Puccini’s review

Some of my happiest memories lie down Italian alleys, sampling pasta and fish dishes whose names lie buried deep beneath bottles of Brunello and Chianti.

Arthur fared best, perhaps, with a dish invented by Manchester United team captain, Gary Neville called (wait for it….)‘Penne alla Neville’. I love the thought of Neville browsing the menu before ordering, ‘the Neville, please’.

Mmmm….but before I drift too far down memory lane, let’s get one thing straight; Swinton’s premier Italian restaurant is definitely more Brit-Trattoria than Tuscan gem.

Ten minutes drive from Manchester city centre, Puccini’s Italian is housed in a Brutalist concrete shopping centre in the heart of the suburbs. Nope, it’s not gorgeous (grey concrete against a grey sky anyone?) but the restaurant does radiate the confidence of 28 years in the business. And Puccini’s has something else up its sleeve too: the fact that it's the premier league football star’s restaurant of choice.

Snapped arm in arm with grinning waiters, photographs of Beckham, Ferguson, Giggs and Neville are plastered all over the pillars inside. There are signed United shirts, pastel drawings and scarves draped over doors and huge portraits of famous footie stars piled up against the walls.

The overall effect is indeed bizarre, but despite the pictures and the accolades, Puccini’s charm lies in its simplicity. Straightforward pasta dishes, pizza, fish and meat dishes are the order of the day here – and the impeccably polished Italian staff were very much in evidence too, when myself, my son Arthur (6) and his dad Mark dropped in for lunch last Saturday.

Having gawped for rather too long at the memorabilia on display, we started our meal with garlic bread and a bowl of Stracciatella Alla Romana soup. The bread was nothing short of sublime – just crisp enough, not over done and topped with spanking fresh tomatoes and herbs. My soup on the other hand, looked more like sick, which tickled the boys no end.

Cue comments such as ‘hahahh… you’ve ordered a bowl of sick’, etc. It made up for its looks on the palate, though, with lashings of melted parmesan, spinach, garlic egg and freshly chopped tomato combined in a thin, light stock. A fine example of this classic, egg-drop soup, I thought, and Mark enjoyed his well-timed starter of scallops too.

Served with a tangy butter sauce, infused with lemon, orange - or possibly both - the scallops, soup and garlic bread were all promising tasters of what Puccini’s had in store.

A few years back, on a family holiday in Pisa, we sampled the delights of several local restaurants down tiny back alleys, coming to the conclusion that eating Italian makes one both fatter and more tolerant of herbs. Of course over there, chefs use fresh oregano, basil and so on in greater quantities than their British counterparts to give dishes the flavour of the land - and this ‘herbing up’ was apparent in our main courses at Puccinis.

Sage, for example, was employed to sinus-clearing effect in Mark’s veal medallions with Parma ham (Saltimbocca alla Romana), while my sole in parsley sauce was perfectly balanced; chewy-tasty and with a buttery tang. Annoyingly, it was overdone; the soggy fish giving little or no resistance to my knife.

Arthur fared best, perhaps, with a dish invented by Manchester United team captain, Gary Neville called (wait for it….) ‘Penne alla Neville’. Cream, chicken and mushroom were the building blocks of this kid-friendly combination and I love the thought of Neville browsing the menu before ordering, ‘the Neville, please’.

(Ruth I had to re-read that twice to make sure it was real. And now I can’t stop laughing. Ed)

And speaking of kid-friendly dishes, Puccini’s puddings are awesome.

Kids can’t resist pudding cabinets, can they, and Puccini’s is a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach, with creamy gateaux, jugs of chocolate sauce and oooh… all that sweet stuff. Arthur went for a whipped-cream-crested banoffee pie, and five, fresh profiteroles in the end, which, with coffee and a bottle of limey house Verdicchio brought the bill to a reasonable £80.

Obviously, our meal at Puccini’s wasn’t perfect but the restaurant exhibited enough quirk and, above all, promise to make a return visit more than likely. The staff really are something else too; polished to a sheen, the perfect gentlemen.

‘Look after your big sister for me, won’t you?’ the head waiter called after Arthur as we left - and if he hadn’t promptly collapsed in complete and legless hysterics, I would’ve walked away with a grin on my face too.

Venues are rated against the best examples of their kind: fine dining against the best fine dining, cafes against the best cafes. Following on from this the scores represent: 1-5 saw your leg off and eat it, 6-9 get a DVD, 10-11 if you must, 12-13 if you’re passing,14-15 worth a trip,16-17 very good, 17-18 exceptional, 19 pure quality, 20 perfect. More than 20: Gordo gets carried away