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/
