Congee is an art form at Alice’s Kitchen, the Hong Kong-style cafe opened in 2019 by the original owners of Delicious Food Corner. Here, you can order more than 15 varieties of the rice porridge.

Unwittingly designed for the moment, Dama boasts two tiers of outdoor space. A ground-floor patio framed by a sprawling pink banquette leads to a second, more intimate level that feels like an extension of the dining room — the Fashion District’s former Pacific Banana Co. warehouse reimagined as a cinematic Old Havana fantasy tiled in swirling pastels. The menu’s “Latin-inspired” theme gives Antonia Lofaso a broad palette with which to render her cuisine.

Gigi’s, set on an otherwise calm block in Hollywood across from Tartine and Sightglass Coffee, is a whole scene — an instant insider’s playground filled with camera-ready faces that are either already familiar or radiating the kind of confidence that lets you know they soon will be. The menu picks up exactly where modern American menus left off before the global calamity: a little crudo, a little caviar, deviled eggs with fried oysters, agnolotti filled with a puree of the season’s vegetables.

Santos Uy turned his Hollywood French bistro Papilles into a casual, order-inside-and-sit-at-a-table-outside burger restaurant during the pandemic. Now he serves single, double or triple smashburgers, fried chicken sandwiches and a couple of sides. For the Win joins a growing list of pop-ups devoted to serving the kind of burger you might enjoy at a neighbor’s backyard barbecue.

Louie and Netty Ryan’s restaurant patio is one of the dreamiest, roomiest outdoor dining spaces on the Westside — framed by trees and other foliage, beautifully tiled, twinkling at night with strung lights. Chef Wes Whitsell matches the mood with his expansive, fire-kissed style of cooking. His most compelling dishes conjure the South: the must-order cornbread flecked with cheddar and shishitos and pounded with butter.

Situated on the grounds of Yamashiro in Hollywood Hills, Kensho (which opened in 2019) is all about its patio. The views from the tables mostly encompass the surrounding neighborhood, but take a short walk up the lane before or after dinner to gaze out upon the panoramic breadth of Los Angeles. Decisions, like the decor, are refreshingly minimal, with a dozen or so menu items.

Highland Park has a new community gathering place — a color-saturated maze filled with tiled tables and cushioned wicker chairs, overlaid with Astroturf and covered by bright tarps and big umbrellas. It’s an environment, created by Corissa Hernandez and her husband, Gabriel Paredes (who grew up in the neighborhood), that you want to drift into and stick around for a while. The menu (tacos, ceviche and aguachile, enmoladas) is great for sharing, but everyone needs their own chile relleno.

The first thing I’ll always recommend at Ronan is “the Philippe,” Daniel Cutler’s only-in-L.A. calzone that channels Philippe’s French dip with its filling of rare roast beef and sides of jus and hot mustard. It’s the most magnificently baroque idea that comes out of his kitchen, though imagination is evident in nearly every dish. To call the business he runs with his wife, Caitlin Cutler, a “small plates and pizza restaurant” doesn’t quite convey its spirit.