Take a trip to Neverland with Six By Nico’s playful new menu

Their new menu, entitled ‘Cooking Neverland’ themed around Peter Pan, nostalgia, and never growing up.

The blurb on their website invites visitors to ‘unlock their inner child and colourful imagination’ and ‘escape adult life for just a short while’.

Six By Nico has been winning plaudits across Manchester’s culinary scene for their amazing range of interesting dishes at a very reasonable price point.

In a cosy enclave on Spring Gardens, the restaurant is stylish and low lighted, illuminated by the glow of lamps from the open kitchen running down the left hand side.

You can try the six course taster menu for just £37. Add on an extra £30 if you’d like to try the accompanying wines with each dish.

So there’s the six. The “Nico” refers to Scottish-Italian chef and owner Nico Simeone.

The menu is playful, opening up with ‘Use Your Imagination’ as the first dish.

It is titled as a pepperoni pizza, so you think, okay, we know what we’re getting here.

So we were understandably surprised when the below turned up, resembling anything but a pizza.

So the mischievous nature of the menu became apparent, as we really would have to use our imagination.

Despite the surprise, the dish was beautiful. Pepperoni ragu covered in a beautiful parmesan mouse with sourdough croutons created the feeling of a pizza, in an obvious completely new and deconstructed form.

A great blend of unexpected texture and flavour.

The menu promises to take us on a “delectable journey to Neverland – a place of wonder and nostalgia, where dreams are born and time never planned. It will be delectable, more-ish and creative.”

So well in line with dish two, which would feature a ‘ham and cheese toastie’ taking me back to the days on the breville with a comforting snack classic from childhood.

Titled ‘The Lost Boys’ – this round was billed as a ham & cheese toastie with celeriac remoulade, pickled mustard, golden raisin and black garlic emulsion.

Again, this is not your traditional breville iron ham and cheese toastie. Yet oddly, all the flavours are there, the combinations reminding you of that familiar comfort classic.

The pickled mustard in this dish is a really, really great addition – a stone cold classic pairing with the ‘ham’ in the toastie.

The sweetness of the celeriac remoulade brings everything together nicely too.

All washed down with a glass of Pimitivo Puglia IGT, Avoglia, Tenuta Giustini, with raspberry and redcurrant notes to cut through the creaminess of the toastie.

Next up was Captain Codfish.

Captain codfish came as a shellfish risotto with smoked cod botarga.

Beautifully smoky and creamy, the lobster mousse created a rich blend of flavours inviting you to savour every mouthful.

This round was accompanied by Picpoul de Pinet AOP, Prestige – Domanine Guillaume Cabrol from France, a wine with notes of elderflower and citrus fruit with a light acidity that citrus through the shellfish. Another great pairing.

Bangarang! consists of black pollock with bang bang sauce, charred cucumber, satay emulsion and tarragon Salsa Verde.

This is undeniably one of the highlights of the menu.

The black pollock was a rare treat, with the tempura and pak choi rounding off a great dish.

Accompanied by Feteasca Regala DOC Organic – Ville Metamorfosis, a wine from Dealu Mare in Romania. It is a medium bodied wine with notes of peach whiskey. A great complement to the mango sauce in the dish.

To finish, we were treated to ‘Food Fight’, consisting of confit chicken ballotine, piperade, red pepper romesco, saffron emulsion and taragon salsa verde.

The Ballotine was fantastic, and the gnocci made of parmesan was a nice change from traditional gnocchis, with interesting flavours of saffron and red pepper bringing the dish together nicely.

This dish was far too nice to throw in a food fight.

The wine pairing was Tejo Tinto Doc – Quinta Vale de Fornos from Tejo in Portugal, full of bold and fruity flavours

This was a baked salted caramel delice, with caramel moussesline, buttermilk ice cream and maple.

It was absolutely delicious, a stunning end to what had been a fantastic meal. The sweetness of the delice was undoubtedly a highlight, and the buttermilk ice cream was fantastic too.

Last week as the menu launched, announced a charity partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital, to celebrate their latest menu: Neverland.

Ever since JM Barrie gifted the rights in 1929, Great Ormond Street Hospital has enjoyed a special relationship this iconic tale.

Over 80 years, the story of Peter Pan has brought a little magic into the lives of adults and children alike and continues to benefit the seriously ill children who visit the hospital  life-saving treatment every day.

For this reason, a partnership between Six by Nico and Great Ormond Street Hospital is the perfect way to bring the menu to life through celebrating this special relationship.

All of Six by Nico’s sites across the UK will offer a £1 charitable discretionary donation per diner for every Neverland menu served throughout the period, which is projected to raise over £20,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital