Mari Vanna
“The Kiev chicken was perfect and the beef shashlik tasted like it came right from the grill, cooked to our requested temperature, medium rare.”
“Ordered borscht and was blown away by the quality, it brought me back to Mother Russia and reminded me of my mom's cooking.”
“Some of my personal faves:
"Shuba" salad – literally translates to herring under a fur coat.”
Mari Vanna
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$$$ Price range $31-60
8 reviews
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The best Borsht this side of Russia! We followed recommendations and we were more than pleased. Seated in open cafe windows on a warm evening – perfect.
This was a late post-show stop following a long day of walking, eating, walking, and more eating, so our appetites were perfectly suited for a simple soup & some fresh breads.
Simple, under rates the delicious nature of this old-world, delicacy, slightly warmed and served with cubed beef & shredded beets. On the side, sour cream, olive oil infused with dill, chive, garlic. Accompanied with fresh breads, pork fat spread, rock salt, chive stalks, two creamy dips.
The rest of the menu very tempting, next time! The bar, well when eating like a Russian, one must drink like a Russian. Stunning large selection of house made Vodkas infused with various fruits, herb, & other natural flavors.
Ypa & Nostrovia!
The food is very good, if you like Russian dishes you may really like it. It is all overpriced, as typical for Manhattan restaurants, but the washroom here is disgusting – broken lock, long line, absolutely filthy and looks like a subway bathroom or worse. Smells too. So if you go there you feel less than human every time you need to pee. And the drinks are varied, which will be tempting, so that is a huge problem. Location is perfect though, and it's great for groups even though it is loud.
The entire experience was 5stars. Jumma our server took us through each our of questions thoroughly and didn't leave us a stray.
We started our meal with cheese and egg baked bread. Baked fresh and takes 20 mins to prepare *worth it!*. The multiple cheeses were like a delicious Russian version of a pizza. We were instructed to mix the egg through the cheese to make a melted pot of gooey goodness.
Next we had our entrees I had the traditional chicken Kiev. So moist inside and crispy on the outside the breaded chicken was cooked perfectly. Just enough the garlic to not overpower the meal. The mash potato was perfect. All potato and not overpowered by butter or cheese.
Beef stroganoff with buckwheat was full of flavor and the buckwheat was original. Not my favorite but my fiancé loved it. The beef stroganoff was just the right balance of mustard and cream – only complaint – not enough of it!!
We finished our meals with a honey layered cake and the pastry layered cake with cream. The most extraordinary dessert ever.
We had plans afterwards but had to go straight home from being so uncomfortably full but so happy. Thanks for a great experience !
MealPass pickup for cheese pie on the last day of my MP subscription. Pretty solid snack, although not enough as a lunch. Both cheese and dough had good texture. Definitely not worth the $18 price tag.
On solely food review i will give zero stars. Me and my sister never had russian food so we were pretty excited to try out this cuisine. We traveled alot and love trying different types of food so this one was not an exception. I don't knw if this cuisine is not our type of food but we tried to stay positive.
We ordered the salmon salad and curred herring. I love herring but this dish was overly salty rarely any taste of the sweet or sour fish taste at all. The salmon salad was drenched in mayo (i read the reviews, i guess this is just how russian salads are?). For us we could!'t eat more than three bites each. But we were optimistic about our main dish. We ordered the blini and chicken stroganoff and the blini was okay just tastes like crepe and strawberry cream. But the chicken stroganoff was so bland and we couldn't figure out what the taste was. We tried to taste it multiple times to try the "good taste" but we just couldn't.
The decorations are so beautiful and adorable- but for spice loving people as we are, it was just not the food for us.
I don't know if it's the restaurant or just russian food in general that is like this- but if you love food like indian or korean that use alot of spice and flavor this place may not be the place for you.
No offense to the russian cuisine or anything- hey, some people don't like spicy food, some people don't like sweet food. I just don't like bland food or too salty food that doesn't have much flavor.
My friends and I came here to have brunch before the Seahawks vs. Panthers game. Walking in, it felt like a really comfy home. The décor had a classy vintage vibe, and the chandeliers were gorgeous. To be honest, at first glance I was kind of disappointed in the size of the buffet spread. I'm used to seeing multiple tables with large varieties of food and was expecting at least a separate table of desserts. What you get here, however, is a single long table with servers for dumplings, a few bowls of salads, casseroles, and pastries, and a platter of watermelon.
I don't get much Russian food in Seattle ( we only have Piroshkies and Russian dumplings), so I was still happy to be able to try different dishes I've never experienced. Since there is so much potato in this cuisine and I had a few mimosa refills, I got full pretty quickly and was only able to finish 2 full plates. Everything I had was pretty tasty…too bad I don't know the names of anything besides the dumplings 🙁 The wait staff was really good about refilling the drinks and even refolded the napkins every time we left the table to get more food. Unfortunately I wasn't able to stay long due to the football game but I can see why this would be a really nice place to spend a couple hours of your weekend morning!
I went here on a date and it was the perfect environment. It's classy, quirky, warm and beautiful. Even the bathroom was super cool. The staff are very polite and friendly (which can be a culture shock at times in this city!) and were dressed in cute, traditional clothing.
I got the homemade blinis with veal and they were amazing!! I could have had them for my whole entree, I enjoyed them so much and highly recommend them! I hadn't ever had veal before and I was very impressed. I also got a soup, I don't remember which one, but it wasn't very memorable or special.
Towards the end our waitress brought over 2 complementary shots of their infused vodkas, thankfully it was a sweet one for me! It must have been strawberry or cherry or something, but it was quite good! …and it was so kind of them to give it to us for no reason!
I highly recommend Mari Vanna and hope to go back sometime soon!!!
Reading Tolstoy's Ana Karenina & visiting this place.
Coincidence?
I say, Meant to be!
It's such a charming space, cute quirky and lovely.
Shabby Very Chic. I eat with my eyes so this was perfect.
Speaking less poetically and more factually, the food was very delicious. All of it was flavorful and the flavor infused vodka is a must to compliment the dishes. I was graciously taught how to prepare the appetizer bread, butter, radish! I can cook now!
The staff is composed of waitresses dressed in cute peasant girl clothes. They are a bit serious but not rude, not warm either. Maybe its the Russian way!? The bartender didn't have a special outfit. Would have been funny if he had!
The restroom is interesting to check out. It's covered in paper and very much fits into the entire decor of the place.
Get a Special Members key and go party whenever you wish (& invite me! 😉