No 6 Restaurant is the joint venture of Jackie Wilcox and Andy Britton, an award winning chef who learned his craft in the fine dining restaurants of some of Britain’s most well known luxury hotels, together with a spell abroad. Their aim is to serve simple but inspired dishes to the local community and hopefully those coming from further afield. No 6 manages the transition from café bar by day to chic brasserie by night with ease, serving great food throughout both parts of the day.
The interior is uncluttered with light wood furniture and black leather chairs; there is no menu card, the dishes are chalked up on the overhead beams. After a jolly good look around the beams we opted for Jerusalem artichoke soup finished with truffle oil and a rather intriguing dish called ’game keeper’s beignets’. In this case the beignets were not dough but apparently rather like a game shepherd’s pie, pieces of mixed minced game, rolled with mashed potato, covered in Japanese breadcrumbs and lightly fried. No 6’s signature dish of Moroccan chicken with roast sweet potatoes, peppers and onions with minted yoghurt was on the beam so I decided that was for me, and my husband ordered pot au feu of brill, cockles and clams which sounded lovely.
Fresh homemade bread was served whilst we waited for our starters and I was very happy to see I got some more with my soup! The Jerusalem artichoke soup was to die for, velvety in texture and full in flavour. A unique moment occurred when my husband, famous for his hatred of any kind of brown sauce, very gingerly tried the shot glass of homemade brown sauce which accompanied the beignets, pronounced it wonderful and scoffed the lot! I tried a mouthful of the beignets plus said sauce and agreed that it made a wonderful combination.
Our main courses were served, plus a dish of green vegetables (nice that they were included and not extra to the price of the dish) and they were both a work of art. Of the two, I think the brill won the day for its delicacy of flavour and spot on cooking of the fish. I especially enjoyed the roasted vegetables accompanying the Moroccan chicken and the portion of chicken could have fed a family of four!
We finished off by sharing a cheese board, very nicely done with biscuits and apple quince jelly (they grow a lot of their own fruit and vegetables on their smallholding). No 6 is an admirable addition to the restaurants of North East Somerset and very much worth the trip from Bristol.
Jacquie Vowles