REVIEW: MAD HATTER’S TEA PARTY, SIX BY NICO
- CS
- Jul 17
- 3 min read
We Tumble Down the Rabbit Hole into an Edible Wonderland
We tumble down the rabbit hole into an edible Wonderland, for Six by Nico's maddest new tasting menu experience, where nothing is as it seems.
Six By Nico famously creates imaginative, six course tasting menus that change every six weeks, themed around a different place, memory, or idea.
We arrive at their Canary Wharf restaurant to experience the new, Mad Hatter's Tea Party, with secret caterpillar salads shrouded in smoke, savoury roses you can paint red and edible menus.
Like Alice before us, our story begins with “Eat Me” and “Drink Me” snacks - a teapot of rich, moreish mushroom consommé, which we pour into cups layered with pickled mushrooms.
These are accompanied by beautiful savoury “cakes,” of Summer Truffle, sandwiched between Aged Cheddar Empire Biscuits and served on a Wonderland tree stump.
I (unsuccessfully) try not to eat all of the warm sourdough bread and creamy, whipped malted barley and bone marrow butter - I will be leaving Wonderland as large as Alice, with no regrets.
This is washed down with a refreshing Through the Looking Glass aperitif of Elderflower, Grapefruit, Raspberry, Prosecco and Soda.
The first course arrives. We’re All Mad Here looks like a sweet doughnut, but is in fact a rich, chicken fat dish served in roast chicken juices.
The tasting menus can be paired with cocktails or wines. We opt for the latter and our first wine - an oaky Brut Cava - comes with the second course, Caterpillar Secret Garden.
The theatrical dish arrives in a cloud of the character’s famous smoke clouds, beneath which we find an artfully presented and delicious assortment of barbecue hispi cabbage, smoked potato terrine, taramasalata, and garden herbs.
Next up, comes Paint the Roses Red - our white goats cheese parfait roses are painted with a red sauce at the table, served with beetroot, grilled red pepper and ancho chilli. This is paired with a suitably floral Muscat Viile Metamorfosis.
My favourite dish of the experience - Breakfast In Disguise - is a delicious take on a sunny side upside-down, Wonderland breakfast, with black pollock, black pudding, egg yolk jam, and smoked bacon. Naturally, it is served with an edible menu.
This is washed down with a fresh and zesty Les Hauts de Pepy Sauvignon Blanc.
Off With His Head is another stand-out dish - number five, for those who are counting. Crisp pig head, with fennel, lovage, and apple and mustard mousseline.
This is accompanied by the best wine of the night - a beautiful, velvety and oaky Marques de Varea Rioja.
I’m starting to lose count of the courses, but my expanding tum tells me we are nearing the end of our story.
The happy ending comes in the form of the Jam First - Logic Later - ‘Inverted’ Tea & Toast. A whimsical box of Breakfast Tea Ganache, ‘Jammy Dodgers’ arrives, with a flower-filled tea pot, which is poured into it, to envelop them in magical smoke clouds.
This is joined by a Burnt Toast Delice and Summer Strawberries dessert fit for the Queen of Hearts, and a suitably red, fresh and fizzy La Sera "Malgra" Dolce Essenza Frizzante dessert wine.
The part which diners are most likely to lose their heads over - given the current, tumbleweed wallets of the hospitality scene - is that Six By Nico creates such astonishingly affordable, luxury dining experiences.
A six course menu of dishes so pretty, you don’t know whether to eat them or hang them on the wall is just £55. And the additional wine pairing option is £35, while the cocktail pairing is just £45.
This exciting and accessible combo is the secret to their success, and has seen Scottish chef, Nico Simeone's brand expand from one restaurant in Glasgow, to more than 17 across the UK.
It’s a suitably mad and magical culinary retelling of one of Britain’s most loved children’s stories, with delicious childhood nostalgia, which encourages us to play with our food and leave with Cheshire Cat smiles.
Six By Nico, Chancellor Passage, London E14 5EA. Mad Hatter's Tea Party is £55 pp. Optional wine pairing is £35. The menu runs until 24 August
