Marketing itself as a "cosmic restaurant," Laluna does its best to live up to this grandiose description by providing decor around a lunar theme, in a modern style. There’s also a bit of assistance from Asian accessories such as the stone sculpture of an elephant in the toilet (worth checking out) and various wooden Japanese decorations.

On entering the restaurant, you walk across a mirrored floor that reflects the rice paper "moons" hanging on the ceiling. The main hall with its bar area is low-lit with huge rotating fans hanging from niches in the ceiling and massive white curtains. The atmosphere is even calmer and more relaxing in the chillout room, complete with a giant home-cinema screen, wooden floor and sofas. This is where the sputnik and I headed for, with the added bonus of the latest James Bond movie (though perhaps "Moonraker" would have been more suitable, as well as far superior).

The menu is broken down into three categories: Japanese, European and Indian, the latter only available in summer months when the garden patio is open. I opened proceedings with eight excellent Dynamite rolls (389 rubles) of sea scallops with flying-fish caviar and a particularly fresh miso soup (199 rubles). The wife had an In Yan soup (299 rubles) – a deliciously divided broth of rich broccoli and creamy chicken. We chose to drink cocktails, with the wine list being extensive but expensive and beer bottled and limited. These were well-mixed and retail at around the 300 ruble mark. We started with a Fuzzy Navel and a superb, nameless concoction the barman dreamed up that certainly contained white rum, but I’m not sure what else. I seem to recollect finishing with a Long Island Iced Tea some time after the second movie had finished, but it might have been a Margarita, and perhaps the third movie.

For the main course, we went with a European approach, the spouse having a lovely dish of Laluna cutlets (499 rubles), which were made from minced chicken with tasty piles of pistachios and spinach on the side. I opted for salmon "on a Portobello hat" (629 rubles) – a quality piece of grilled fish on a giant mushroom with a tangy vegetable sauce. We shared a side dish of boiled potatoes (129 rubles), which was a struggle because the portion was small, but the spuds were absolutely wonderful, having been cooked in various aromatic herbs.

To finish up our meal, we split a gorgeous apple-and-raisin strudel (219 rubles), which came with a couple of scoops of ice cream and, like the rest of the food, was excellently presented. It also had the added bonus of containing fruit liqueur. This took the edge off our tea (Assam, 79 rubles), which we had presumably ordered through force of habit, but didn’t combine well with the mint Mohito cocktails we had moved on to.

Laluna has a lot to offer in addition to the creatively prepared food and drink. It’s possible to order movies or bring your own, DJs play on the weekends, and karaoke is also an option. Above all, though, it’s a place where you can relax and pretend that Moscow really is a different planet. At the end of the night, it was hard to defy gravity and rise from the comfort of our cushions and cocktails.