TAKE IT OUTSIDE : If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Get Out of the Dining Room (and Onto the Patio)

Factor in balmy air and a cool, refreshing breeze, and heaven hath no greater pleasure than a meal taken alfresco.

In our rush to secure the very best tables in favored restaurants, we often overlook the fact that many of them serve outside, in surroundings that vary from sculptured terraces with spectacular views to makeshift drywall patios furnished in discount-store plastic. No matter. When the chemistry is right, almost everything tastes better out here.

I’ve been dining alfresco at all hours of the day, in locations as diverse as a shopping mall, the end of a pier, the heart of an office complex and a quiet, tree-lined downtown. Summer won’t last forever, so you’d better go out and start cracking the whip yourself. Here are a few favorites to start you off.

BREAKFAST

* Russell’s: I’ve been a fan of this chain for several years now, but the two things I like best about these restaurants are its patios and breakfasts.

There are two Orange County eateries, one in Seal Beach, the other in Mission Viejo, and both have partially enclosed patios perfect for whiling away a lazy morning.

The Mission Viejo restaurant is newer. The patio looks like a giant flower box. You sit at olive green banquettes at picnic style tables made of beige tile, where most customers chow down on great omelets served with coarsely chopped homemade hash browns or baking powder-rich blueberry muffins, sides of double thick bacon, bowls of oatmeal or one of Russell’s yeasty, sticky chocolate chip cinnamon rolls.

The restaurant uses all-natural ingredients exclusively--whole milk, cane sugar, pure whipped cream--and bakes all pies and cakes fresh daily. Should you stay for lunch, try one of the county’s best (and sloppiest) burgers and the fresh pies, especially the peach (a glazed, golden yellow masterpiece), one of the “mile-high” meringues, or the absurdly rich sour cream raisin.

Russell’s, 27755 Santa Margarita Parkway, Mission Viejo, (714) 588-9113, and 1198 Pacific Coast Highway (at Zoeter Place), Seal Beach, (310) 596-9556. Both restaurants are open daily, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Visa and MasterCard accepted.

LUNCH

* Ruby’s Diner: This is a chain of ‘40s-style diners that is expanding faster than a hungry food writer, but one location has everything going for it: the one at the end of Balboa Pier.

Outside tables just happen to be on the roof, which allows you a majestic view of the Pacific and the chance to look down on yachts passing in and out of Newport Harbor. The last time I dined here, a gull flew off with half of my turkey sandwich.

For the record, breakfast is probably the best meal here, too, but since the management refuses to set up the roof before 11:30 a.m., you’ll have to plan on coming up here for lunch.

Burgers are the lunch of choice at any Ruby’s, and they come in four varieties; beef (one-third pound of ground chuck), turkey (lean), chicken (a tender, boneless filet from the breast) or rice, oats and wheat mulched together in a patty called a veggie burger. All are available in over a dozen incarnations, with toppings like bleu cheese, guacamole and bacon.

Salads such as Caesar and Cobb (chopped fresh greens with chicken, bacon, blue cheese and more) are generous and dependable here, but the fries and onion rings tend to be overcooked and dry. (It must be the sea air.) Ruby’s deluxe shakes, such as Oreo cookie fantasy and peanut butter cup, are terrific, though. What’s more, the sea birds don’t fancy them one bit.

Ruby’s Diner, No. 1 Balboa Pier, Newport Beach. (714) 675-7829. Open Sunday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday till 11:30 p.m. Visa, MasterCard and American Express accepted.

* Bistro 201: Some people think of this as just one more David Wilhelm extravaganza, a room that defines chichi with regard to Orange County restaurants. What a lot of people forget is that this restaurant is one of the best places around for open-air dining.

At Bistro 201, you dine in a courtyard framed by bamboo trees. Look through the glass doors, into the restaurant, and you have virtually the same effect as sitting indoors. Look up, and you stare into a maze of reality, the glass and steel edifices of a commercial development framed under a generally bright sky.

There are lots of exciting new dishes to eat here, thanks to a new chef, Alec Lester, hired away from Los Angeles’ highly touted Patina. On an appetizer gala called American sampler plate, you can taste finger foods like prosciutto-wrapped mango, spicy ahi with asparagus, pan-roasted quail with pancetta and warm goat cheese souffle with mesclun salad. Lester is also big on inventive specials, like lamb tenderloin in a vegetable ragout with garlic mashed potatoes and duck confit with date and ginger sauce. Cappuccino is still great here, and so is the warm chocolate souffle.

Bistro 201, 18201 Von Karman Ave., Irvine. (714) 553-1122. Lunch Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., dinner Sunday through Thursday, 5:30 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday till 11 p.m. All major cards accepted.

