The café was born of a song: in "Nathalie", the French singer Gilbert Bécaud sang of a Café Pushkin in Moscow that did not exist, and French visitors spent years looking for it. In 1999 the artist and restaurateur Andrei Dellos opened it with the chef Andrei Makhov, and Bécaud sang at the opening. Its rooms, among them the Pharmacy and the Library, recreate a nineteenth-century noble house, and the menu draws on the Russian and French dishes of Pushkin's time.

The kitchen is not halal, so we contact it in advance to choose fish, vegetable or dessert dishes that suit you, or book a halal alternative if you prefer.