YOU know what it's like. Drinking the best champagne out of crystal glasses every day tends to get a little boring.

Those sedate meals in one of the best restaurants outside London start to grate after a while.

So where does Sven-Goran Eriksson, holed up in the all-embracing luxury of the five-star Lowry Hotel, go when he wants a culinary diversion from the kind of place where they don't brush the tables between courses?

He heads to an unassuming little Italian restaurant in the corner of a rather bedraggled concrete shopping precinct, of course - and has a great time.

But the Manchester City boss is not the only man in football to dine at Puccini, in Swinton - a Premier League manager's wish-list of talent has eaten here over the years and there is sporting memorabilia around the restaurant to testify to it.

So it was that I took a meal at the Chorley Road eaterie on the Friday before the most significant Manchester derby for over a decade. And who was in the dining room with me. Yes, Ol' Blue Eyes himself, entertaining a large group of Swedish friends, who had flown over for the red and blue encounter at Eastlands.

Sven didn't seem to mind that his corner table for 12 was underneath sketch portraits of two of Manchester United's greatest players, Eric Cantona and Wayne Rooney. He never struck me as the superstitious kind.

Which is just as well as the United sketches line the room, providing diners with entertainment at working out who they all are. Some, shall we say, suffer from being drawn at odd angles. And, apparently, everyone thinks that the blonde, female athlete who is an exception to the list of Old Trafford legends is Diego Forlan!

There is also a signed England shirt - a memento of one of the times the former international manager brought the squad here for a meal when they played at Old Trafford. Praise indeed.

Atmosphere

Since Sven has pitched up in Manchester, he has been a regular diner at Puccini and I guess it is for the family atmosphere, buzzing with life and crackling with good humour as much as for the good, honest Italian cuisine.

The menu is as traditional as the terracotta tiles on the floor, with a great choice of 15 pizzas, five risottos, pasta, meat and fish and a long specials menu.

I don't know what Sven had, but we bypassed the pizza base garlic breads (which I hate - focaccia all the time for me) and kicked off with starters of meatballs (£5.95) and eggs Florentine (£5.50).

The four large meatballs were tenderly baked in a rich tomato sauce, topped with a pinch of parmesan, and were at the same time light and firm under the knife.

The eggs, with spinach and cheese, were a treat, too. Alternatively runny and set with a sweet béchamel sauce up against that savoury cheese.

For mains we went with the specials, the tiger prawns and scallops for me and my ball-girl opposite going for the equally simply titled `Monkfish'. Both came with veg. I was disappointed when our waiter returned soon after to tell me, sorry, there were no scallops, after all. "But," he said, rather superfluously, "I don't like them anyway."

However, that was forgotten when those striped shellfish arrived. About eight prime examples, simply but expertly sautéed in wine, butter, lemon and a vampire-repelling amount of garlic.

The monkfish was of the same high standard. Tender, moist and done in a similar, simple sauce, minus the blast of garlic. The quality of the fish is probably due to the fact that proprietor Michele Pucci says he does all the shopping himself. And that seafood was nicely framed by a Soave Classico (£16.50) - a deep-straw coloured variety from 2005. Though remembering that Sven presented Sir Alex with a £415 bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon at their match, I should've gone for Puccini's Penfolds Grange 1999 at £249.95, to see what I was missing.

The dessert menu has 26 choices but ball-girl's selection of crème caramel was also not available, so she consoled herself with a `very good' coffee.

The warm summer fruits (strawberry, blackberry, red and blackcurrants) were pleasingly tart on my cool panna cotta (£4.30), which wobbled delightfully underneath.

As we left, Sven was still at his table, enjoying the atmosphere in Puccini, created by giggling 60-somethings on a girls' night out, couples smoozing, extended families breaking garlic bread and Michele shaking hands or kissing everyone as they arrived or left.

City's saviour certainly didn't look like someone who was eager to drag himself away from this United enclave back to his five-star hotel as he posed for diners' photos. Though I wonder if that would have still been true two days - and three precious Premier League points - later.

Puccini, 171 Chorley Road, Swinton. Tel 0161 794 1847, puccinirestaurant.co.uk

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