YAM magazine’s Best Restaurant Awards 2024 celebrate Greater Victoria, B.C.’s exciting food scene, judged by an independent panel of chefs and food experts. 

BY CINDA CHAVICH | PHOTOS BY ALLISON KUHL

Marilena Cafe, Best New Restaurant, YAM Best Restaurants 2024
Seafood is the star at Marilena — and so is the beautifully designed dining room.

Best New Restaurant: Marilena Cafe & Raw Bar

1525 Douglas Street  |  $$$ |  marilenacafe.com  |  Reservations strongly suggested

Vancouver’s Toptable Group truly raised the bar in Victoria’s restaurant scene when they opened Marilena Cafe & Raw Bar this year.

Marilena is a beautifully designed, upscale space in The Rotunda building, and covers all of the dining bases, whether you want top drawer sushi, a shareable feast of chic small plates or a spectacular seafood tower of chilled oysters and the finest caviar.

If you’ve dined in any of Toptable’s other properties in Vancouver and Whistler (CinCin Ristorante, Blue Water Cafe, Araxi), you’ll recognize the level of service and selection here. This is a fine-dining experience on every level. And Victorians are clearly impressed — the restaurant is busy serving 250 guests, 90 per cent of them local diners, every night.

Chef Kristian Eligh (right) has come home to Victoria to lead a powerhouse team at Marilena.
Chef Kristian Eligh (right) has come home to Victoria to lead a powerhouse team at Marilena.

Executive chef Kristian Eligh is a Victoria native who returned to his hometown after years of cooking in Vancouver to plan and open Marilena. He can now be found most nights leading his team and entertaining guests in the restaurant’s impressive open kitchen.

“The first year has been quite a whirlwind,” says Eligh. “We wanted to create a restaurant that Victoria could get behind.”

Dishes at Marilena are approachable yet flavourful, inspired by global traditions. Among them, this Mediterranean-style grilled octopus with spicy ’nduja sofrito and gigante beans.
Dishes at Marilena are approachable yet flavourful, inspired by global traditions. Among them, this Mediterranean-style grilled octopus with spicy ’nduja sofrito and gigante beans.

And he seems to have hit that sweet spot with his exciting and approachable seafood-forward menu. Dinner might start with the signature seared aburi sushi from the raw bar, with a trio of crispy little tacos (filled with steelhead trout or lobster) or a classic shrimp cocktail. There are pasta and vegetarian plates — English pea agnolotti with black truffle butter or charred cauliflower with garlic cashew emulsion — and dishes designed “for the table,” such as whole grilled branzino or steaks with sides of crispy onion rings, truffle fries and brussels sprouts.

For the ultimate “wow” dish, you can’t go wrong with Marilena’s La Tour, a three-tier tower of raw and chilled seafood that includes oysters, sushi, ceviche, tuna tartare and a whole Atlantic lobster.
For the ultimate “wow” dish, you can’t go wrong with Marilena’s La Tour, a three-tier tower of raw and chilled seafood that includes oysters, sushi, ceviche, tuna tartare and a whole Atlantic lobster.

Marilena, named for owner Francesco Aquilini’s late mother, also means “bright star of the sea,” appropriate for this sparkling new dining destination.

Marilena Cafe & Raw Bar, Victoria BC

Runners-up: Block Kitchen + Bar  |  Cafe Malabar