Six by Nico, Leeds

August was supposed to be a quiet, relatively frugal month as September and October look set to be quite busy (and spendy). But it doesn't seem to have quite worked out that way. Last Saturday found us visiting somewhere that has been on the radar for a while - Six by Nico. 

There are quite a few of these now (I count fourteen on the website) but it's not your usual chain restaurant in that it offers a tasting menu. All the branches do the same six course menu designed by the head chef Nico Simeone. These menus, which change every six weeks, are all themed - "inspired by a different memory, place or idea". They also offer a matching wine pairing, and both food and wine are priced pretty reasonably, although apparently the prices do vary depending upon which city you are in. We, for example, paid £42 for the food and £33 for the wine pairing. 

Our theme was "Guilty Pleasures" and we had such high hopes for the menu. Included were takes on some of our favourite things - a breakfast muffin! Macaroni cheese! A fish finger sandwich! Fried chicken! The dishes read extremely well.

Not quite sure, then, what went wrong. Well, I say wrong and that is probably unfair. There was nothing wrong wrong with the food. It was just...underwhelming. The wine was...OK. We left feeling vaguely disappointed without quite being able to express why. Perhaps we had pitched our hopes slightly too high.

Every single dish was well presented, elegant and modern looking, with the requisite splodges and smears that denote fayne dayning. But also, in every single dish, the balance of flavours was just slightly off. Maybe there were just too many elements vying for attention. Maybe the seasoning wasn't quite on point. I'm just not sure.

Highlights - well, I enjoyed the macaroni cheese which came with cauliflower couscous, jalapeno gherkin ketchup and pickled golden raisins. Strip away the gubbins and the macaroni cheese itself was exactly what you want from a macaroni cheese - cheesy, a little stodgy and with some crispness on top for contrasting texture. 

We both also agreed that the crispy chicken thigh with NFC crumb was very tasty - here, the seasoning was just right and the crumb delivered a good punch of flavour. The accompaniments were fine, but really, just a bucket of the chicken would have probably perfectly acceptable!

The other thing we found was that the service felt...well, needy. All the staff were lovely and friendly and obviously wanted us to have a nice time, but we constantly felt required to reassure them that yes, we were enjoying the food and yes, the wine was lovely and no, we definitely didn't want any water. We were brought an iPad along with the bill to provide feedback (OK...) and then D was emailed a day or so later to provide more feedback. At which stage he pointed out that the constant need for validation came across as needy and then they emailed back to apologise! 

I can't say I'd rush back to SBN much as I actually like the concept a lot. The food is not quite as good as it thinks it is, and there are better places to eat in Leeds.  However, it would possibly be a good place to go with a larger group - it was bright and loud and buzzy and fun and seemed more set up for that kind of audience than a slightly grumpy middle aged couple who like to be left alone to eat their meal in peace.