Cafe Mariana

Mariana is a a cosy little Italian right on Kirky’s main street, meaning it is a stones throw from my front door and ideal for a quick jaunt out. I haven’t visited that often since it opened, maybe once every six months, but I think it’s probably the best Italian Kirky has to offer at the moment.
It gets busy here at the weekends, so I’d advise booking ahead, but if you go in early enough and are happy to vacate for the next party (usually starts filling up around 6.30÷7) then it’s easy to get a walk in table.
As mentioned, the place is really cosy and packed with «authentic» Italian souvenirs and products. The staff are always friendly and relatively timely, which makes it easy to have a quick meal.
Having been for both lunch and dinner, as well as the odd takeaway pizza, I’d struggle to find fault with their menu. It’s a pretty basic selection, but it’s tasty and relatively well priced too although can reach the higher end of the scale. They have an excellent tuna pizza and the specials are usually top notch too!
It’s a chilled out, intimate experience and I can see why it gets so busy. If I’m in the mood for a meal out that’s close to home — and not the pub — this will always be my first choice. Plus, the addition of the beer garden is always nice on that one random day of summer that we sometimes have ;)

Lovely cosy wee Italian. Well worth a visit. Pretty busy for midweek January night so can only guess it’s even busier at the weekend.
Calamari to start was lovely. Gamberoni looked more like prawn in soup but still nice.
Also have a very low priced breakfast and lunch menu.
Will be back for sure.

Husband and I enjoyed a cozy lunch at Mariana’s. It is a very cozy restaurant, staff were very friendly and welcoming. I had the minestrone soup with a pizza which was a good lunch. Husband had the caprese salad and burger. The soup, pizza and salad were all good, the burger meat was a bit disappointing.
We both enjoyed lattes during our stay and look forward to going again next time we are running errands in Kirkintilloh.

Despite the random ramblings of the first review on this place, having nothing much to do with eating here, as more a rant on cycling and coffee — I decided to try this out, after Nonna’s Kitchen across the road was an utter disappointment.
Booked table for Fiona and I on a Tuesday night, as the weekends are rammed. Wasn’t overly busy with 3 – 4 tables there at 6:30pm. Waitress came running over from behind counter, bubbly and friendly to seat us.
Her colleague came over with menus and mentioned the specials, along with offer of drinks. Fancied their Chianti, so she came back with a small glass for us to try beforehand (nice touch). Ended up with the bottle as a result!
Went for starters of calamari, mains of Lasagne and Fiona has risotto, but they kindly added prawns to it for her.
Chatted with the waitress & instantly from sitting down here, it has a very different feel from Nonna’s Kitchen. No, it’s not slick and fancy with a Fiat 500 car sitting outside purely for marketing purposes. It’s COSY and welcoming. I’m instantly relaxed as is Fiona. This is what I want from a restaurant… lets hope the food lives up to the ambience and service so far!
Calamari — cooked fresh, not from frozen, but cut a little too thinly and lacked seasoning. Still nice though, but for £5.95 it could be better taste and portion wise. Glasgow City prices here after all.
Mains didn’t take long to come — 15 mins or so and wowser. There was certainly no lack of portions here! The focaccia bread looked amazing (cooked!) :-) Dug into the bread whilst the lasagne cooled. Stark contrast from Nonna’s and the lasagne was bursting with flavours. Fiona even said her risotto was the nicest she’d had so far, from ANY restaurant to date. It might be slightly more than Tony Macaroni’s lets say, given they do special ²⁄₃ course meal deals, but with the portion sizes and quality, it was well on a par with City Centre restaurants.
Saved space for dessert & had to have Tiramisu and Fiona tried Torta Della Nonna. A traditional Tuscan dessert with pastry and vanilla. Whilst mine was stunning, Fiona was left disappointed in hers, as it had nuts all over it (hates nuts!). A little heavy on the icing sugar dusting too. Lass said she’d change the menu to show nuts on it, but despite not being eaten, it remained on the bill. A nicer touch would have been to take it off as first timers here and an issue with the menu here.
That said, we both had a very relaxing, friendly banter evening, learning about the restaurant, staff etc and experienced FINALLY, some freshly cooked food locally.
I will 100% come back and take the mother along to sample it and hope the standards remain consistent here.
You Gotta Eat Here — For Sure! :-D

Café Mariana
The good — It was open on Sunday
The bad — Vending machine coffee, disgusting cake, eye-​wateringly overpriced
I gaze out over the Clyde valley as far as the eye can see. It’s a beautiful Sunday morning. Hardly a cloud in the sky. Great day for a wee run on the bikes…
Having donned my recently acquired Aldi cycle helmet — because I’m worth it — we’re off!
My GF is none too keen on the whole cardio thing, so on occasions like this, we usually choose the tow path along the Forth and Clyde Canal. What can I say? There are no hills and no vehicles.
Anyway, later that very day, we peel off the tow path and push the bikes along Kirkintilloch’s main stretch with coffee and cake on our minds.
Did I mention we were in Kirkie? So, unless you’re looking for a pharmacy, a bookies or a boozer, it’s not exactly what our American cousins would refer to as ‘a turkey shoot’.
In the end, there were only two choices. Long story short: I made the wrong choice.
Café Mariana. I should have known it was mistake as soon as we entered. Ghostly quiet with almost no customers. You can imagine the subtext… actually, we’re more of a restaurant… It’s the kind of place where you get to feel like your just in the way because you’re too tight to eat. Anyway, I’d already secured the bikes to the railings, so I thought, ‘let’s just get it over with!’
We ordered some home made tiramisu, a latte and cappuccino. Despite the ten grand coffee machine, and all the Tuscan trappings, I can safely say that the complimentary ‘white, no sugar’ from Willie Wilson’s vending machine tasted miles better! Alas, hard as it is to believe, it was all down hill from there. I went for the home made in preference to the seemingly ubiquitous Costco carrot cake. Once again: wrong choice! Well, it was definitely home made — not even Mr Kipling could get it so horribly wrong.
Beyond bland, the texture of mush with a vague sprinkling of what could best be described as Mellow Birds. If you can imagine diluted baby food, we’re on the same page. More tiramigiu than tiramisu.
And talk about overpriced… Never mind the West End… you’d be forgiven for thinking you were in Covent Garden. Just don’t!