I’ve been eyeing up the menus at Six since it arrived on the top of Westgate a few months ago. The recent Istanbul-themed offering had definitely stood out to me, so we were very excited to drop by the other week and give it a go!

We kicked off with a couple of aperitifs. My ‘Istanbul Mule’ was a delicious mix of flavours, and actually quite tart from the triple hit of ginger, lime and pomegranate. Overall it was very refreshing and not too sweet at all. My partner went for an ‘Orange Blossom Negroni’ – not my kind of drink, but I was reliably informed that this was a very good one with a nice balance of bitterness and orange.

Alongside this, we started the meal with a hummus snack plate. This was seriously tasty for such a simple dish; the hummus was thick, rich and velvety, topped with a green harissa that cut through with a herby, zesty punch. It was served with three roasting hot tiny flat breads, clearly fresh out of the frying pan. I could have eaten a very large pile of these (plus several more dollops of hummus).

Course 1 was a cucumber and barbecue lettuce gazpacho.

This was a completely new kind of dish to me. I’ve never thought of cucumber or lettuce as having a strong flavour, but the cucumber in particular was nicely concentrated here. My partner found that it had slightly too much lemon, but it was just right for me. Hidden underneath the gazpacho was a small squeeze of creamy lor cheese, which added a lovely richness to the flavour. Side note – shout out to our waiter for taking the time to answer our questions about lor cheese and offering a great explanation of how it is made.

Dish number two – a grilled chicken shish pide – scored tens across the board.

The meat was deliciously juicy, marinated in a beautiful spice mix. Dotted about the bread were small mounds of sesame emulsion – not something I’ve ever seen before, but 100% something that I’d have as a condiment in my cupboard if I could. The pide bread itself was a perfect base for the dish. Alongside this was our first wine of the evening. It was slightly sweet, fruity and floral – delicious.

My immediate reaction to course 3 was that it was like a scotch egg/burger mashup.

The meat at the centre was seasoned in a way that had quite a familiar flavour, but it was really elevated when mixed with the black garlic ketchup. This had an underlying taste of mushroom that added a really unusual umami flavour. For me, the bulgar coating could maybe have been a bit crispier, but this was still a nice dish. The accompanying wine was a rich and deep red, with notes of cherries and blackberries. My kind of wine!

Course 4 – sea bass –  is the course I can’t stop thinking about.

Was this the perfect bite of food? Potentially! The fish was drenched in an almond foam that was so delicious that it was essentially drinkable. The sea bass itself was meaty with amazing crispy skin. Preserved lemon and fennel jam provided tangs that complimented everything perfectly. All in all, it was an amazing plate of food – and beautifully presented to boot. The wine for this course was a bit too sweet for me, but I think almost all drinks would pale into insignificance against that dish!

Course 5 had multiple elements.

We especially liked the tiny cube of belly – it wasn’t necessarily anything fancy but still had loads of flavour and went very well with the ancient grain pilaf. The lamb kebap was a tiny ball of herby, stodgy goodness which went nicely with the small scoop of thick, roasted tomato ketchup. The wine, another red, was lighter than the previous one. It went well but by this point I had more wine in front of me than I knew what to do with – I think I could have done with an extra 5 mins between courses just so I could savour the drinks properly!

Finally, onto dessert – a spiced date cake.

The cake had a strong kick of cinnammon, which my partner found a bit overpowering but was perfect for me (is there even such a thing as ‘too much cinnammon’?). The sour yoghurt sorbet was really interesting even on its own, but balanced out the cake nicely as well. Small chunks of caramelised pear were another delicious addition. However, for the first time in the meal, the accompanying wine potentially stood out more than the food. It was a slightly fizzy red dessert wine, and thankfully wasn’t overwhelmingly sweet – a really interesting end to the whole dinner!

All in all this was a fantastic selection of dishes and drinks, accompanied by great service. This is definitely one to consider for a special occasion if you want to try something a bit different and relatively fancy. For the price point (£50 tasting menu, £38 wine pairing), you’re getting some fab dishes plus exposure to some new and interesting flavour combinations. While some courses didn’t stand out to me – course 3 felt like the least interesting dish of the menu – others were easily worth the trip to the top of Westgate! I’ll be thinking of that sea bass for months…

Six By Nico
RU3, 309 Westgate Roof Terrace, Oxford OX1 1TR

The current menu is ‘Hollywood’ which will switch to ‘Land of Oz’ on 4 Nov 2024.

Bitten were invited as guests, all views are our own