halloumi, served with confit fennel, samphire, and those moreish beer batter scraps.

The smoked sausage was next and we both enjoyed this trio of pork with a smidge of crackling and some delicious salt-baked celeriac.

The last hoorah of the evening came in the form of the deep fried Mars bar. Now, this is a particular delicacy that I’ve previously chosen not to sample. Perhaps because I’m afraid I might like it and it might send me to an early grave, or perhaps because it just doesn’t appeal. Either way, the morsel of chocolate bar in batter certainly isn’t the highlight of this particular pud. But the rich chocolate pave and the zingy Irn Bru sorbet more than make up for it.

We head back out into the rain looking forward to a visit to Somewhere by Nico and the chance to discover what this innovative chef will do with the opportunity to let his overactive imagination run wild on creating a six-stage cocktail experience.

The Chippie will be available until 11 August at the Queensferry venue. £42pp for six courses and £33pp for wine pairings. Edinburgh Hanover will be cooking Amalfi Coast until 11 August.

For more information on the new opening, visit: www.sixbynico.co.uk/edinburgh-west or follow @sixbynicoedinburgh

Six by Nico Edinburgh West, 39A-40A Queensferry Street, Edinburgh EH2 4RA