Marilena Cafe and Raw Bar is one of the latest additions to the growing Victoria, BC foodie scene. Opened in summer of 2023, it quickly became one of the go-to restaurants in Victoria and was named by Air Canada as one of Canada’s Top 10 Best New Restaurants of 2023.
Eager to try it out for a special occasion, we made a reservation for Ryan’s birthday. We had an amazing experience and the restaurant truly exceeded our expectations. Read on to find out what sets this restaurant apart and why you need to add it to your list of must-try Victoria restaurants!
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Introduction
Marilena was opened by the elite TopTable Group, known for its high-end restaurants in Vancouver, Whistler and New York. It’s owned by the Aquilini Family, who also own the Canucks.
Marilena’s Executive Chef, Kristian Eligh, is a Victoria native with an impressive resume. He spent six years at Vancouver’s well-renowned Hawksworth Restaurant and also held positions at Michelin-starred restaurants such as The French Laundry in Napa Valley and Jean George in New York City.
After 15 years away, he’s back in his hometown leading the culinary team at Marilena in a beautiful multi-million dollar kitchen.
Marilena’s impressive Japanese raw bar is led by Chef Clark Park, formerly of Vancouver’s Miku Japanese restaurant.
Location
Located amongst office buildings in Victoria’s downtown, across from City Hall, Marilena is a bit outside the main tourist areas of the Inner Harbour and Government Street. However, it is worth the short trek.
You’ll find Marilena on the bottom floor of the attractive Rotunda building, through a rotating door on the left-hand side.
Address: 1525 Douglas Street, Victoria, BC
The Menu
Marilena’s menu has a strong seafood focus with both locally and globally sourced top-quality ingredients. If you’re not big on seafood, like me, don’t worry. There are some non-seafood dishes as well.
The two and three tier seafood towers are sure to wow, but we decided to order smaller plates, wanting to try something from each section of the menu.
Starters
After placing our order, we were served a plate of warm sweet bread rolls with a side of butter and oil. The bread was outstanding and I could have eaten the whole plate if I wasn’t trying to save room for the main course.
We started with some Fanny Bay oysters, served with lemon, horseradish and migonette.
Then came the beautifully presented hamachi sashimi and spicy tuna roll.
Being Japanese, Ryan is usually a little critical of sushi. He always tells me the key to good sushi is soft rice, fresh ingredients, and it should be small enough to fit in your mouth in one bite.
Well, I’d say Chef Clark Park’s sushi passes the test! The rice was perfectly soft, the tuna was fresh, and the rolls were just the right size.
Mains
Ryan ordered the Miso Glazed Sablefish as his main. This is a dish his mom often makes at home so he was eager to see how it compares.
It was beautifully presented on a bed of warm sushi rice and yu choy. When brought to our table, the server gracefully poured the miso glaze over the entire dish.
The fish was cooked perfectly and the flavours were delicious. It tasted just like Mom’s. Ryan savoured every last bite.
Since I am not the biggest seafood fan, I decided to go with the 6oz Alberta Beef Tenderloin. I was served an impressive tower of yukon gold potato puree, beef tenderloin, topped with crispy onion rings and salsa verde.
The sauce was delicious and the onion rings really hit the spot. They were perfectly crispy. As for the potato puree, it was good, but nothing too special.
While the beef was tasty, I unfortunately can’t say I was blown away by it. I actually find Ryan’s home-cooked steaks to be more flavourful (but then again, everyone always raves that Ryan makes the best steak).
I requested my beef to be cooked medium-rare, but it seemed more on the medium side. In Canada, I do find that restaurants tend to play it a bit more safe when I request medium-rare or rare.
Dessert
Even though we were feeling stuffed and had dessert waiting at home, we obviously had to order at least one dessert to try out.
Thankfully, Marilena’s dessert menu is creative and inviting. I am a dessert-fiend and I can safely say the desserts here are a highlight. It was hard to choose just one.
We went with the Maple Creme Brule, as it sounded like it would be the lightest dessert. Once again, it was a beautifully presented dish, complete with a handwritten Happy Birthday wish.
