The back patio at Bludorn is just as festive and cozy as the restaurant’s main dining room and bar. The covered space is fitted with banquet seating, string lighting, and plenty of lush greenery, plus the area boasts permanent fans and heaters to accommodate guests in Houston’s unpredictable climate.

On pretty patio weather days, the manicured lawn with open-air seating at B.B. Lemon offers a pristine backdrop for lunch, dinner, or weekend brunch. Rattan chairs and a few coveted outdoor bar seats allow guests to sneak glances at all of the action inside.

A Houston institution both for its diverse menu by Hugo Ortega and unique dining space inside a 1930s-era home, Backstreet Café offers the quintessential outdoor patio. A sunken courtyard boasts picturesque views at every turn with tables peppered across two levels. On excellent weather days, a table in the courtyard is highly sought after — luckily, the restaurant offers a number of tables on the front patio too. The restaurant is currently closed for repairs and opening in early February.

A newish addition to the GOOF neighborhood, d’Alba boasts an attractive backyard-style patio, complete with flat-screen TVs and Adirondack chairs encircling a community fire pit. In addition to craft cocktails, wine, and beer, the menu features provisions like Gulf oysters, seafood campechana, and 12-inch wood-fired pies. 

Steps from the famed Menil Collection, the minimalistic patio at Bistro Menil allows the sweeping views of the surrounding Menil Park to take center stage. Walk the grounds before settling in on the patio with a bottle of vino and charcuterie board. 

With its palatial design and décor, Musaafer is arguably one of Houston’s grandest restaurants, and it offers a majestic patio to match. The second-level terrace, which looks out at Westheimer and the buzzy Galleria area below, is lined with cabana-like seating areas and decked out with brightly-colored cushions and sheer white drapes.

With its lush grounds and rustic décor, this West U standout is home to one of the best outdoor dining spaces in the city. People-watch from a table or comfy couch lounger on the patio while dining on salads, sandwiches, and Tiny’s famed chocolate chip cookies. 

This Museum District gem offers a semi-covered patio with spacious seating via picnic tables and high-tops, and is equipped with both heaters and misting fans to accommodate Houston’s unpredictable weather. Visit on Thursday evenings at 6:30 pm or during weekend brunch starting at 11:30 am and enjoy live jazz along with dishes like Tennessee hot duck and fried green tomatoes.

This decades-old restaurant is a popular stop among Rice Village visitors, namely for its enormous patio featuring views of the shopping district. Weekend brunch finds pops of color at various tables with mimosa flights featuring fresh OJ, raspberry, strawberry, or grapefruit juices, while the evenings reel in the crowds for long, wine-fueled dinners.

At chef Travis McShane’s buzzy neighborhood gem, guests can choose to dine on the open-air patio or the equally charming greenhouse. Be sure to order the roasted chicken with salsa verde.

Ford Fry’s Gulf seafood and fried chicken destination boasts a large enclosed patio peppered with casual seating and picnic tables meant for lingering around for a long while.

Since opening in 2019, this Lindale Park hangout has jazzed up its space, adding an enclosed, gravel-filled patio and an outdoor bar. Find frozen libations rimmed with tajin, buckets of beer, and chilled cocktail pouches to pair with Korean barbecue wings and pastor tacos. Looking for a game-day destination? This patio is fitted with oversized fans and flatscreen TVs.

After sampling wine in the tasting room, opt for a seat on one of Mutiny’s spacious patios for dinner or a nightcap. This upscale Heights concept draws inspiration from the tasting rooms of Napa Valley, and the patio is made up of loungy corners and dining tables — an ideal setting in which to nerd out on wine, bubbly, and charcuterie. On a 70-degree day, it feels just like being in the world-famous wine region.

This restaurant and live music destination is as much a good time on an off night in part because of its large, fully enclosed patio. Aside from the larger-than-life metal armadillo which greets guests at the main entrance, there are plenty of places to get in a photo op — and Tex-Mex eats like the campechana and carne asada are photogenic too.

Billed an urban “treehouse,” this newly-opened, multi-level watering hole is a spacious getaway befitted with multiple TVs perfect for game day, Ranch Water on tap, fans to keep guests cool, and creative cocktails like a spicy Fantasma, made with Ghost tequila, cassis, lime, and ginger beer. Best of all, visitors get multiple views. Bask in the downtown skyline, best seen from the rooftop deck; people-watch and gawk at the colorful mural in the indoor lounge area, or gaze at the lush greenery that lines the nearby White Oak Bayou Trail.

Here at this EaDo joint, barbecue and brews can be enjoyed with sweeping views of the Downtown skyline, which is especially beautiful after sunset. Catch their happy hour, hosted from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., and their special bar bites menu until 10 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.