Bites Nearby: City Oven Provides Great Food in a Casual Atmosphere

Overview: has a fun, urban feel to it. The outdoor seating for warmer weather is a great way to enjoy Pittsburgh’s summer nights while relaxing with casual, good fare at this Pine restaurant.

Decor: It’s modern and casual all the way at City Oven. Large, garage-type window-walls open up in warm weather, and everything is pretty much self-serve, so it is a great place for families in a relaxed atmosphere.

Drinks: City Oven serves the typical soda fountain drinks and draft beer along with wine by the bottle or glass for the grown-ups. Coffee and espresso also are offered.

Appetizers: City Oven specializes in wings roasted in a brick oven. The natural, hormone-free chicken has a dry-rub instead of drippy sauce on it. You do need to ask for a dipping sauce – we didn’t realize we could have one until we later read the take-home menu.

Entrees: Pizza and paninis are the name of the game here. You can order pizza by the slice or an entire pizza with white or wheat crust. We chose wheat, which is a real treat.

City Oven has fire-roasted toppings including bacon, sausage, chicken, spinach, tomato and mushroom, to name a few. They also have specialty pizzas, including my favorite , white, as well as vodka, sweet and meat lovers. Pizza prices range from $4.79 for a very generous slice to $14.99 for some of the specialty pizzas.

Paninis include chicken ranch, capocollo, portobello and roasted pepper, which cost $5.69 to $6.59.

They have side or dinner salads and soups. Breakfast is served all day.

Desserts: Dessert is their “award-winning” ice cream. It looked delicious, but we had filled up on the delicious wings and pizza. We will have to stop back for some Oreo or strawberry ice cream and an espresso.

Service: City Oven has a large, very casual feel to it. Everything is self-serve, which has its advantages and disadvantages. We saw families with young children trying to balance children and running back and forth to get their meals, but the atmosphere also makes it perfect for those very families.

The gentleman at the order stand was incredibly helpful, explaining the slice sizes, etc., and it was just lovely enjoying dinner outside on a Friday evening after a hectic week.

Hours: City Oven is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.

Address: Village at Pine, 2000 Village Run R0ad, Wexford. Phone is 724-799-8750.