The creme brule came deconstructed with a peanut butter cookie crumble. The peanut butter flavour was thankfully not overpowering, and neither was the maple. It was accompanied by a lovely vanilla pear sauce.
Menu Prices
Marilena has been described as “accessible luxury”. In other words, fine dining without such a painful price tag. While prices are on the high end compared to other Victoria eateries, we felt they were reasonable, especially considering prices we’ve encountered at other fine dining establishments around the world.
The sushi bar prices were only slightly higher than other sushi restaurants, but considering the quality, they’re definitely worth it. Nigiri ranges from $6 to $14 a piece, 3 pieces of sashimi are $14 to $36, and rolls are $16 to $23.
Starters and small plates begin at $18 and top out at $29. For mains, you’ll be set back anywhere from $32 to $55. Finally, for desserts, budget around $13 to $16.
Drink Menu
Marilena offers quite the extensive drinks list and has an impressive 5000+ bottle cellar. The menu is pages and pages long – too much to post here. We also don’t drink alcohol so we unfortunately don’t have a whole lot to review, but we did order some non-alcoholic cocktails to enjoy with our meal.
Ryan went with the Bicycle Thief and I went with the Seguro. Both mocktails were delicious and an excellent option for those looking for something non-alcoholic.
The Atmosphere
As soon as we entered through Marilena’s revolving front door, we were greeted by smiling hostesses. They offered to take our coats, gave us a claim number, and then we were promptly escorted to our table.
Our first impression was that this is a lively, trendy and upscale restaurant. It was actually fancier than we were expecting. Tables were set with white linens, servers had proper high-end uniforms and the decor was modern and sophisticated.
The crowd felt like an older, mature crowd, and we were sat amongst people who seemed to have just come from the office to continue after-work meetings over dinner. Perhaps it was because we were there on a Thursday at 5:30pm.
Service
After being seated, we had multiple people come by the table to welcome us to the restaurant and greet Ryan a very happy birthday. We were surprised by just how many times they greeted him! Someone also came by to offer to take photos for us and even took a creative video.
Our server’s name was Sydney and she was absolutely fantastic. Sydney was very professional and knowledgeable about the menu, while also feeling very approachable and relatable. Sometimes I find service at high-end restaurants to feel a little stuck-up, but that definitely wasn’t the case at Marilena.
Sydney consistently checked on us to see how our food was and if we needed anything else, while not feeling overbearing. We never felt like we were being rushed or pressured. When we were ready for our bill, she brought it out together with one final sweet treat. Such a nice touch!
The service here is truly the best we’ve experienced in Victoria. While the food is delicious, we believe the service at Marilena is what really sets it apart from other restaurants in this city. These days, it’s honestly quite rare to experience exceptional service like this and it was just so nice to see.
Dress Code
There is no official dress code at Marilena. However, you might feel out of place showing up in anything less than business casual. From what we observed, everyone was dressed to impress or still in their office attire.
It definitely didn’t feel super formal, but I’d probably feel underdressed in a t-shirt and sneakers.
Marilena Cafe and Raw Bar Reservations
It is best to make an advance reservation if you would like a table in the dining room. We made reservations a week in advance for a snowy Thursday evening in January and most of the time slots had already been taken.
Even though it was terrible weather on the day of our reservation, the restaurant was still surprisingly busy! I can only imagine how busy it is on a regular evening or a weekend night.
While the dining room does appear to fill up, it seems like there is usually walk-in space available at the sushi bar or chef’s counter if you aren’t able to make a reservation in advance.
You can reserve your table directly on the Marilena website or call 778-405-5200.
Marilena Cafe and Raw Bar Hours
Open daily 4:30pm to 10:00pm.
The Verdict:
Marilena is definitely a great addition to the Victoria restaurant scene. While the city already has a tremendous amount of great restaurants, we don’t have many upscale choices like this one.
We found the food to be delicious, but it was the service that really blew us away. The service is precisely what would really draw us back here and recommend it to anyone looking to celebrate a special occasion.
In terms of the food, the raw bar is where it’s at in our opinion. We look forward to ordering more off of the raw menu next time and we’ll probably skip the mains.
Have you been to Marilena? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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