At Vue 412, all patrons are served a grand view of Pittsburgh irrespective of where they sit.

The three-level restaurant, sandwiched between Bella Vista and Le Mont in Mount Washington, is compact and the dining rooms are not deep, and so diners from every table are treated equally to the city’s prominent landmarks and towering skyline.

Inside, ceiling-to-floor mirrors open the space on the main floor, making the dining room look much larger than it is. Rows of stainless steel racks of reds and whites make up a wine wall by the stairs that lead down to the lounge area, which has a bar and sports memorabilia of notable Black and Gold players.

The top floor, which displays several Andy Warhol prints, is used for private parties and business meetings. From this level, the panoramic view gets even more spectacular and a couple of binoculars on the adjacent open-air deck help viewers get up close to the flashing lights at Stage AE, or zoom in on PNC Park.

Owner Mike Roman, who grew up in the restaurant business and runs Roman Bistro in Forest Hills, says that as a kid when he went to the former Three Rivers Stadium he would look up at Mount Washington and tell himself, “Someday I’m going to have a restaurant up there.” So when The Tin Angel closed in May 2015, he snagged the place and opened Vue 421 in October.

The American menu has Italian and French influences and one item that captures the spirit of Pittsburgh — Greens and Beans ($10). To call it amazing would be selling it short because it is out of this world. Spinach and escarole are cooked in a garlicky and lemony broth along with toothsome white beans. Topped with slices of toasted baguette and a generous grating of Parmesan cheese, it is the very definition of humble comfort food.

On a warm and muggy evening, a light beet salad ($9) is welcoming. Sweet red and golden beets shine against the mixed greens tossed with a pleasing miso dressing and black sesame seeds. I am not sure what part the sesame intends to play for they contributes nothing to the flavor. Instead, they are just a pest, getting stuck in the teeth.

The tomato salad ($6) is rather ho-hum. Thick wedges of semi-ripe beefsteak tomatoes surround a mound of greens that wear a heavy crown of Italian dressing. But the tangy grilled artichoke hearts ($12) redolent with garlic is lively.

Bada Bing Shrimp ($13) is not for the wimp and packs a delicious blistering punch as you work through the crisp shrimp and lip-smacking spicy sauce. Even as I was thinking that the shrimp did not have to be drowning in so much sauce, I was loving that I could have more of it.

Flavorful crab cakes are offered as a small plate ($13) and an entree ($26). As an appetizer, a small patty, at room temperature, comes with a sensational squiggle of Sriracha aioli and side salad. If it were only even semi-warm and a little bigger, it would have been perfect. The entree portion offers two delicately seasoned, moist cakes generous with crab meat. They come nice and hot resting on polenta cakes that are crisp, but otherwise meh in flavor. Adding color to the plate are roasted red pepper and grilled asparagus, and there’s no escaping from them as they accompany almost every entree.

Portions are large and flavors outstanding when it comes to the Osso Bucco Chardonnay ($28) with smashed potatoes and sophisticated Salmon au Poivre ($26). The beautifully crusted and tender pork shank meat falls right off the bone with barely the touch of a fork, and my friends and I could have had an endless conversation about it if our table didn’t keep wobbling and interrupting us.

Pink and flaky, the medium-cooked salmon is another winner. Topped with a coating of loosely cracked peppercorns, the fish is perfectly seasoned, delicate and delectable. Stylish sacchetti (aka beggar’s purse in Italian) shares the plate with the salmon and is just as wonderful. They are filled with a demure but alluring ricotta and so I’m not sure why the menu purports that the pasta has gorgonzola or for that matter fig.

Adornments are kept to the minimum, and rightly so, in the seared scallops ($27). They have a light dusting of breadcrumbs to give them the ever so slight crunch and are served with a starchy mass of Parmesan risotto. I only wish they didn’t sit in a pool of brown butter.

Pillowy gnocchi and tender sausage ($22) are tossed in a creamy tomato-based sauce, which lacks acidic tang. What stands out instead in the sauce is the grease from the sausage. Speckled with chopped parsley, the flavor of the veal piccata ($25) with linguine is elevated by the caper-lemon juice and large pieces of artichokes, but they cannot quite disguise the overcooked meat.

As darkness falls, and the city twinkles with thousands of lights it is easy to get mesmerized by the view, and so also by the tiramisu ($7). Dusted with cocoa powder, it’s creamy, ethereal and is serenity on the plate.

Drizzles of chocolate and berry sauces zigzag across the Cannoli Di Casa ($7), which could have benefited from a sweeter ricotta filling. Lemon Cello Mascarpone Cake ($7) is a silky interplay of mascarpone and buttercream on a radiantly lemony vanilla cake while a Coco Cream Pie ($6) speaks for itself with its coconut filling and topping.

Mr. Roman says in a phone interview that before opening Vue 412 he went through different photographs of the city to find a theme for his restaurant. “At that point, my daughter said, ‘Look out the window, you have the best view.’ I agreed — I didn’t need anything else,” he recalls.

And he is right to let the view take over.

Arthi Subramaniam: asubramaniam@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1494 or on Twitter @arthisub.

First Published: August 4, 2016, 4:00 a.m.