Puccini is an old-school style restaurant that is not trying to be new-fangled and faddy, and for…read morethis I love it! The rather curious and somewhat questionable look of the place has been created with longevity in mind. I can oly assume that the owners have probably paid handsomely for the rather naff mural, of what looks like it could be the Amalfi Coast, with a curiously positioned arch in the foreground, (the kind you train creepers and roses on, but I can't recall what they are called...!). This would perhaps be less of a faux pas if it were painted on one of the garden walls, but instead, this lurid, ill-conceived, badly rendered piece of art covers the full extent of one of the interior walls. Perfect! I guess that they decided that the mural might up-stage the sizeable statuette of David that they have in the garden?! Love it, love it, love it!
This is not to say that I don't appreciate high design, I do! But I would hate for everywhere to look the same. Besides which, corporate homogenisation of interior design is usually little better than appalling. Sports pubs, family pubs with their awful carveries on Sundays, fast food chains and supermarket cafes all make my skin creep! Give me Puccini any day of the week! Their mural may not have been painted with the skill of the Sistine Chapel, but I bet they thought long and hard about it, and chose a subject dear to their hearts. Yes, I guess it would be true to say I have disparaged it somewhat, but that's simply because it is not to my taste. I don't profess to be an arbiter of the urbane, I simply offer my opinion for what it's worth. And, I like things that are naff in the way I perceive the art to be naff at Puccini's.
Anyway, the food! All can be forgiven for the food. Reasonably priced and homemade, with a good varied menu, and attempting to cater to everybody's tastes, Puccini's is a decent little eatery in it's class. But I go there just to ogle the mural!