Mari Vanna

Mari Vanna sits behind a flower-banked Knightsbridge frontage at Wellington Court, the awnings hand-painted in Cyrillic script and the steps crowded with potted herbs and geraniums. Inside, the conceit is total: the dining rooms are dressed as the parlour of a doting Russian grandmother, walls hung with framed black-and-white portraits, lace at the windows, glass cabinets crammed with porcelain and matryoshka dolls, and crystal chandeliers throwing warm light over mismatched antique chairs. A traditional pechka oven anchors the room. The kitchen serves what the house calls babushka cooking, the home dishes of Russia alongside Georgian, Ukrainian and Central Asian plates.

The London restaurant opened in 2012, the work of Ginza Project founders Vadim Lapin and Dmitry Sergeyev with Luca Del Bono, following the original Mari Vanna in St Petersburg and sisters in Moscow and New York. It runs all day, from morning through afternoon tea, dinner and late drinks. The maximalist styling, every surface layered with trinkets and tapestry, gives the place an intimacy that larger restaurants in the area cannot match.

For a private event the appeal is the atmosphere itself: a theatrical, candlelit interior that already feels like a party in someone's home. The main dining room seats just under sixty, the bar holds a further thirty, and a private room takes up to thirty for celebrations and gatherings. The enclosed, low-lit rooms suit an intimate DJ set built around dinner rather than a club night, and the venue is available for private hire. Enquire for full-venue availability and event logistics.