There's something inescapably wrong about eating outdoors. The monkey alarm in the back of my head goes off, warning me to hide my food before predators steal it, and the shame of exposing my hideous table manners—anyone who's ever dined across from me should get a medal—to the public at large is too great. As with anything wrong, there's an excitement to indulging a small sin before the eyes of God and man, and that's why the patio—not indoors, not quite a picnic—is the perfect compromise. Under the protection of a restaurant, diners can slurp, sip, gnaw, and gobble in front of pedestrians without fear of dirty looks.

Meskel Ethiopian Restaurant (2605 E Cherry St, 860-1724) boasts the Cadillac of patios—spacious, with umbrellas and brand-new furniture—and additional tables on two decks overlook the patio. No doubt this Xanadu of open-air eating is overcompensation for Meskel's interior: a generic suburban house converted into a single cozy dining room. The view is nothing special—some old houses and a dilapidated storefront—but it feels neighborhoody, like a block party or barbecue.

Ethiopian food is a special treat to eat outdoors. Scooping up mounds of lentils with your fingers as leaves rustle overhead triggers a basic mental pleasure button, and Meskel's food is pretty goddamned amazing. The vegetarian special ($9) boasts the same content as any other Ethiopian restaurant, but the quality and freshness of Meskel's ingredients sparkle. Equally impressive is the yebeg tibbs ($10), a lamb dish made with superlean meat and a sauce made from a sharp mix of spices. Meskel has handily unseated Mesob as my favorite Seattle Ethiopian restaurant.

Huddled behind the bar, the patio at Rosebud (719 E Pike St, 323-6636) is a low-key, decidedly urban secret garden of delights. There are a few tables shaded completely by greenery and neighboring apartment buildings, but compared to inside—walls red and heavy with Citizen Kane memorabilia, booths upholstered with thick black-and-white stripes, like a de Stijl–loving cinephile's drawing room—the patio feels like where the dirty jokes should be told.

Rosebud's entrées are fancy-dining classics done well. The rib-eye steak ($26) is a good cut seared perfectly, accompanied by an orange-fennel cream that works like gravy, only better, and the rack of lamb ($23) is exactly what it should be: juicy meat alongside crisp roasted potatoes. Dining at Rosebud is a classy-casual experience, and while the dinners are too fancy to eat out in the backyard, unbuckling your belt and having an after-dinner drink or three in the open air feels like a perfect end to an exceptional meal.

After Rosebud's grottolike patio, Teddy's Tavern (1012 NE 65th St, 526-9174) offers a near-opposite experience. Like Rosebud's shaded enclave, it's an urban fenced-in backyard, but Teddy's patio is a solar battery. There are tables everywhere, a fine place to drink a beer in midday sun, as comfortable and relaxed as a deck chair at home. Best of all, though, is the motherfucking Ping-Pong table. I've never seen a Ping-Pong table at a bar before, but it makes a forehead-smacking kind of sense. There's a pool table indoors, but why bother with that stupid macho-posturing game of "skill" when there's motherfucking Ping-Pong just begging to be played?

I've heard rumors of nachos at Teddy's, but in my two visits the bartenders used evasive trickery to deflect my inquiries. One bartender said that they served food "later, at like seven o'clock," but the evening bartender gave me a funny look when I asked. Teddy's serves hot mixed nuts and chips for those nagging five-beer munchies, and really—the bar's decorated with paintings of Teddy Roosevelt, our toothiest president, true, but certainly one of the least appetizing. The bartender said it was fine to bring in meals from nearby Jalisco (1205 NE 65th St, 524-0717) or even Whole Foods (1026 NE 64th St, 985-1500), and that's probably the best option. It's a fine bar with an excellent patio, and so-so food would wobble up the whole experience.

One of the luckiest restaurants in town, locationwise, is Sorella's Ristorante (4234 E Madison St, 323-1393). The patio boasts a great view of Lake Washington and the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge. At dusk, it's a romantic place to drink wine and wonder at the headlights swanning across the water. Unfortunately, in the face of such beauty, the menu underwhelms. The pizza ($14.95) was covered with a gag-inducing quilt of mozzarella, and the bready, bland crust wasn't even up to the quality of an upscale frozen pizza. The chicken piccata ($13.95) was described in the menu as a light dish with a lemon-butter sauce, but the waiter (who was impossibly bad—in a fit of childhood nostalgia, I ordered a Shirley Temple ($2.95), only to have the waiter shout at me from across the crowded restaurant: "Be a man! Drink beer! How old are you, anyway?") delivered a massacre of oily yellow slick drowning the pasta and a bizarre cut of gamy chicken that was almost as large as the plate itself.

Even with the gorgeous view, I decided to not take a chance on the desserts—baklava ($4.50) and spumoni ($3.50) are desserts too often lost to mediocrity and I had no confidence in Sorella's. Instead, I walked up the street to Scoop Du Jour (4029 E Madison St, 325-9562) for a waffle cone with a scoop of lemon custard ice cream ($4.50), and then back down toward the lake; viewing a fabulous tableau is great, but actually walking around in one is ideal. recommended