Inverness Restaurant Review, City Advertiser

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A long-established fixture on the Inverness dining scene, NICO’S is something of a destination restaurant, with plenty of visitors coming to town specifically to eat there. This represents our 2nd attempt to run our gastronomic rule over the place - last year we turned up to do our review only to find Nico’s closed - although we did get to eat in the adjoining hotel, the Glen Mhor.

Nico’s is - if you’ll pardon the pun - a different kettle of fish altogether, exclusively offering a high-end dining experience with something of a reputation for its seafood. Aside from oddly Americanised phrases and spellings (“Encouraging them [guests]be fully open to the fruits of our labor”), their website promises “fresh, locally sourced produce that underlines our commitment to quality Scottish cuisine”. Well, that latter sentence is certainly to be applauded and we’re also rather taken by the claim that “our head chef has a laboratory to try out ideas and new signature creations”. We’re picturing some sort of Heston Blumenthal affair, where Haggis Ice Cream and Neeps’n’Tatties lollipops are conjured up using test tubes and Bunsen burners. Thankfully the reality isn’t quite as crazy as that, and the place - billed as a Seafood and Grill House - has all the old-school atmosphere that such a label implies. Wood-panelling is the order of the day, both in the Bistro itself and the adjoining bar, only the colourful fish tank taking away from the cosy low-lit atmosphere. At lunchtime there are only a handful of other people dining, but it’s obvious from the number of tables that evenings must be busy. Thankfully the layout of the room means that there are plenty of nooks to lend it a sense of intimacy.

There’s no set lunch menu (though there is an early evening pre-theatre one and weekly Steak Nights), so in the absence of table d’hôte, we are talking à la carte today. Coupled with the fact that this place prides itself on the quality of its ingredients and dishes, you know we’re not looking at an express ‘lunch under a tenner’ here - with starters around the six quid mark and mains fifteen, we’re looking forward to some reassuringly top-notch cooking. That chef had better have been putting in the hard yards in the laboratory!

To begin I have Moules Mariniere, a good opportunity to test Nico’s reputation for seafood and I’m not disappointed. Served in a frightfully modern stainless steel bowl, there’s certainly no skimping on portion size and, more importantly, it’s cooked to perfection. West Coast mussels are plump and moist, their juices enhanced by the creamy garlic emulsion, the whole seasoned beautifully. A deceptively simple dish, it’s also one that is easy to get very, very wrong, usually resulting in rubbery bullets swathed in grit. No chance of that here, just a reminder that some flavours are timeless. The best mussels I’ve ever had? Pretty close. My companion kicks off with Smoked Duck Salad, an elaborate array of ingredients that includes not only pink slices of duck, but also - deep breath - Sesame Seeds, Radish, Beansprouts, Spring Onion & Watercress with Ginger & Soy Sauce Dressing. An ambitious combination but one which works well - aided by immaculate presentation - the light salads providing a lift, the soy & ginger adding some ‘zing’. It’s a confident start to proceedings and an immediate demonstration that the chef has real talent. My main course of Surf’n’Turf looks just as enticing, but somehow the whole doesn’t match up to the sum of its parts. I’ll admit that this might be my fault, because the entire concept of combining steak and seafood could well be faintly ridiculous in the first place. You wouldn’t have a beef burger and fish finger sandwich, so why should the flavour combinations work, albeit at the other end of the culinary scale? A question of taste, then. The “surf” element comes courtesy of a trio of crevettes - beautifully tasting but, very nearly literally - all mouth and no trousers, the morsels of sweet flesh hard to winkle from the eggs’n’endless legs that take up most of the carapace. And, really, the presence of the shellfish adds nothing to that of the full flavoured piece of well-matured steak. Cooked precisely medium-rare just as requested, it’s again a show of how the kitchen does simple things well and an advertisement for the high quality of the main ingredient. Alas it’s accompanied by a rather grainy and claggy creamed potato, again not really adding anything to the meat at the heart of the dish. Perhaps I’d have been better off with the turf and nothing else.

My companion has Venison Loin, again embroiled in the nowadays customary elaborate description: “Stuffed* with Black Pudding, Wrapped in Serrano Ham, with Celeriac Puree, Black Pudding, Caramelized Apple and a natural Jus”. (*The loin is not actually stuffed - the black pudding sits aside on the plate). The venison itself gets the thumbs up, particularly for not being as robustly gamey as previous experiences he’s had with perhaps the most iconic meat the Highlands has to offer, but admits that the rest of the dish, though again gorgeously presented, offers a surfeit of richness. “Five forkfuls and I feel like my stomach is about to burst” he confesses. It’s a bold interpretation of a classic combination, if a little too bold for my colleague.

For pudding, I have Dark Chocolate Marbled Cheesecake, the superior baked variety rather than the lazy just-mix-it-all-with-a-bit-of- hilly-and-leave-it-in-the-fridge version that you might find at some other joints around town. Baked cheesecake has a much more satisfyingly airy texture and a lovely crust, although perhaps something so sweet and rich is not perfectly suited to the accompanying Chantilly Cream, itself an unashamedly sugary confection. Cranachan is something that certainly ought to appear on more menus and it’s surprising that something so simple and crowd pleasing seems to have become somewhat underappreciated. Not by my companion though, who’s delighted to see that the boffin in the lab has come up with a unique take on it in the form of Cranachan Parfait With Honey Syrup, Homemade Shortbread & Summer Berries. It’s an accomplished creation, the Cranachan flavours of whisky, cream and raspberries working well when incorporated into the frozen parfait and the homemade shortbread is a delight. Blueberries put in a welcome appearance and it ends the meal on a skilful high. So, nice food then, using top ingredients and exquisitely put together - with some real successes, particularly the sublime mussels and the Cranachan parfait. Not somewhere you’re going to get a 3 course meal for two for under a pony (oh, alright: less than £25! - Ed), but if not you’re too recession-hit (or are good at saving for a special occasion), then you will be rewarded with a memorable meal, as long time regulars will testify.

Total for 2 (exc. drinks) £56.25