Savor Scout › What to eat › Where to eat outside
Where to eat outside
A good patio can make an average meal memorable — but plenty of outdoor seating is a few tables on a noisy pavement. The best outdoor spots have shade, some quiet, and a kitchen that cooks as well outside as in.
Search “patio, outdoor seating, garden, rooftop, shade” →
Outdoor dining depends on the weather and the season, and restaurants change their outdoor space through the year. A patio listed in a summer review may be closed in March. Check before you go.
The best patios are gardens, courtyards and rooftops away from traffic. A table on a busy street with buses going past is technically outdoors but rarely pleasant.
Shade, heaters and cover matter more than they seem. A sunny patio at 2pm in July is uncomfortable; a covered, heated one in October can be the best seat in town.
What makes good outdoor seating:
- Away from traffic — Gardens, courtyards, rooftops.
- Shade or cover — Umbrellas, awnings, trees.
- Heaters for cooler months — Extends the season.
- Comfortable seating — Not cramped café chairs.
- Full menu outside — Not a reduced patio menu.
Try this search
Savor Scout takes a sentence rather than a category, so the criteria above can go straight into the box. For this, something like “patio, outdoor seating, garden, rooftop, shade” works — it reads menus and reviews for those specific things and comes back with one place and the reasons it picked it.
Search “patio, outdoor seating, garden, rooftop, shade” →
What usually goes wrong
Pavement tables on busy roads, sunny patios with no shade at midday, and assuming a patio is open in the off-season.
What to eat
Worth considering here: tacos, seafood, barbecue, Tapas, Neapolitan pizza.