Puccini Swinton Restaurant Pizzeria — Restaurant in Salford

Such a shame for our dining experience this evening, normally have lots of attention/service when eating here but today was a different story.

Celebrating my birthday, we had booked Puccini's for myself and 5 other guests for 6pm. Walking through the door, stood in the entrance and not acknowledged by the bar waiter and felt lost, normally greeted and told someone would be with us in a while, didn't get that this time. Had to find a waitress in the restaurant after sometime to let them know we had arrived, told to wait in the bar while they relaid our table. We obliged as we could hear the restaurant was busy. Ordering a round of drinks while we waited for two others to join us, soon after the guests arrived and the party was complete, they ordered their drinks (not served, told it will be sent to the table), we then were seated in a booth table, given menus and then.. left, left for almost 40minutes until we had to call a waiter over to order.

Within our 40minutes we had flagged down waitresses and waiters, asking about the drinks we had ordered at the bar, having to ask twice before having someone take our full order.

Once ordered and enjoying the company of the evening, no attention was given to our table, with glasses drying up, again having to flag down a waiter to order drinks, in total had to speak to a member of staff 5 times before going to the bar to collect the drink ourselves.

Starters out and on the table, waiting for all to receive the food, meatballs came minutes after the table were served, and again having to flag down someone for sauces. On our fried mozzarella and camembert, found a wrapper on the food, at the end of the meal we had brought this to the attention of the maitre d who cleared our plates, no check back done for the starters otherwise would have said then. He apologised and moved on.

Underwhelmed by the experience so far the table and I were discussing the service and apologising to our guests, explaining it's not normally like this.

The food and speed of food was great, it saved the meal for me, after cleared only waited a short while for mains to arrive. When food arrived, we asked the waiter for some more drinks, and if anything could be done about the temperature in the restaurant, the table and I were heated up, feeling very warm which made us uncomfortable. Flagging the maitre d saying to him it's warm, he sympathised and said he'd open the back door. After some time we did feel a difference.

After mains, took some time for plates to be cleared, once they were, we weren't interested in desserts and asked for the bill, again they took the to receive. Reviewing the bill they added an extra bottle of beer on, guessing in the confusion of all the asking, brought it to their attention when paying the full bill and asked for it for the road.

The overall experience was poor, the food was lovely but the service was terrible, having to ask waiters and waitresses to be served after waiting 20/30/40 minutes plus finding a wrapper on the food and still having to pay the full bill.

When we normally come, coats are taken, napkins on the laps and attention to detail is noticeable, this evening definitely felt the difference. Brought our guests here for its famous experience but felt less than high Street restaurant standard which we never had felt before.

May wait for some time before coming again, hope this...

Puccini is one of the few restaurants where you will get a proper eating out experience from all points of view. Everything from the restaurant design to the food and staff is a positive experience.

The restaurant is a bit tight on space, but overall very well laid out. Tables and silverware are always spotless. The restaurant is very classy and it's a proper Italian restaurant experience. The staff are always courteous and act professionally, more so than in other larger and more popular restaurant.

Admirable is the fact that the owner will most likely welcome you all the time when you get here. He's very attentive and always making sure his customers are well looked after and fully satisfied with their meals.

I've been here on multiple occasions with family and friends, some of whom have been living in Italy for over 10 years and were highly impressed with the restaurant, staff and food. The food which is always amazing, tasty and well presented. I haven't tried everything on the menu yet, but the lasagne is to die for and even the small portion is plentiful. All the steaks I've tried were juicy and delicious and with the right amount of veggies and sauce.

As well as food, you will find a few good Italian wines, out of which Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is probably my favourite. Staff will make sure to keep your glasses topped and are always on had to address any of your concerns.

One thing that's admirable is that they have an open view kitchen so you can always make sure your food is prepared in a proper environment, if you are concerned with that. And, I've been behind the kitchen doors of a few restaurants so far which were absolutely a shame when it came to tidiness and cleanliness. But not Puccini. The kitchen here was absolutely spotless every time when I've been here and peeked inside.

Overall this restaurant the best one in the UK that I've been at so far and I will keep recommending them to anyone wanting a top experience...

Compared to what it was like before Covid, this place now is not great at all. We loved to come to this place, but after our last visit, we have decided that it will be our last one. Now we are not surprised why this place do not have so many customers like before. Portion sizes got reduced drastically and prices were raised a lot. Yesterday’s evening experience was shocking. I decided to go for a lamb shank, but they were out of stock, so the other lamb dish that I chose came to a size of a snack...and it cost almost £25. When we have ordered desserts, after long waiting one of the waiters came to us saying that they were out of tiramisu, then I have asked for lemon meringue cake that they also not had... Others decided to go for ice cream and pannacotta and again had to wait for a very long time... Kids ice cream arrived, but adults not, so we had to wait again for ages and ask waiters where our desserts gone. Finally when our deserts arrived the size of the pannacotta was ridiculously small (size of a small yogurt pot) that was priced at £7 and the adult size ice cream had only 1 additional small waffle on top costing extra £2 compared to our kids ice cream. Before coming to this place with our friends for my hubby’s birthday we were very excited... But now we regret our decision to come here. Giving two stars only because food quality is still good, but everything else is...