Five or six years ago, I took a party of visiting friends to the View, New York’s only rotating restaurant, for the sort of kitschy fun that Times Square provides so abundantly. We luxuriated in the panoramic view of the city, drank unremarkable, pricey cocktails, and had some sort of dinner that has completely vanished from my mind. There may have been a chicken breast.

But now the restaurant is trying to shake its undistinguished flavor. Last fall, it underwent a reported $4 million renovation in an effort to develop from a mere tourist magnet into a more serious dining destination. It emerged with a new chef and a new focus: the food and wine of New York State. Wine educator Kevin Zraly formulated a wine list showcasing local producers; cocktail consultant Dale DeGroff contributed a list of New York themed cocktails.

The heart of the experience is still the namesake 360-degree view of Midtown and beyond. The restaurant’s slow spin gives every table a full-circle tour of the city through giant windows. (Acrophobes should probably avoid the View, particularly the vertiginous ride up through the hotel’s soaring atrium in a fast glass-sided elevator.) The expensive facelift has left the room with garish red-and-purple carpets and awkwardly wide tables, but all eyes are directed out the window anyway. Cocktail napkins bearing circular maps of the view indicate which buildings are which; proud New York natives may prefer to test their knowledge without a key.

The servers’ tense competence seems much more the prod uct of a memorized training manual than of any natural aptitude. Although food gets to the table smoothly and correctly, servers oversell mercilessly, flub explanations, and generally have a disassociated, robotic demeanor. One waitress’s overloud, clipped “you’re wel-come,” repeated 20 or more times per table, echoes mechanically through the restaurant again and again.

Chef Fabian Ludwig’s cooking is “inspired by,” rather than dependent on, local flavors, which allows quite a bit of freedom. Diners can choose a starter and an entree from a standard prix-fixe plan at $54.95, or opt for the five-course New York tasting menu, which is $95 with wine pairings or $75 without.

A tasty starter of thin-sliced salmon pastrami from the regular menu is ringed with a dark smoky crust; the meat is light and savory. Briny, crunchy sea beans amplify the pastrami’s flavor, while a blood-orange reduction provides oddly sweet counterpoint. But a scoop of over salted, mayonnaisey salmon tartare on top diminishes the dish, masking the fish’s pure flavor in something like a raw version of deli salmon salad. Another starter showcases local oysters and clams: a foursquare arrangement includes one cheese-swaddled oyster Rockefeller, a pool of tomato-dense clam chowder, and one of each mollusk on the half shell, proving that, lost as they may be in the other preparations, the shellfish are indeed of excellent quality.

In a filet mignon main course, Mr. Ludwig piles beef on beef: the steak sits in a rich slick of short-rib ragout that very effectively gives heft to the lusciously tender but normally flavor-poor filet. Dusting the steak discreetly with ground porcini mushrooms before cooking adds additional savor, neatly circumventing the usual trade-off of flavor for texture. Rack of lamb needs no such enhancement; its dark, complex flavor is extended with a mustard crust and bosky rosemary sauce. Succulent baby artichokes add another satisfying dimension.

The New York tasting menu spells out the provenance of its ingredients more fully than the regular menu, but doesn’t necessarily offer a great improvement in quality. It starts well, with a slab of terrific goat cheese from Coach Farm, whose creamy, grassy flavor is matched by yellow tomato sorbet and exquisite little micro-greens. The matched small pour of Anthony Road Wine Company’s semi-dry Riesling pairs imperfectly, though, its metallic pine notes treading clumsily on the cheese’s delicate flavor.

Next is a motley but delicious preparation called a stew but shallow enough to pass for a warm composed salad. Two lobster claws and a single Long Island clam bathe in a thick, garlicky liquid; too salty to eat on its own, this base gives the shellfish intense flavor. A clutch of curious pale marbles turns out to be truffled melon balls that give a hint of freshness to the dish. A chardonnay from Long Island’s Palmer Vineyards, bottled specially for the View, offers crisp green-apple and grass flavor.

The main course is simpler: a juicy, fatty lozenge of duck breast from Suffolk County, with crisp seared skin and unabashed meaty flavor. A pear reduction, and chunks of pear and squash, give the rich bird the sweet complement it needs. Dr. Konstantin Frank’s 2001 pinot noir, with its earthy, sinuous flavors and slightly rough finish, comes alongside.

A blue goat cheese from Lively Run Dairy begins the meal’s denouement. A parfait layers the cheese, whipped to a steel colored cream, with plum compote in a marvelous blend of flavor, next to a whole piece of the cheese with garlic crackers, topped awkwardly with rubbery chunks of a misbegotten sweet wine gelatin. A fruity, balanced ice wine from Hunt Country Vineyards, made with the French-American hybrid grape vidal blanc, pairs very well.

Last is a dessert trio that uses local apples. Created by pastry chef Steve Evetts, the trio consists of a simple apple tart, a scoop of yogurt ice cream on a dehydrated apple slice, and a disappointingly flavorless mousse bathed in a caramelized, cinnamon-scented apple “bisque” that seems like little more than reduced cider. Blueberry port from Duck Walk Vineyard provides a lingering, apt foil.

A similar dessert, “The New York Orchard,” is offered as part of the regular prix-fixe menu, where its components are vertically stacked instead of laid out on a long platter, but remain uninspiring. Other options are likewise serviceable but never dazzling: chocolate-dipped cheesecake lollipops (a concept borrowed from David Burke & Donatella) with three fruit jams for dipping; a warm chocolate tart with toffee sauce; a trio of custards; supermarket ice cream in cute miniature cones. If these desserts weren’t thrown in with the prix-fixe menu, they’d be best avoided.

With about 50 New York State wines, the View offers an excellent opportunity to taste local offerings – particularly for diners not bothered by the substantial markup. More than 200 bottles from the rest of the world round out the list.

The restaurant is much improved from what it was, with genuine care and ingenuity going into the food and wine. It still has a hit-or-miss character, though. It remains to be seen whether the improvement process will continue, or whether the restaurant’s mostly itinerant clientele will deem a stunning view and occasionally delicious food to be good enough.

The View, New York Marriott Marquis, 1535 Broadway, 212-704-8900.