We decided to take Chris’ mum out for a nice dinner in Moscow – somewhere none of us had been to and was highly rated. After doing some research, it was obvious Cafe Pushkin (26A Tverskoy Bulvar, Moscow) was it. It’s considered by many to be “the best restaurant in Moscow”, which is a pretty high expectation to set, LOL!
The luxe Cafe Pushkin has three stories and is in a building made to look like a Russian aristocrat’s home circa 1825. It’s moody, decadent, and filled with lots of businessmen dining and drinking (and probably spending a small fortune). The service is very polite, and the staff all speak fluent English. I suppose you get what you pay for 🙂 Strangely (and annoyingly), they said “No photographs” for no logical reason! I hate restaurants that don’t allow photography, but they weren’t rude so we just let it slide. Anyway, we still snuck in some photos, bwahaha. If I’m paying for my food, I’m damn well going to photograph it if I want, thankyouverymuch!
Outside the understated-looking Cafe Pushkin
Cozy intimate cherrywood bar
The Orchard Room wing that we were seated in
Us!
The food was excellent. I believe this would be authentic Russian cuisine? I can’t say for sure since I’m not Russian nor grew up there, but that’s my assumption 😉 I had the Beef stroganoff in sour cream with potatoes which was sublime – tender beef bathed in a rich creamy sauce and perfectly spiced. A very decent portion since it filled me right up too. Chris’ mum had a lovely Chicken cutlet with cheese sauce, cepes, truffles and mashed potatoes which came out jauntily sitting on little wooden props, very cute! And Chris had the Trout stuffed with vegetable mousse, with crayfish, mushrooms, and asparagus garnish which he was delighted to find already de-boned and ultra tender.
Half-eaten so it looks unappetizing 😛 But lovely spring roll things stuffed with meat
Our mains – Beef stroganoff in sour cream with potatoes,
Chicken cutlet with cheese sauce, cepes, truffles and mashed potatoes
Trout stuffed with vegetable mousse, with crayfish, mushrooms, and asparagus garnish
Dessert was the exceedingly beautiful (and hilariously named) Cake in the form of a book. With a name like that, I just HAD to order it 😉 It was a very thick and rich baked cottage cheese and flavoured with chocolate, and yes, really in the shape of a book! So cute, and the attention to detail was so impressive – almost too beautiful to eat.
The most beautiful dessert I’ve ever seen. A sort of mousse/cake shaped like a book
A very unique fruity/meringue chocolate-domed dessert
I would recommend Cafe Pushkin for a fancy night out for a date or with friends. It’s seems to be the place to be in Moscow and worth a visit, if not for the beautiful ambiance, then for the excellent food. It wasn’t cheap, but I thought it was worth it since the quality was excellent!
wow what a trip, though i’m still only up to your france entries!!!i won’t be going anywhere for a long long time so im really enjoying your euro posts and pics!
Well we’ll travel to SIngapore and also Australia when the baby is born, but that will be later in 2011 🙂
Did you end up going to St Petersburg?
NOoo we didn’t, no time 🙁
Beef stroganoff has always been one of my fav. dishes. I bet it must be really good in Russia, especially at the best ranked restaurant in Moscow!!
I LOVE it too, it’s such fantastic Russian food. And MAN it was reallyyyyy good at Pushkin!
Looks like Russian food with a heavy French influence 🙂
re: no photography. VERY common in Russia–there’s no photography in the metro, in the malls… My guess is that this restaurant doesn’t want competitors stealing their dishes or something, and that there’s also probably a lot of VIPs who go there who don’t wish to be photographed. Most likely the latter.
Pushkin is to Russian as Shakespeare is to English, but poetry is difficult to translate popularity so his importance isn’t really felt in the West so much, but don’t ever tell a Russian that!
Ahhh no wonder, that does make sense about the VIPs not wanting to be photographed. At Pushkin though they didn’t even want me pointing the camera at JUST the food.. maybe they were scared I’d steal their dish 😛
wow what a trip, though i’m still only up to your france entries!!!i won’t be going anywhere for a long long time so im really enjoying your euro posts and pics!
Well we’ll travel to SIngapore and also Australia when the baby is born, but that will be later in 2011 🙂
Did you end up going to St Petersburg?
NOoo we didn’t, no time 🙁
Beef stroganoff has always been one of my fav. dishes. I bet it must be really good in Russia, especially at the best ranked restaurant in Moscow!!
I LOVE it too, it’s such fantastic Russian food. And MAN it was reallyyyyy good at Pushkin!
better direct link to english pages http://www.turandotpalace.ru/en/
took time to open site on my pc but really cool stuff there worth waiting to see those pages so glad you 2 are having a great time in Moscow planning to see any other cities?
Have you heard about Turandot restaurant? On pictures looks like palace! I understand it was created by the same person who opened Pushkin. http://www.turandotpalace.ru/ breathtaking …
And… just curious… do you know what does “Pushkin” mean? )))
Oo gorgeous!!
NOt sure what Pushkin is.. I just assumed it was named after someone?
most famous Russian poet you probably passed by his monument near by the Gorkiy street many times, close to his namesake restaurant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pushkin
sorry, hope not too much information ))
Oo thanks for that info, you’re very knowledgeable! It’s nice to know about all that history 🙂
Looks like Russian food with a heavy French influence 🙂
re: no photography. VERY common in Russia–there’s no photography in the metro, in the malls… My guess is that this restaurant doesn’t want competitors stealing their dishes or something, and that there’s also probably a lot of VIPs who go there who don’t wish to be photographed. Most likely the latter.
Pushkin is to Russian as Shakespeare is to English, but poetry is difficult to translate popularity so his importance isn’t really felt in the West so much, but don’t ever tell a Russian that!
Ahhh no wonder, that does make sense about the VIPs not wanting to be photographed. At Pushkin though they didn’t even want me pointing the camera at JUST the food.. maybe they were scared I’d steal their dish 😛
better direct link to english pages http://www.turandotpalace.ru/en/
took time to open site on my pc but really cool stuff there worth waiting to see those pages so glad you 2 are having a great time in Moscow planning to see any other cities?
Have you heard about Turandot restaurant? On pictures looks like palace! I understand it was created by the same person who opened Pushkin. http://www.turandotpalace.ru/ breathtaking …
And… just curious… do you know what does “Pushkin” mean? )))
Oo gorgeous!!
NOt sure what Pushkin is.. I just assumed it was named after someone?
most famous Russian poet you probably passed by his monument near by the Gorkiy street many times, close to his namesake restaurant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pushkin
sorry, hope not too much information ))
Oo thanks for that info, you’re very knowledgeable! It’s nice to know about all that history 🙂
I think that the desserts look the most amazing! The attention to detail in the book must have been mindblowing!
It was YUMMY too, but boy, the effort required to make that…. cripes
“cake in the form of a book” – what a fun name!
Yeah, i HAD to get that, just to see what it was 😉
I think that the desserts look the most amazing! The attention to detail in the book must have been mindblowing!
It was YUMMY too, but boy, the effort required to make that…. cripes
“cake in the form of a book” – what a fun name!
Yeah, i HAD to get that, just to see what it was 😉