Looking to have dinner outside... in.

January 15, 2012 6:40 PM

Are there any restaurants in the Bay Area other than the Tonga Room or Rainforest Cafe that, like the Blue Bayou at Disneyland, provide an environment that makes you feel like you're outdoors while you're dining indoors?
posted by eschatfische to Food & Drink (4 answers total)

Well, not exactly rainforest, but Skates?
posted by latkes at 6:48 PM on January 15, 2012

Frankie Johnny and Luigi in Mountain View has an indoor dining room that's styled like an outdoor patio. Not as immersive as Blue Bayou but a reasonable facsimile of dining outdoors.
posted by MLR0608 at 8:30 PM on January 15, 2012

Caffe Venezia in Berkeley, on University, has a dining room that is decorated to look like an outdoor seating area around a fountain.

The Alley, in Oakland, near Lake Merritt, on Grand, is decorated to look like it's in an alley.

Neither of these places rain indoors though.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 12:05 AM on January 16, 2012

Completely on the low end, but Clarke's on El Camino is Mountain View is very open air and has an inside-out feel.
posted by plinth at 3:21 AM on January 16, 2012