Do not expect a traditional fine dining restaurant when you go to Café Pushkin. The restaurant is open daily, 24 hours. The media crowd has their breakfasts, a mixed clientele for lunch, dinner for everyone, high rollers arrive late around midnight, and early in the morning hours exhausted clubbers have some food before they crash.

No, Café Pushkin is not the classical fine dining venue, but it is good and a must visit for everyone in Moscow. Café Pushkin is divided into three floors and has the feel of a nineteenth century mansion, but dates from the late 1990’s. Each of the floors has a different theme, with a nice café on the first floor, but it is the restaurant on the second floor, the library, that is the place to be at or possibly the café on the top. If you have a table on the library floor you will have a huge confusing menu with loads to choose from.

The Russian and French inspired menu offers all classics you can expect such as caviar, pelmeni (like pork, lamb and beef dumplings), rack of lamb, smoked herring and blini paired with an impressive vodka menu. You should choose several of the dishes if it is your first visit, like the fish soup called ukha and the must beef stroganoff with some imperial vodka to it, to spice things up a bit and to do it the traditional Russian way.

The waiters dress like nineteenth century servants and feel a bit like actors and have the most impressive sideburns in Moscow. You can expect full service and the dishes will keep on coming. Both food and service keep a good level and even the most hardcore haute cuisine diner will be satisfied and most of all Café

Pushkin is sheer fun and it is almost impossible to leave the restaurant without a pleasant smile.

Written by Andy