* Gustaf Anders: This restaurant was recently honored with four stars (out of a possible four) by nationally renowned food critic Mimi Sheraton. It is the only Orange County restaurant to receive such a distinction. And because there are five or six tables set up along the outside perimeter of the restaurant, it qualifies (barely) as a place in the sun among alfresco dining experiences.

There isn’t much to see here, since your table looks directly out at the rear of two or three other restaurants (in the South Coast Plaza Village complex). And it isn’t a whole lot of fun at night, when it can get a bit chilly out. But at lunch, always terrific, this is definitely a place to come, since the restaurant attracts one of Orange County’s most upscale clienteles.

Well, why not? Dishes such as the house pickled herring, wild rice pancake with golden caviar, and smoked salmon and parsley salad are still some of the headiest appetizers anywhere, and such entrees as a French-style duck, served on bed of sauteed Savoy cabbage laced with bits of confit, score consistently. Save room for Swedish desserts such as cheesecake laced with a Swedish liqueur called punsch, and loosen your purse strings a bit before you make reservations. All this acclaim may not have gone to anyone’s head, but the prices have crept up noticeably of late.

Gustaf Anders, South Coast Plaza Village (corner of Bear St. and Sunflower Ave.), Santa Ana. (714) 668-1737. Open for lunch daily, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; dinner Monday through Thursday, 5:30 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday till midnight. All major cards accepted.

COCKTAILS

* The Terrace at Hotel Laguna: When it comes to the outdoor dining scene in Orange County, this crowded, disorganized, erratic beachside patio is undisputed king.

The Terrace at Hotel Laguna, perched directly over a luxuriant stretch of beach, has long been a favorite with tourists and townies alike. It’s always jammed at cocktail hour, when people traditionally gather to watch the sun set, sip silly drinks such as beach Marys (made with dill and herb vodka) and mai tais and nibble on upscale Cal-Mex fare.

Now things have taken a turn for the better. Young executive chef Todd Clore has already brought up standards in Claes, the hotel’s main dining room, and he is doing his best to improve the outside menu as well.

Old standbys such as the terrace burger and nachos taste better than ever out here, and ‘90s items such as lamb lovers’ pizza (topped with chunks of seasoned lamb, eggplant and artichoke), salmon and swordfish fajita and spicy chicken and cashew nut springroll salad, are all done with a reasonable degree of panache. If the ditzy, forgetful service improves, and the food comes out to your table just a wee bit hotter, this place might actually work its way up to the ranks of respectability. Until then, it’s better not to think about it, and simply enjoy.

The Terrace at Hotel Laguna, 425 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. (714) 494-1151. Open daily, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. All major cards accepted.

DINNER

* Felix Continental Cafe: Not all of the great patios are by the ocean, of course. Felix Continental Cafe sits smack in the middle of Orange’s Plaza Square, a circle, really, replete with antique shops and an Old World, European atmosphere unmatched in this area.

Felix is a Cuban restaurant, offering an enormous variety of dishes and stall foods that once abounded in old Havana. About 20 tables snake their way along the sidewalk in front of this tiny cafe, and the customers fight for them with passion. If you don’t sit out here, you are forced to take your roasted chicken Cubano (half a chicken roasted with garlic that you can smell half way to Riverside) and pierna de puerco asada (roast pork leg) inside this sardine-tight, funky cafe.

Most of the Cuban classics are on hand: empanadillas criollas, juicy ground meat pies; congri, a toothsome blend of rice and black bean; fried green bananas, and tostones, the touted fried yucca root. It’s just great to sit out here even if you come for coffee, the Cuban national drink, and dessert. The restaurant’s pineapple-raisin bread pudding will bring you back for sure.

Felix Continental Cafe, 36 Plaza Square, Orange. (714) 633-5842. Open Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. All major cards accepted.

* Mezzaluna: This restaurant’s secluded outdoor patio is incredibly romantic, though few diners even know it exists.

The patio is actually downstairs, in back of the pizza room, shielded from the street and out of view. Most people like to sit upstairs, in the lively bar and cafe area that is dominated by a colorful series of framed prints paying homage to the mezzaluna, or “half moon.”

But I like it down here, away from the hubbub, where I can enjoy my carpaccio di prosciutto d’oca parmigiano e olio tartufato, goose carpaccio with Parmesan and truffled oil; pizza con scamorza e radicchio, a crisp pie oozing smoked mozzarella; and lamb rack with balsamic vinegar.

Owner Romano Molfetta is eternally Tuscan, one of the county’s most congenial hosts and a man with the sense to leave a trysting couple to their own devices. But even the most romantically inclined will want to take a little notice of Mezzaluna’s good Italian wines, desserts like caramelized upside-down pear tart and collection of swank grappas. After all, the moon is out almost every night.

Mezzaluna, 2441 E. Coast Highway, Corona del Mar. (714) 675-2004. Open for lunch Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., for dinner daily, 5 p.m. to midnight. Visa, MasterCard and American Express accepted.