It has been more than a decade since Vaso Azzurro opened at the mouth of Mountain View's Castro Street, on the train-station end of the river of restaurants that flows from El Camino Real. Faux-rustic sponged walls and cheesy mandolin music plunking out of the speakers give this upscale Italian establishment a quaint, slightly dated feel.

But really, there's nothing passe about traditional Italian cuisine served by a solicitous wait staff in a lovely, but no-fuss ambiance. Eleven years down the road, Vaso Azzurro remains a relevant — and delizioso — part of the Castro Street culinary scene.

Although the restaurant's tagline on its website and menus — "fine Italian and Provencal cuisine" — would suggest an equal share of Southern Gallic fare, Vaso Azzurro ("blue vase" in Italian) tilts almost completely to Italy. The menu is structured around traditional and familiar dishes: pollo saltimbocca, scampi gamberi, salmone stromboli, gnocchi and risotto.

There are also longtime house specialties such as the fettuccine azzurro ($15.25 lunch; $16.95 dinner) a savory tangle of extra-wide fettuccine, firm to the teeth and sauteed with black mussels, rock shrimp, scallops and garlic in a chardonnay and saffron sauce. With a crisp Montresor Valdadige Pinot Grigio ($8 glass; $30 bottle) and a basket of warm focaccia to dip in a basil, garlic and red pepper-infused olive oil, it made for a substantial and flavor-packed lunch on my first visit.

The shrimp scampi ($17.25 lunch; $19.95 dinner) is four rotund shrimp lined up in formation, wading in a buttery-garlicky pool and surrounded by a garnish of sauteed vegetables. It is the kind of sparsely populated dish that can be measured in price-per-bite, but it works when each bite manages to be both decadent and delicate.

I can't be the only one to notice that in recent years the volume of a glass of wine is often inversely proportional to the price of a restaurant's entrees. As the quantity has diminished — and the prices have inched up toward the double digits — I've come to watch the size of the pour like a curmudgeonly old barfly, ready to pounce on the poor bartender with a lecture about how I am going to have to dip into my retirement fund to afford a simple glass of house white.

At Vaso Azzurro, where some of the entrees do bump up to the pricier end of things, I was fully expecting the requisite oversized glass with an undersized pour. However, two copious glasses of a full-bodied San Fabiano 2006 Chianti ($8.50 glass; $32 bottle) were placed before us at the bar. And later, to my amazement, the bartender generously topped off our glasses before we moved to our table for lunch.

Neighborly, old-fashioned touches like this, along with the highly attentive and unpretentious service, help distinguish Vaso Azzurro from so many other fine Italian restaurants in the area. The tag-team service was outstanding on each of my visits, never falling into overly solicitous territory. In fact, my husband and I put them to the ultimate test one evening by bringing along our 6- and 3-year-old girls.

As warm and friendly as the restaurant is, it isn't the first place you'd think of taking children, what with all the white tablecloths and stemware, and the utter lack of spaghetti and meatballs. They were gracious about every one of our annoying, kid-focused requests, from finding an additional booster seat to bringing two kinds of pasta sauce on the side, lest one sauce failed to please the little ones.

We adults started with the aubergines au grill modena ($6.95 lunch; $7.95 dinner), a warm, savory stew of marinated eggplant, tomatoes, onions, garlic and roasted red peppers. Slightly smoky and savory, it had us in a veritable fork fight for the last bites. Unfortunately there were not enough bites. It seemed downright cruel to give us such a sublime dish, but so little of it.

The thickly cut calamari fritti ($8.95 lunch; $9.95 dinner)†were tasty, fried to just the right point of chewiness. For my entree, I ordered the fish of the day, a generous piece of halibut stuffed with rock shrimp and spinach and served on a shallow pool of hollandaise ($23.95). I was honestly a little worried when I placed my order, fearing a sauce-drowned fish, outdone completely by such a rich accompaniment. But they got it right. The hollandaise was lemony and zesty, and spooned gently around the flaky fish. The accompanying dollop of creamy mashed potatoes may not be the most authentically Italian item on the menu, but who cares. They inspired yet another fork fight.

We also enjoyed the rich buccatini al salmone affumicato ($13.25 lunch; $14.95 dinner). The waiter seemed unsure when we asked him if the buccatini (similar to spaghetti, but thicker and hollow inside) were house-made, but finally said he thought it was among the pastas the kitchen turns out itself. The string-thick pasta tasted so fresh we decided they must be making it on site — or flying it in from Italy. The buccatini were sauteed with smoked salmon, green peas, generous amounts of fresh dill and a light cream sauce.

Unfortunately, dessert was disappointing. We ordered an unremarkable piece of chocolate fudge cake ($6.95) and a tiramisu ($6.95) that was cake-like and cloying, lacking any espresso or rum flavor. My decaf coffee had that sour, charred taste that can mean only that it had been heating on the burner for too long. The coffee was quickly replaced with a fresh cup, but we didn't bother finishing our desserts.

For all its traditional Italian-ness, Vaso Azzurro is owned by three Iranian-born brothers: Michael, Alan and Hoss Sadri who bought the restaurant from its original Turkish owners four years ago. The Sadri brothers are veterans of the kitchens of many of the Peninsula's best-known Italian establishments, past and present: Il Fornaio, Piatti, Piccolo Mondo, Fontana's and Parkside Grill.