Restaurant experience at home? I try the new delivery service from Six by Nico
Six by Nico launches nationwide food delivery service, Home by Nico. Here's my review of their first box: Bangkok street food
Things have changed a lot this year. In the food and drink world, it’s been a huge struggle for hospitality businesses – from pubs, to bars, restaurants and everything in between – to survive. Many have had to think on their feet, change tack, innovate, and in some cases, completely change their business model.
Even when restaurants were allowed to reopen, people were cautious to go back, and despite making all the best efforts to ensure Covid safe environments – including in a lot of cases, drastically reducing the number of covers – it’s been really, blimmin’ hard.
We have seen an explosion in the number of restaurants, pubs and bars offering delivery services this year. Many are delivering locally, with collections and takeaways for those in the surrounding areas happening all over the country, while others have expanded operations to take deliveries nationwide.
Wherever you are in the UK, you can now experience the likes of Dishoom’s bacon naan, Pizza Pilgrims’ pizzas, Hawksmoor’s steaks, Patty & Bun or Honest Burgers’ burgers, The Galvin Brothers’ Michelin-starred fare, Shuk’s pittas, Bao’s buns, or Elite Bistros’ dreamworthy featherblade of beef at home.
One of the huge benefits to consumers is that if you live at the other end of the country from a restaurant you’d love to visit, you no longer have to schlep several hundred miles to try it. It can now be delivered, in a box, right into your hands.
The latest exciting nationwide food delivery launch is Home-X, by Six by Nico. The company currently has six restaurants, in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast, Manchester and Liverpool. The concept is a casual fine dining restaurant, with a set six-course menu that changes every week. FoodTriber Hayley Stanway visited the Glasgow one (relatively) recently.
Home-X has been spearheaded by chef Nico Simeone and Six by Nico marketing guru Michael Sim. The plan is to allow people to recreate restaurant experiences in the comfort of their own homes. As well as being the first time Six by Nico will be available across the UK, the Home-X platform will also feature other companies, so people can enjoy vegan tasting dishes, artisan cheese, wine, and Chateaubriand.
Entrepreneur and chef Nico Simeone said, "When we were forced to close the Six by Nico restaurants across the UK, we gave fans of the brand a chance to make our signature tasting menu at home and the feedback was phenomenal. We packed and distributed over 100,000 meals across sites in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, London & Belfast, but we felt there was so much scope to service the rest of the UK, and to give our customers even more dining options at-home.
Review of Home by Nico
Panang chicken curry, jasmine rice and crispy pork Pad Thai
The Home by Nico menu will change every month, with the first menu based around Bangkok street food. Initial impressions were around how great the box looked and how exciting it was to open. Honestly it was one of the best things I’ve received in the post all year. The packaging and branding all looks spot on – and it's 99% recyclable.
The menu for the evening was:
Starter – Tom Yum soup with prawn dumplings
Main course – Panang chicken curry with sweet potato, baby corn, pak choi, roasted peanut, crispy shallot and Thai herbs
Side dishes – Jasmine rice with lemongrass, lime leaf green chilli and coriander; crispy pork pad thai with prik nam pla dressing, mooli and rice noodles
Dessert – Coconut and cardamom rice pudding with salted bean curd caramel and exotic fruit compote
Cheese – Landana 500 with pineapple and nigella chutney and water crackers
Wine – Le Sentier blanc 2018, Gascony, France
Along with all your food, you get a little instruction booklet with gorgeous pictures of how your meal could look (if you’re a pro cook, with the help of a food stylist or three, and a photographer, but y'know, I'm pretty happy with what I managed). It’s all super easy to put together though: soup and dumplings warm in a pan for a few minutes, chicken in the oven, rice in the microwave, room temperature for the Pad Thai, and rice pudding quickly warmed in a pan.
I don’t currently live near a Thai restaurant or takeaway, and despite trying (really, really hard), I’ve never quite managed to recreate the taste of proper Thai food at home. The idea of Home by Nico is to recreate the restaurant experience wherever you happen to be, with ease. Honestly, there wasn’t a single dud. Everything was delicious. The Tom Yum soup had the perfect balance of hot and sour, with the soft bite of the prawn dumplings. At first the Panang curry looked small, but it was rich and filling alongside the two side dishes. I’ve never liked rice pudding, but Nico managed to change my mind. Turns out if you add coconut, cardamom, salted caramel and a fruit compote, it elevates it to wonderful new heights. And then bonus cheese, which tasted a little like Gouda. An unexpected addition to a Thai meal perhaps, but a welcome one.
The Home by Nico boxes are £60, serve two people, and include a bottle of wine. If you were in a restaurant, you wouldn’t be able to get food of that quality and taste for that money. The Six by Nico restaurants are all about casual fine dining at affordable prices, and they’ve managed to translate that concept to nationwide home delivery. I know it’ll be a huge success, and hopefully they’ll be able to reopen their restaurants soon too.
Join In
Comments (18)
This looks amazing. Wish we had a restaurant like this delivering. 😋
The over-the-pond FOMO strikes again!!
If I had that available I would have to try that.
It was honestly so wonderful Jane!
Very nice!
Not strictly a fan of these 'meals-in-a-box' thing, but this is something different, looks good, and £60 for all that does indeed seem to be very good value for a meal for two. If it lived up to the restaurant's standards, then well worth it.
It was so delicious Lawrence. I'll definitely be ordering the future boxes when they change the menu!
I’m a big fan of Thai food, and this looks incredible. Wish we had this in Sydney! 😍
It was soooo good! I'm still dreaming of that Tom Yum soup...
You had me at Lemongrass and Jasmine Rice, the aroma of both is a mouth watering/thought invoking reminder of comfort food
Isn't it just a perfect combination?
So very much so. Just talking about it makes me want a Thai curry. All I can imagine is how the taste would be so familiar yet still so exotic. Cuisine which is rich in such flavors reminiscent of banana leaf and flower, sliced bamboo shoots, and...
Read more