An entirely different outdoor urban epiphany can be had at the Hotel Peninsula's BELVEDERE. It holds two patio dining areas: one downstairs off the main dining room, and the other up on the rooftop terrace, near the pool. Neither patio has even remotely the garden or the allure of, say, the Bel Air hotel, but the upstairs terrace places you up high among the skyscrapers in what is truly one of the more breathtaking outdoor settings in the city. The upstairs menu is limited, but that's okay because the one thing you really want to eat at the Belvedere is on it: Chef Bill Bracken makes just about the best hamburger in town, and serves it with perfect French fries. Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel, 9882 Little Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills; (310) 788-2306. Entrees $23.50-$28.
BARNEY GREENGRASS' rooftop patio has a similar airiness - or maybe we're just hyperventilating over the price of the smoked fish and bagels, however sublime they may be. Barney's New York, 9570 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills; (310) 777-5877. Smoked fish $6-$150 for caviar.
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Spago Beverly Hills
176 N. Canon Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
Category: Restaurant > California
Region: Beverly Hills
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Michael's
1147 Third St.
Santa Monica, CA 90403
Category: Restaurant > California
Region: Santa Monica
Les Deux Cafes
1638 N. Las Palmas Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Category: Restaurant > Italian
Region: Hollywood
The Buffalo Club
1520 Olympic Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90403
Category: Music Venues
Region: Santa Monica
The Belvedere
9882 Santa Monica Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
Category: Restaurant > American
Region: Beverly Hills
Barney Greengrass Restaurant
9570 Wilshire Blvd. 5th floor
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
Category: Restaurant > Deli
Region: Beverly Hills
Il Moro
11400 W. Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064
Category: Restaurant > European
Region: West L.A.
The Little Door
8164 W. Third St.
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Category: Restaurant > French
Region: West Hollywood
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In the same town, and just down the street, is BISTRO K. Formerly Chez Helene and briefly the address of Chez Gilles, this restaurant came equipped with one of the best patios in town. Bistro K opened with promise: Here, finally, we thought, was a respectable, unpretentious, homey, moderately priced French bistro. The food, the atmosphere and the prices seemed balanced for once. But the balance didn't hold, and prices inexorably crept upward, until now they've outdistanced the chef's skills, and almost don't justify the ambiance. Too bad. 267 S. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills; (310) 276-1558. Main courses $11-$17.95.
Many establishments have outside dining just off the front sidewalk. There's MIMOSA's patio, with its green awning and flowers, which never quite transcends its proximity to Beverly Boulevard, but is certainly endurable if you have the onglet (hangar) steak frite. 8009 Beverly Blvd.; (323) 655-8895. Entrees $11-$20. a TAHITI, a new restaurant serving "world cuisine" (potstickers, pizza and chops), has a pleasant, small patio just inside its high taupe walls. 7910 W. Third St.; (323) 651-1213. Main courses $13-$17.
Bookish souls - not to mention downtown office workers - might want to schedule their trips to the L.A. Central Library to coincide with lunch or dinner, or at least drinks and an appetizer, at CAFE PINOT. Located in pretty downtown Maguire Square, the cafe is a series of stylish dining areas inside and outside, separated by plate glass. Eat rotisserie chicken and bistro fare - barley risotto with oxtails is always delicious. Cafe Pinot is one of the few places in Los Angeles where you feel as if you are in the downtown of a big, important city. 700 W. Fifth St. (at Flower); (213) 239-6500. Entrees $15-$23.
Hidden Gardens
More alluring than sidewalk patios are concealed gardens like that of Les Deux Cafes, cool refuges from the wear and tear of city life; fascinating places you'd never know were there unless you unexpectedly stumbled into them.
Despite the fact that it serves sushi and caters to studio personnel, the HOLLYWOOD CANTEEN's patio, with its banana palms and old Airstream trailer, has the air of a back yard of the '40s. Try the famous swordfish sandwich - if you're not observing the boycott on swordfish. 1006 N. Seward St., Hollywood; (323) 465-0961. Main courses $7-$18.
Joe Miller at JOE'S cooks some of the cleanest, clearest Cal-French cuisine in town, and the best place to eat it is on the back patio, which has the dimensions and charm of some family's small suburban back yard: lots of bougainvillea and greenery, and a lot less boomeranging noise than inside Joe's proper. Eat slabs of ripe tomato with foume d'Ambert blue cheese, and crab risotto, and roast lamb - or whatever's showing up on Miller's fresh, seasonal prix fixe menus. 1023 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice; (310) 399-5811. Prix fixe $30-$40, entrees $15-$20.
ORSO has the most famous power garden in Los Angeles. Stop in for pasta or, better yet, grilled trout with radicchio and tiny, chewy cockles. Stay for arborio rice pudding. 8706 W. Third St.; (310) 274-7144. Main courses $17-$21.
IL MORO offers another great urban refuge. Who knew that, nestled in the crook of some very corporate-looking office buildings in West L.A., there'd be this haunting, lovely patio with a pretty, still pool, thriving palms and plants, all of it effectively cut off from traffic on Olympic (and other urban roars) by a tall, gushing fountain? Good fresh fish, terrific pastas, and the best lemony-tart artichoke-and-arugula salad. 11400 W. Olympic Blvd., West L.A.; (310) 575-3530. Entrees $8.50-$16.95.
THE LITTLE DOOR, with its Middle Eastern- and African-inflected French cuisine, has finally made good use of a lovely high-walled patio and dining space which, up until a couple of years ago, flummoxed every restaurant that tried to inhabit it. Who knew sheer hipness was a survival skill? The patio at night - full of candles, and the song of running water, and rosy faces, and fragrant smells from the wood oven - is one of the most romantic spots in town. 8164 W. Third St.; (323) 951-1210. Main courses $16-$28.
RIX, in Santa Monica, is yet another hidden surprise. When you step into the sedate dining room downstairs, there's no clue that there's a packed nightclub with a gorgeous large patio upstairs. Here's the perfect place to spend a summer night sitting and drinking and listening to live music and observing the latest scant hot-weather fashions. Neal Fraser, formerly of Boxer, took over the kitchen some months back, and the food is improving. 1413 Fifth St., Santa Monica; (310) 656-9688. Main courses $18-$30.
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