Nicko's Kitchen — Restaurant in Kelmscott

Went to Nicko's last night for their Christmas in July set dinner. I was excited and had high expectations after reading other reviews and had recommendations from others, sadly my experience was very disappointing.

For our entrees we got the pumpkin tart and pear salad with truffle dressing. My partner said the pumpkin tart was delicious, nice flakey pastry, my salad was inedible to me, the pears were chopped into huge pieces and was so under ripened that I struggled to cut it, I felt like I needed a steak knife, and there was too much truffle dressing, completely overpowered the salad, I have had many truffle menus before and the truffle usually compliments the dish but there was far too much in this salad.

As I didn't eat my entree I requested a second main for us to share which they accommodated for us. When mains came out, I ordered beef wellington which was in a square pastry parcel, once I cut it open a sea of liquid came pouring out, and the beef was so grey and overcooked it looked like it had been stewing. The bottom pastry was soggy from all the liquid inside and there was far more pastry than meat, it felt more like a pie than a wellington, I didn't finish it. My partner ordered the pork belly, a big slab of pork belly smothered in sauce, presentation was awful. The pork was very dry and quite tough, you could hardly taste the pork with the amount of sauce smothered on top, the crackling was decent but far too much of it, duck fat potatoes were not crispy at all, overall a very disappointing dish.

Our 3rd main to share was the saviour although not perfect, at least we could happily eat it, it was chicken breast in a creamy sauce with potatoes. The chicken was cooked perfectly, very moist and tender, really happy with it. Only complaint I have is that it was swimming in cream, way too much sauce for the dish, it was almost like having a soup at the base of the dish rather than just a nice sauce topping the chicken.

After our mains our plates sat in front of us for 25 minutes, while the two ladies serving the entire room were friendly, service was not up to standard. I understand many restaurants are understaffed due to covid and other sicknesses floating around, but they walked past the table several times without collecting our plates. One lady said she would be right back to collect our plates, but she never came back, so 10 minutes later the other lady asked to take our plates and stated she was hesitant to ask to take our plates since there was still a lot of food left on them. After 25 minutes of not eating I think it's pretty clear we're not going to finish our plates. Water was never topped up, glasses and plates were left on the tables for long periods, not just ours but others as well. They were lovely ladies but just having the two of them wasn't enough as many tables weren't attended to with clearing for long periods, and I didn't see anybody getting top ups of water.

Now dessert we both ordered the banana parfait with brandy. Never in my life have I had a dryer banana bread, and there was absolutely no brandy, could not taste a drop anywhere in the dessert. The chef was making multiple dishes at once which meant by the time our dessert came out the ice cream on top was completely melted. We maybe ate half each and left.

For drinks we tried the chefs signature cocktail, which was refreshing and very nice, but definitely wrong time of year for it, it's a very summery drink not a winter warmer. Disappointed there was only one cocktail to choose. The Margaret River soft drinks were lovely.

Overall very disappointing, but we still had a good time and a lot of laughs trying to cut the rock hard pears. Unfortunately I do not see us returning, the food taste and presentation was extremely underwhelming. But we still had a good night despite this. I tried to be as honest as I could in this review, I'm not out to deter anybody from trying this restaurant, just giving my honest feedback for the chef and...

It was a surreal experience going to Nicko's Kitchen after watching him on Youtube for many years. We were greeted by Cindy with a big smile which made us instantly comfortable, despite our relaxed attire making us a bit self conscious.

We ordered the tasting plate for an entree which was delicious, Arancini was hot and moist, calamari was soft. Our favorite part of the tasting plate was the pear, walnut and ham portion surprisingly. The flavours just worked.

For mains, I ordered the Prawn Papardelle and my partner order the Steak & Garlic Prawns. I had really high expectations for this meal and I'm so happy to confirm that my expectations were met. The Prawn Papardelle was packed full of flavour and the chefs weren't stingy on the prawns. I also had some of my partner's steak and prawns, the steak cooked to a perfect medium rare all the way through and the prawns cooked perfectly (people tend to overcook till they are rubbery). Credit to Jess and the new girl who cooked these dishes.

On top of the amazing food, Nicko himself was making his way around to all the tables in the restaurant and having a chat to everyone. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to say hi though it was really nice to see him genuinely caring about having a conversation with the patrons.

To Cindy and Jess who we spoke to on the way out and the new girl. Thankyou for such a delicious meal and thankyou for providing customer service that is so damn rare to find nowadays.

I took photos of our food although, it just wont do it any justice (I'm a terrible photographer). I recommend for anyone to go to Nicko's Kitchen if you're wanting very good food and great...

My wife suggested Nicko's as it was local and had reasonable reviews. The setting was nice. Pictures of family on the walls. The waitress was friendly and service was great. We dined on a Thursday evening. We arrived about 1/2hour after it opened. There was one other family present. My order was the French onion soup, scallops in garlic sauce and we shared the lemon tart desert. My wife had the Fromage tart and New York strip. The wine list is limited. I ordered a glass of white to be told it was the last. One of the first in for the night with limited selection to be told there was none of my wine left is strange to say the least. My wife said her tart was delicious but I was extremely disappointed with the soup. It was finely chopped onion with a small amount of liquid and a couple of slices of a small bread roll with melted cheese in top. I couldve used the soup as a sauce rather than a soup. It was tasty but where was the soup. Maybe longer/larger pieces of onion would be better. The scallops and garlic sauce were nice. The potato fondant was different but nothing special. The New York strip and peppercorn sauce were nice. My wife loves lemon tart but this one was a bit of a let down. Not enough lemon. We were a little underwhelmed after reading about the owner and his you tube profile. Overall we had a lovely dinner. Lets say its something different...