At picnic tables under the trees strung with lights, enjoy pitchers of beer and grilled-in-the-open-air hamburgers, bratwursts, and portobello mushroom sandwiches. Read more.
A full liquor license propels the crowd, and the food menu includes a fine selection of wursts and other charcuterie selected by chef Kurt Gutenbrunner. Read more.
This 19th-century German inn and tavern is worth visiting on its own for the moose heads, carved wooden bar, and oompah band, but it comes alive when the backyard beer garden opens up. Read more.
Seating is out back on wooden benches, with schnitzels and wursts holding down the German food theme and plenty of Teutonic suds on tap in liter steins. Read more.
Outdoor heat lamps help you push the season, a weekday happy hour lasts until 7 p.m., and the food is better than average for a beer garden (including Thumann’s franks and panko-breaded onion rings). Read more.
High up on the roof of the Eataly complex is an Italian version of a beer garden, with a retractable glass roof that opens to cooling night breezes. Read more.
Hell’s Kitchen’s robot-friendly Yotel Hotel boasts one of the city’s nicest outdoor seating areas on the fourth floor. For now, the terrace serves as the seating area for Green Fig. Read more.
This yuppie haven offers outdoor spaces on two levels, cocktails and bottle service, and a comfort food menu that runs to guacamole, wontons, and a prime rib cheesesteak sandwich. Read more.
Ride the elevator to the restaurant’s Murray Hill rooftop (a/k/a Pod 39 Rooftop), where a limited menu, strong mixed drinks & views of the surrounding pre-war apartments with terraces are the lures. Read more.
This long-running French cafe boasts a trellised backyard that’s one of the best places for outdoor dining in the West Village. The menu mimics a Parisian bistro. Read more.
This Grand Street pioneer puts together a crowd-pleasing menu of wood-oven pizzas, apps, pastas, and secondi cheaper and better than you might have expected. Read more.
Find Eastern European comfort food and a delicious backyard setting at old-timer Neptune. Once there were dozens of Polish and Ukrainian places like this in the East Village. Read more.
If you want to feel like you’re in Italy, drop by Anella’s flower-bedecked backyard some summer evening, far enough north on Greenpoint’s Franklin Street to feel like you’re on the frontier. Read more.
This grandiosely named pizzeria on the border between Bushwick and Ridgewood turns out some amazing pies and then serves them on the airy outdoor loading dock of what used to be a brewery. Read more.
This Murray Hill old-timer has two sides covering an entire city block, one called Mexico and the other, Texas. Each has its own expansive outdoor patio. Stick with fajitas and beer. Read more.
Channeling Austin, Texas, Morgan’s spills tables out onto a corralled area out front right on Flatbush Avenue. Don't miss the Texas-style chili or the Frito pie. Read more.
The open-windowed architecture of the place guarantees that anywhere you’re seated, you’ll enjoy the outdoors. Take a stroll in the rooftop garden between courses. Read more.
There’s plenty of sidewalk seating at this popular Upper West Side Italian spot. Head for the grilled entrees of meat and fish, some with a Greek twist. Read more.
With a huge collection of picnic tables, some exposed to the elements and others in a tented pavilion, L & B (founded in 1939 in Gravesend) offers three eateries to choose from. Read more.
One of the city’s better Greek cafes offers tables on the sidewalk under an awning, furnishing tree-intensive views of Astoria Park. Grilled sardines and swordfish kebabs are especially good. Read more.
