Pugasov - Almaty

Famous shishlic of caucasus? there was never a better place!

What a nice place for events! You can feel really very special there.

I find this place to be notable as it keeps alive the memory of the person who invested tons of effort into this city's development. Nikita Pugasov was the city of Verniy prominent first guild merchant, philanthropist, and public figure. He owned many businesses around town, including one of the first distilling plants in Kazakhstan. Despite the memorial plate on the restaurant's facade claiming that it's built on the site of Pugasov's estate, there is no historical data backing up that assertion. The building is mimicking classic Russian wooden architecture, but its size and proportions are preposterous. We chose to dine outdoors. The outdoor seating area is humongous. I felt sorry for our waiter who had to cover lots of ground serving patrons. It is clear this place has seen better days – many things are worn out and outdated. The menu is very extensive but has appealing items if you are interested in classic Russian and Ukrainian cuisine. We stopped for a quick lunch, but I feel like a proper dinner would be a better choice. Food wasn't perfect, but I can't say it wasn't good either. If they weren't too generous with the salt, broth in clay pot chicken was very flavourful. Lagman noodles were pretty good as well. We came here after business lunch hours, but I think you either come here for a good full dinner or a business lunch deal, and nothing in between. I noticed a trend happening in Almaty for years now where the city's real history is wiped out mainly to offer space for malls, business centers, and apartment buildings, and newly made-up history is provided instead. Thus, I'm glad to see that there are places that commemorate real people who carried out tremendous work to put this city on the maps. I've talked to numerous locals who have very warm memories about this place as they celebrated all sorts of events in this restaurant for decades. I'm positive that this eatery helped Nikita Pugasov's name not to vanish into the abyss.

Well, this is not your Micheline restaurant, granted. A party place by all means. Good at that but had some place for improvement on the service front.

Summer terrace is good. Desserts are very good. Inside the restaurant interiors are average.