Background
With restaurants in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester, Belfast and, now London, Six by Nico reinvents the dining experience with an entirely new six-course menu every six weeks, with menus inspired by places, memories and ideas. Since it opened last month, the London arm of Six by Nico has been booked up and securing a table was no mean feat. Luckily for those of us still on the waiting list, chef Simeone has launched Home by Nico, the first to launch on the new e-commerce platform, HOME-X; a variety of dining experiences which bring restaurant-quality food and drink from the Six by Nico team to homes across the UK. The goal is to take diners ‘on a journey to discover and appreciate some of the world’s most amazing produce, foods and cultures’. The journey begins with Simeone’s take on Thai street food found in Bangkok in a delectable four-course feast you won’t believe you are eating at your own dining table.

The Meal Kit
The kit comes with most of the food prepped and ready to reheat at home, including: 1 tom yum soup, 1 panang curry, crispy shallots and peanuts, Thai herbs, jasmine rice, pork pad Thai side dishes, prik nap la dressing, coconut rice pudding, exotic salsa, salted caramel, a wedge of regional cheese, chutney and crackers. There’s even a delicious bottle of wine, chosen to complement the dishes. Cooking instructions and allergen content are presented in a glossy brochure alongside beautiful photography of each dish to help you plate up in style.

How many does it feed?
Two

Packaging
After the box arrived, we received an email giving details on the restaurant’s recycling procedure alongside a PDF of cooking instructions, should you wish to retain a paperless version of the recipe.

Prep
The instructions were simple and stress-free. We heated the majority of the food on the hob and in the oven.

The food
The cooking aromas from the tom yum soup alone cemented in our minds the authenticity of what we were about to eat. The gentle heat of the soup teamed with the warming citrus-y prawn dumplings was a perfect combination offset by the aniseed flavours of the Thai herb garnish. It was delicate yet powerful. A welcome juxtaposition and one that required a nicer bowl than the one usually reserved for my porridge. We separated the chicken from the panang sauce and vegetables and heated it in the oven while we enjoyed our first course, and by the time we’d polished it off, we were tucking in to our second course. Every mouthful of the succulent chicken, and creamy coconut panang sauce with pak choi is meant to be savoured and, when teamed with the side dishes (each sprinkled with crispy shallots and peanuts), becomes the perfect cacophony of flavours and textures. The wine – a crisp French Le Sentier Blanc, 2019 – was an ideal refreshing complement to the gentle heat of this dish. For dessert, we stirred a dollop of salted caramel into the warming delicately spiced bowl of coconut and cardamom rice pudding before polishing off the wine while enjoying the majority of our slab of Landana 500 cheese with Nico’s homemade chutney and Thai crackers. Satisfied is an understatement.

The price
A four-course meal for two, including delivery, £60

The verdict
Nico Simeone has succeeded in delivering not only great dishes, but an entire experience to diners’ homes nationwide. There’s a real skill to creating that balance of powerful yet delicate flavours, and while we were delighted to have experienced this in the comfort of our own home, we are hoping to reach the top of the restaurant waiting list when lockdown ends.

Order at home-x.com