Marilena Café and Raw Bar opened at the end of June 2023 following years of rumours and speculation that Vancouver’s reputable Toptable Group would be coming to Victoria.
The space in the Rotunda at 1525 Douglas, sat empty, windows papered with a posted promising “a new culinary experience coming soon.”
Marilena launched amid an explosion of marketing and media coverage. Everybody wanted to go, those who could afford it, had to go, and the gushing all but drowned out the few naysayers.
Now, a year and a half on, it’s time for a check in.
The Rotunda is a sleek modern low-rise consisting of two six-storey towers with an impressive connecting rotunda at the back. The 1890 clock tower of Victoria’s city hall reflects in four storeys of uninterrupted dark-tinted glass above the main entrance. But don’t enter there. Marilena’s door is a few metres sooner, and on your left.
Inside has minimalist lines and plenty of honey-toned wood, walls of white or dark chocolate, floor of grey-white striated marble. Behind the coatcheck, an imposing bar features seven stories of cubicles displaying bottles in wide assortment. Further back, an open kitchen with stainless steel still gleaming stands opposite the raw bar. The walkway between leading to the wine cellar and space age washrooms.
A great swoosh of honey wood divides the back half of the dining room with its long banquette tail. And four rough-edged mirrors suspended on the far wall seem dipped in a white chocolate crust.
On our table, four tiny buns are accompanied by a tiny bowl offering a puddle of drawn butter pooled under a smear of soft butter adhering to the rim above. It’s creative and minuscule. Is this a sign of what’s to come?
The menu is divided into cold plates on the left, hot on the right.
Cold offers fresh oysters, a selection of caviars, sushi, nigiri, sashimi and oshi, and other, mostly raw seafood dishes, though there is Wagyu Carpaccio, Italian Burrata and the only salad on the menu: the Little Gem Caesar.
Hot is divided between small plates, large plates and sides. The large plate section is further divided between a list of plated meals and an à la carte “For the Table” section intended for sharing, which features only meat, to which the sides at the bottom of the page may be added. For a table of four, two meats and four sides are recommended. We opted for a more individual approach with some sharing.
I begin with Aburi Sablefish Oshi ($24). Six flame-seared rectangles of sablefish are pressed firmly into rice of the same shape. Each is potentially two bites, but more elegantly one, for to bite is to invite disaster as the whole thing crumbles back down to the plate. It is served with soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger. I love sablefish, and the sear is a nice touch.
My second course features the large-plated Roasted Winter Squash ($34). Rings of roasted butternut squash are piled with sliced pear, crispy kale and Brussels, all sitting on a pear-mustard emulsion. For this course I shared the small-plate Grilled Octopus ($29) with my husband. This is served with gigante beans in a sofrito of onions, garlic and n’duja sausage, a spreadable pork sausage from the Calabria region of Italy. Nice, but the octopus shines.
Turns out our meals are sufficient enough to pass on desert. But then the bill comes with a dish of bite-sized treats: dark chocolate truffles, Marilena’s signature layered lemon cookie and a French form of Turkish Delight that is salty, bitter and sweet. The perfect ending to an exceptional meal.
Marilena Café and Raw Bar
778-405-5200
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