Bric a Brac @ Mari Vanna Category: Bistro+  (££-£££)  Mari Vanna, a Russian restaurant with subsidiaries in Moscow, St. Petersburg and New York, has recently opened a new outpost in – who would have guessed – the Little Russia of London, Knightsbridge.  I naturally assumed it would be an overpriced pretentious place for noveau-riche Russians (well, this might have been covered with Novikov) and was pleasantly surprised to read a variety of good reviews (The Skinny Bib, John Lancaster at the Guardian ). I can add another positive report as my recent visit to Mari Vanna was a pleasant one.  The food was, although decent, certainly not world-changing, but the atmosphere!  I have not seen a more charming restaurant in a long time;  and not that many attractive slender well-dressed ladies, I felt a bit out-of-place in my (very lovely) H&M outfit to be honest.  Mari Vanna should feel posh and pretentious, particularly with its location just next to the most expensive London housing development One Hyde Park (where you can pick up a flat there for 15 million pounds) but somehow it just makes you want to move in (Mari Vanna that is, not One Hyde Park). Entry Hall @ Mari Vanna

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