These California restaurants rank among top spots in US for outdoor dining. Here’s why

As summer months continue, outdoor dining is a popular choice for many restaurant goers.

And California has plenty to choose from.

Thirty-seven restaurants across the state landed top spots on OpenTable’s list of the “100 Best Restaurants for Outdoor Dining,” including in cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Napa, Sonoma and Carlsbad.

OpenTable released its annual list on July 13, according to a news release.

“Outdoor dining played a major role in buoying the restaurant industry over the last few years, and restaurants took note — whether adding, expanding or elevating their offerings,” OpenTable’s chief growth officer Susan Lee said in the release. “Offering outdoor dining is now a key part of restaurants’ business, and we’re happy to see that diners continue to embrace it.”

To find the top restaurants with outdoor dining, OpenTable looked at 13.6 million verified reviews from May 1, 2021, to April 30, 2022.

Then the company scored the restaurants by looking at “overall diner rating, user klout, total number of reviews and regional overall rating.”

From this, restaurants were scored based on the “percentage of reviews, for which ‘outdoor dining’ was selected as a special feature.”

Here are the top restaurants for outdoor dining in California:

1. AOC - 3rd Street — Los Angeles

2. Arnold Palmer’s Restaurant — La Quinta

3. Bacari - Silver Lake — Los Angeles

4. Beachcomber Cafe — Newport Coast

5. Bella Siena — Benicia

6. Bistro Don Giovanni — Napa

7. Bravas Bar de Tapas — Healdsburg

8. C-Level — San Diego

9. Ca Del Sole — North Hollywood

10. Cafe Bizou — Agoura Hills

11. Campfire — Carlsbad

12. Casa Nostra Ristorante — Westlake Village

13. Cesarina — San Diego

14. Coastal Kitchen — Dana Point

15. Coasterra — San Diego

16. Copley’s on Palm Canyon — Palm Springs

17. El Dorado Kitchen — Sonoma

18. EPIC Steak — San Francisco

19. FARM — Palm Springs

20. Farmhouse at Roger’s Gardens — Corona Del Mar

21. Fia — Santa Monica

22. Foreign Cinema — San Francisco

23. Girl & the Goat L.A. — Los Angeles

24. Gracias Madre — West Hollywood

25. Jeune et Jolie — Carlsbad

26. L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele — Los Angeles

27. La Mar Cebicheria Peruana — San Francisco

28. Mister A’s — San Diego

29. Mitch’s on El Paseo Prime Seafood — Palm Desert

30. Pacific Coast Grill — Cardiff-By-The-Sea

31. Poseidon — Del Mar

32. Spencer’s Restaurant — Palm Springs

33. The Front Yard — North Hollywood

34. The Village Bakery and Cafe — Woodside

35. Tin Roof Bistro — Manhattan Beach

36. Tom Hams Lighthouse — San Diego

37. Waterbar — San Francisco

This story was originally published July 15, 2022 at 4:49 PM with the headline "These California restaurants rank among top spots in US for outdoor dining. Here’s why."

Helena Wegner

McClatchy DC

Helena Wegner is a McClatchy National Real-Time Reporter covering the state of Washington and the western region. She’s a journalism graduate from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She’s based in Phoenix.