1
Google
American•Los Angeles•$$$$
Gjelina
Gjelina earns its place at the top of a Los Angeles list because it turns the basic idea of California dining into a complete meal.
brunch
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8.4
Based on 1860 reviews
GuideUpdated June 7, 2026
Patio Restaurants in Los Angeles
Open-air Los Angeles restaurants where the setting adds to the meal — from Venice beach patios to the Design District's most scenic outdoor tables and Malibu hillside rooms.
The best patio restaurants in Los Angeles are Gjelina, Bavel, Orsa & Winston. Start with Gjelina if you want the strongest overall first pick.
By TastyPals Editors•3 ranked picks•Published June 7, 2026•Updated June 7, 2026
Google
Top picks at a glance
Who this guide is for
Good patio dining in Los Angeles needs more than weather. These restaurants use outdoor space in a way that supports the pace and tone of the meal.
Quick picks
Gjelina
American • Los Angeles
Gjelina earns its place at the top of a Los Angeles list because it turns the basic idea of California dining into a complete meal.
Bavel
Middle Eastern • Arts District
Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis built something in the Arts District that the Los Angeles dining conversation has not been able to stop referencing since it opened — a soaring, high-ceilinged room…
Editorial details
Author: TastyPals Editors
Published: June 7, 2026
Last updated: June 7, 2026
On this page
How the restaurants compare
Google
Gjelina
Los Angeles • American
8.4/10
TastyPals score
Price
$$$$
Best for
brunch
Mood
Special occasion
Google
Bavel
Arts District • Middle Eastern
4.6
Google rating
Price
moderate
Best for
Arts District dinner
Mood
Arts District
Google
Orsa & Winston
Los Angeles • Asian Fusion
9.0/10
TastyPals score
Price
$$
Best for
hidden gem
Mood
Easygoing
How we chose
We looked for restaurants that feel like a strong fit for the guide topic, not just the most obvious names in the city. The shortlist favors rooms with clear mood, dependable pacing, and enough distinction to help someone decide faster. Read our full methodology →
Room tone
Lighting, pace, and general energy all need to support the reason someone clicked this guide.
Food fit
We favored restaurants that feel best suited for the moment, not just restaurants with broad reputation.
Useful range
The final list tries to give readers enough variation in neighborhood, price, and style to compare real options.
3 ranked picks
Gjelina — Gjelina earns its place at the top of a Los Angeles list because it turns the basic idea of California dining into a complete meal. The current Venice menu gives equal weight to pizza, pasta, seafood, and vegetables, then makes the connections feel natural. Start with the Mixed Mushroom pizza, a spare combination of rosemary, confit garlic, and olive oil that lets the crust and mushrooms do the work. Follow it with the Wood Roasted Cauliflower, dressed only with garlic, chile, and vinegar, or the Grilled Broccolini with garlic and fermented Fresno chile vinaigrette. These are not side orders to fill out the table. They are the clearest statement of the kitchen's point of view.
The pasta section carries the same confidence. Saffron Spaghetti brings bottarga, confit tomato, garlic, Calabrian chile, and breadcrumbs into a dish with real salt, heat, and texture. It is an excellent counterweight to the vegetables and pizza and a strong reason to order across the menu rather than choosing a single category. The room on Abbot Kinney still works best when the table is willing to share, linger, and leave room for another plate.
For dinner, reserve ahead and build an order around one pizza, two vegetables, and a pasta. The menu changes with the season, but that structure is the reliable way to understand why Gjelina remains such an essential Venice meal. View restaurant →
Bavel — Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis built something in the Arts District that the Los Angeles dining conversation has not been able to stop referencing since it opened — a soaring, high-ceilinged room that photographers and date-planners return to almost as reliably as the people who come specifically for the food. The space has a quality that is genuinely rare in a city that tends to trade atmosphere against substance: the scale flatters rather than overwhelms, and the warm light reportedly holds through the evening in a way that makes the room feel considered rather than styled. For a night that needs to feel significant without announcing itself, Bavel is consistently cited as the room in Los Angeles that does that best.
The kitchen centers on a contemporary Middle Eastern framework, and the reputation that has accumulated around it is specific: the hummus is widely reported to be made fresh and served warm, a distinction that diners and critics have noted repeatedly as genuinely different in character from the refrigerated versions the city otherwise defaults to. The menu is built around mezze logic — dishes that are meant to compose an evening rather than anchor one — and Menashe's approach to wood-fired bread is described as the right entry point, a through-line that connects the opening of the meal to whatever follows. The cocktail program is noted for drawing from the same pantry of herbs and spices as the kitchen, giving the evening a coherence that bars and restaurants rarely manage when they operate as separate concerns.
The Arts District location means the surrounding blocks reward arriving early or lingering after. Reserve for weekend evenings; the bar is reportedly accessible for walk-ins on weeknights. View restaurant →
2
Google
Middle Eastern•Arts District•moderate
Bavel
Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis built something in the Arts District that the Los Angeles dining conversation has not been able to stop referencing since it opened — a soaring, high-ceilinged room that photographers and date-planners re…
Arts District dinnerdate nightgroup dinner
Read restaurant page
4.6
Based on 1900 reviews
Orsa & Winston — Josef Centeno's downtown Los Angeles project, Orsa & Winston, occupies a conceptual space that very few restaurants in this city have seriously attempted: an Italian-Japanese tasting menu that, by all consistent accounts, treats both culinary traditions with enough respect to synthesize them rather than merely layer them. This is not a novelty act. What distinguishes the restaurant's reputation from the broader wave of Asian-fusion concepts is a reported commitment to structural logic — the idea that Italian technique and Japanese ingredient philosophy can share the same plate only when the kitchen genuinely understands what each tradition is trying to achieve. That kind of intellectual seriousness tends to produce either something remarkable or something insufferable, and Orsa & Winston's sustained critical standing suggests it lands firmly in the former category.
The menu is organized around a tasting format, and the pasta courses are widely cited as the most compelling expression of Centeno's concept. The approach, as consistently described, draws on Italian shaping and structural technique while applying Japanese ingredient logic — using the umami architecture of Japanese stock-building where an Italian kitchen might turn to a long meat braise. Diners and critics who have documented the experience tend to emphasize that the result doesn't read as either cuisine with the other's influence grafted on, but as something that has genuinely moved past both source traditions into its own coherent register.
The room is reported to be quiet and considered — an atmosphere that suits the deliberate pacing of a tasting menu and stands somewhat apart from the louder ambitions of much of downtown Los Angeles dining. Price level sits at a moderate-to-accessible range for a tasting-format restaurant of this reputation. Reservations are advisable; walk-in availability at a concept this specific is rarely reliable. View restaurant →
3
Google
Asian Fusion•Los Angeles•$$
MICHELIN ★
Orsa & Winston
Josef Centeno's downtown Los Angeles project, Orsa & Winston, occupies a conceptual space that very few restaurants in this city have seriously attempted: an Italian-Japanese tasting menu that, by all consistent accounts, treats both cul…
hidden gemdate night
Read restaurant page
9.0
Based on 318 reviews
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Save these spots to your Los Angeles list in the TastyPals app, then explore similar restaurants when you want a tighter shortlist for the night.
Personalized city picksCleaner shortlistsBuilt for iPhone and Android
TastyPalsTonight
Your taste. Our picks.
Smarter follow-through after the guide: better restaurant context, quicker narrowing, less second-guessing.
For tonight
Date night spots with warm rooms and polished service
Next step
Keep exploring in the app when you want a tighter shortlist