Pushkin Through The Eyes of a Foreigner

Moscow is full of all types of hotels, most of which are waaaay overpriced, far away from the city center and lacks any type of charm. And, the hotel I stayed at, The Cosmos, was no exception! From prostitutes wandering the lobby looking for easy prey to elevators that would suddenly stop without warning forcing one to call for help (happened to me in the middle of the night), I knew I could do better and started plotting my escape from The Cosmos. I spent an hour scouring the Internet for a better place and came up with little success until I stumbled upon a small hotel tucked away down a small side street only a few meters off Tverskaya called, The Pushkin Hotel. Since I love Pushkin and had spent countless hours reading his works in Russian and trying to understand them (many times without success) I figured it had to be a good omen! Furthermore, the reviews, the location and the reasonable price……..by Moscow standards, convinced me to book it and flee the monolithic huge Cosmos.

When I arrived at The Pushkin Hotel I admit I was not very impressed, the exterior was painted a rather bland pink and sat right across the street from a half empty construction sight. I was worried that I had…as we say in English…jumped from the frying pan into the fire. However, as a seasoned traveler I learned it is best “not to judge a book by its cover”.

Luckily, though, I did not take The Pushkin at “face value”! When I walked into my “junior suite” I felt as if I had found a tiny slice of paradise hidden away in a sea of mass chaos. I was absolutely blown away; my room was not only nice, but consisted of a main floor with a small sleeping loft. With its tastefully done décor the room made me feel as if I was back in the era of its namesake, Alexander Sergeivich Pushkin.

The staff at The Pushkin provided impeccable service always striving to go above and beyond expectations! I was especially impressed by how the staff handled my complaint about a shockingly huge laundry bill. After my outrage at the bill, they quickly negotiated a fair compensation and agreed to give me a free late checkout, which was priceless to me since I was leaving late that night on the Sapsan train to St. Petersburg. 

At the time of my visit, March 2014, The Pushkin was still a work in progress and was lacking some of the simple amenities you come to expect in a luxury hotel. One such amenity missing was a full service restaurant and room service. Since I am pretty flexible and easy going I felt it gave me a great opportunity to explore all the different dining choices near to the hotel. By the publishing of this article the dining room and room service should be up and running.

Only a few steps away from The Pushkin is the newly opened American restaurant, The Bud House Bar and Grill. As an American I can attest to the fact that the food is quite delicious! Further down the street on Tverskaya is the small chain restaurant/cafe “Pelmаn”, which makes delicious pelmeni and other Russian foods, however I was not too impressed with the borsch. A few hundred meters down Tverskaya is a cafeteria-style diner called “граблы”. I love Russian food so I thought this would be a perfect place for dinner. Was I ever wrong!! The entire staff was made up of immigrant workers who spoke poor Russian and provided awful customer service. Considering the attitude of these workers they may want to change the name of the place from «Граблы» to «Грубый».  If the food had been good I could have overlooked the bad atmosphere and service, but unfortunately this was not the case L. Luckily, however dining options near to The Pushkin are endless!  

Without a doubt The Pushkin Hotel is one of your best deals in all of Moscow. I think anyone would be hard pressed to find a better place in terms of accommodation, price and location. For more information, visit http://otel-pushkin.ru/