Mari Vanna

116 Knightsbridge, London, SW1X 7PJ - View on a map
Telephone: 020 3159 5390

Find special offers, earn points, see menus.

Overall 8.0
Food 7.0
Service 8.0
Atmosphere 9.0
Value 8.0
Based on 1 reviews

our review

Mari Vanna, a Russian restaurant and bar, is now open in Knightsbridge. It will follow in the footsteps of the original in St Petersburg, which is named after a mythical Russian matriarch who invited weary travellers into her home to be fed. The restaurant's old-world interior features a traditional Russian Pechka oven and shelves filled with dolls and trinkets. The menu includes traditional borscht, pelmeni (dumplings), stuffed cabbage leaves, and pirozhki (Russian pies).

March 2012

what the critics say

Matthew Norman - 8/10

Wednesday, January 02, 2013 - Mari Vanna’s charm lies in its offering of a nostalgic fantasy which is at once obviously ersatz and entirely seductive...Main courses were ideal winter warmers. “Really good, big flavour,” said my friend of golubtzi, two rectangular slabs of cabbage leaf-wrapped rice, pork and veal, covered with a luridly orange tomatoey sauce. Siberian pelmeni, wonton-style dumplings filled with pork and beef, were undersalted and anodyne (they too needed sour cream) but light and perfectly cooked.

Read full review

Jay Rayner

Sunday, May 20, 2012 - We stick to the classics. We have a dish of pelmeni. The silky little meat-stuffed dumplings come with a cooling bowl of soured cream and are completely compelling. We have golubtzi, the cabbage leaves stuffed with a big, butch mix of pork, veal and rice. At Mari Vanna everything is stuffed, including the diners...Mari Vanna is completely bonkers, but in a sweet way. It really is charming.

Read full review

John Lanchester

Friday, May 18, 2012 - The room is like no other restaurant I've been in. That's because of the decor – there's just so much of it. No surface is undecorated. There are tchotchkes, trinkets, pictures, candles, jars, lights, and decoupages of old magazines literally everywhere. It is the busiest, cosiest, homeliest, least restaurant-like restaurant imaginable...The food is wonderful, too, in its way - its very, very Russian way. The pierogi (dumplings) were a surprise: they were more like tiny brioche loaves with a filling inside (a choice of three, sea bass, beef and pork, cabbage and egg). A bit heavy, I thought, but a table of Russians was tucking into them with enthusiasm, so maybe this is how they rock their pierogi back in the old country.

Read full review

TimeOut - 4/5

Thursday, April 26, 2012 - The blinis were exemplary: as delicate as the lace doilies adorning the tables, these were served with the side dishes of smetana (sour cream), boiled and chopped egg, diced red onion and a generous helping of salmon roe, a perfect DIY picnic. Beef stroganoff is now an international dish, but its origins date back to nineteenth-century Russia. Thin strips of beef are sauteed and served in a rich sauce of spiced sour cream, in this case with a delectable side dish of perfectly cooked kasha (buckwheat), its nutty flavour enhanced by wild mushrooms. Diners seeking their dumpling fix should save room for the pelmeni. Again, these dumplings were exemplary, with taut pasta cases around springy, juicy fillings.

Read full review

Fay Maschler - 3/5

Thursday, April 12, 2012 - After quite a few farewell tours, beef Stroganoff made something of a successful comeback at The Delaunay late last year. Here it is made with wild mushrooms in the soured cream sauce and served with buckwheat kasha with a nattily nutty texture. Chicken Kiev was a disappointment. Cylinders coated in the fine sandy crumbs favoured by companies like Findus failed amusingly to spurt garlic butter all over the recipient's jumper and were just dull rolls of breaded chicken served with unwanted cranberry sauce. Smoked salmon steak with dill-dusted boiled potatoes did its duty as a sturdy, sensible main course.

Read full review

+ Show more critic reviews