Six by Nico Leeds — Restaurant in Leeds

This was our first visit to Six by Nico, a restaurant highly recommended by several friends. We’d initially planned to visit a few months ago but had to cancel, so we were particularly excited to see if the experience lived up to the hype.

We had a 12:30 PM lunch reservation and arrived a bit early, but this was no issue. The staff were welcoming, took our coats, and showed us to our seats promptly. However, our initial impression of the dining area was less than ideal. The tables were extremely close together, to the point where I had to squeeze between two to reach my seat. This layout meant we could clearly hear the private conversations of diners on either side of us, which made it feel like we were sharing a table with strangers. While we eventually got used to it, this lack of privacy detracted from the experience.

Additionally, I was disappointed to find that paper napkins were provided instead of linen. Given the price point, I believe linen napkins should be standard.

We opted for the “Nostalgia” tasting menu, priced at £44 per person. We also added a sourdough bread course with beef-dripping butter for an additional £10. While wine pairings and a cocktail menu were available, we chose to order our own drinks and water.

The first three courses were excellent. Each dish was well-executed, and our waiter explained them thoroughly. Unfortunately, things started to unravel after this strong start.

Course four, a “fish fingers” dish, was decent overall, though my coley was slightly overcooked and had dried out. Before this, we had been asked if we wanted to try the “My First Sushi” course at an additional £6 per person, which we agreed to. However, this dish never arrived. Initially, we assumed it might come later as a separate course, but when course five—titled “Guess Who”—was served, it became clear the sushi dish had been overlooked.

“Guess Who” was a chicken-and-egg-themed dish designed to invite diners to guess its name. Unfortunately, we had already overheard the explanation at the neighbouring tables, which spoiled the intended surprise. Adding to the disappointment, the dish itself was served cold.

At this point, I brought up the missing sushi course with our waiter, who was very apologetic and offered to serve it immediately. However, I declined, as the flow of the tasting menu had already been disrupted, and it no longer made sense to insert the course out of sequence.

The meal ended on a high note with the final course, which redeemed some of the earlier missteps. Our total bill came to £134.75, including a service charge. Interestingly, the receipt still included a space to leave an additional tip. Given that service charges are now required to go directly to staff, it felt unnecessary to tip twice.

Overall, the experience lasted about 90 minutes. While there were standout dishes and moments of great service, the cramped seating, overlooked sushi course, and occasional missteps with the food left the experience feeling inconsistent.

Would we return to Six by Nico? Perhaps, but only under the right circumstances. We would consider going back as part of a group of four or more and only if the menu particularly appealed to us. While the restaurant shows flashes of brilliance, our first visit fell short of expectations, and there are areas that could benefit from...

Came here on Friday 5th. Open, clean venue and nice modern styling. The host was on the phone so understandably wasn’t greeted promptly. We waited with a couple of drinks then got shown to our table. We were served by Umar (I hope that’s spelt right!) who was warm, friendly and bubbly. He asked if we were celebrating anything which we said yes to; our 6 month wedding anniversary and pregnancy.

It was £5 for four slices of sourdough and about 30g of generously salted smoked butter, both of which were both wonderful. Courses arrived with what felt like a rushed pace which I can assume was because of it being busy. They were carefully explained to us by the front of house. The third course came (cauliflower) and the waitress had to take it back because the kitchen forgot the crushed almond garnish. Then I noticed a little hair in one of the gels (did notice a chef not wearing a beard net despite his Hagrid-esque beard). My partner removed the hair so couldn’t complain about that with no evidence. The sea bass arrived in a beautiful bowl which, upon lifting to see the base, was dirty from dried up food. I’d like to note here that I worked as a chef in fine dining for two years, so these are pretty much inexcusable for this type, bar, any type of cuisine or hospitality.

After we completed this course. I voiced my concerns to Umar and mentioned the hair too. He was great, looked and seemed apologetic, and when we watched him tell his manager, the manager didn’t appear to be bothered in the slightest. We were promptly given a free drink each (mocktail for myself due to the pregnancy, which was beautiful, elderflower and pineapple I think). The main course, to quote from the menu ‘breast of chicken’ was a bit of a let down due to having one small fingers’ worth of tepid chicken. However the flavours were beautiful, delicate and complex, the chefs do seem to know what they’re doing.

The dessert was the highlight of the meal, a perfect balance of light vanilla, rich sweet prune, delicate floral honey and lightly toasted fennel which meshed the flavours wonderfully, that was really a stand-alone dish, with superior quality to the rest of its countercourses.

At some point during the meal, Umar brought us two glasses of Prosecco for our celebrations (despite me saying I couldn’t drink). Smelled nice though.

I overall, this was an experience that felt very style over substance, staff seemed to be running round like headless chickens, rather than rushed urgency. Was only asked about the pacing of the meal on the last course, at which point I was a bit fed up and was keen to go. The whole idea of ‘they complained we’ll grab them a free drink’ was very lax. That’s not why I complained. I wanted to speak to the manager to see how he would improve these aspects going forward. The music was too loud, struggled to hear the staff describing the food. The whole experience seems okay if you pretend it isn’t fine dining. Wouldn’t go back unfortunately and wouldn’t recommend. For an extra £40pp, I’d recommend Chef Jono at V&V for first time fine diners. Much friendlier, more intimate and you will definitely notice a difference with the TLC given to your...

I booked into this restaurant with such high hopes and so excited to treat ourselves to this restaurant, but i was thoroughly disappointed.

We came for 12pm, one observation we had were there were soo many staff everywhere, loitering about and crowding the place. We even saw dribs and drabs of staff in their own clothes coming in for their shift loitering at the FOH desk. Shabby and undignified look for a restaurant trying to be exquisite. When seated we were directly by the staff til was and the walkway to the toilets, which needs to be moved, we dont want to see or hear thw staff moaning and talking about their work.

When we went to our table it was overcrowded small and when adding the water bottle it was hard to fit our plates. The waitress was lovely but when asking what variety drinks they had they were very limited and not even a mocktail was offered . My husband stuck to coke, which he received warm and not chilled. Given to him in a bottle not even poured into his glass. Fussy point, be but been to enough "nice" places, that have this standard.

The service was ok, but when the waitress/waiter were reading their memorised list of food, they did not see if we could hear them and most of the time they said what they had to and walked away.

A lady behind me had to literally shout (not rudely) for a waitress 3 times before the waitress acknowledged.

The meals, as fancy as you may try for a bargained price, i cant help but feel that we should have saved our money for an actual fish & Chip meal from kirkgate market, would be tenth of the price i paid and tastier.

3rd course of steak pie was way too salty, 4th course of fish supper, my god, how can you get fish sooo wrong when inspired from fish & chips. The dessert, pleasant but a tiny ball of what the menu is named after and incredibly sweet.

I should also add, upon relaying this feedback to the waitress she said that the cust were complaining of too much salt in the steak. We saw a cust be given 2 steak dishes because she couldnt eat it due to the amount of salt.

From the moment i had the starter i had an awful taste and weird sensation in my mouth and could not work it out, i thought it maybe the cocktail that went with meal??? But it got worse as the meal went on.

I can only assume the amount of salt in all meals was to get the cust to buy more drinks. I also think that because i did not opt for the matching wine that i was able to taste the food as it was, maybe being drunk on the wine would have made it tastier. Fyi - i saw the matching wines for the meal and have to say they were extrodinary measurements for a tasting menu.

Upon leaving - waiters and waitresses were all plesantly mannered and wished us a good day, the management, too busy trying to look authorative than be well mannered and wish us a good day as we left. Guessing we werent the kind of customer you acknowledge you wanted in your establishment?...