Pyshechnaya 1958 Saint Petersburg – Doughnuts with local character

As the sign outside announces, there has been an establishment serving doughnuts on this site since 1958, and nothing much has changed.

The interior is spartan, with each table decorated only by a glass containing greaseproof paper squares. You will soon discover that these are for holding the greasy doughnuts served up here.

The menu is simple - a Leningrad specialty, pyshki (doughnuts), dusted with icing sugar.

To drink - sugary tea and milky coffee are served from huge vats. If the door is open behind the counter, you catch a glimpse of sacks of flour piled high.

Despite the bleak description, and particularly on cold days, the combination of warm doughnut and sugar hit the spot. It is evidently popular.

When I visited, a kindly grandma advised me not to take a photo of the outside, but instead pointed me towards a chubby ginger cat on the street- apparently a local resident of the establishment who answers to the nickname Ryzhik Pishkin (or Ginger Doughnut).

It is a city establishment and is frequented by well-dressed (i.e. warmly) locals and tourists alike. People travel from all over Russia to come here as an essential stop on their itinerary, just as much as the Hermitage or Russian Museum.

At weekends or holidays there can be long queues, but in an establishment that has stood the test of time, what else would one expect?