Sit up straight? Nah

The exact moment when spring becomes summer isn’t always easy to detect here in the sunny Southland. It’s less about any changes in the weather than a feeling. Suddenly you find yourself wanting to cut your hair, buy something in pale linen, break out your sandals -- and let your toes go free.

Summer is about shrugging off constraints -- and that goes for the way we want to eat too. Luckily this summer restaurants all over town are doing away with the tables and formal chairs in favor of chaises, poufy ottomans, deep pillowy banquettes -- even beds. There’s lounging furniture indoors and out, at cafes and restaurants and, of course, lounges. And every one of them invites you to sprawl -- just what you want in a summer restaurant.

A drive out PCH to that Malibu institution, Moonshadows, is a perfect summer evening diversion.

Pass up a table in the rather ordinary dining room for one of the double-wide Thai chaise longues lined up on the deck with the ocean practically lapping at your feet. The seductive moonlit deck is a great spot for a drink and a few shared appetizers -- maybe some oysters on the half shell -- more than a full-scale dinner.

In Beverly Hills, a door carved with the face of a Buddha opens on Nirvana, a new restaurant and lounge from the owners of Bombay Palace across the street. The outdoor patio, with its outdoor fireplace, is appealing, but don’t stop there: You want one of the lavish canopied beds in the bar, where you can sprawl in comfort and feed each other little Indian-accented tidbits from a menu that lists appetizers as “foreplay.” The eros theme begins to cloy after a while, but not the idea of eating in sublime comfort.

Silver Lake’s Tantra has a dramatic lounge that’s just as large as the restaurant itself. Decorated in brilliant colors, it’s furnished with soft sofas and poufs, the better to dine or nibble, as you wish, in high style, while vintage Bollywood movies play, silently, on plasma screens. Try the samosas filled with spinach and, surprise, tofu; the salad of new potatoes laced with sweet/sour tamarind chutney and yogurt; and green chicken tikka in a fragrant sauce of coriander, basil and mint.

Brocade poufs are the seating in the bar at Oasis, a Spanish-Moroccan spot on La Brea. Nothing happens much before 10 p.m., when a louche crowd drifts in for drinks and big and little dishes: fine Spanish charcuterie and cheese plates, calamari with remoulade, Berber shrimp or chicken coconut curry.

The banquettes outside at Boe, the restaurant in the small hotel, the Crescent, in Beverly Hills are awfully comfy too, with big leather pillows at your back. The hostess may even offer a blanket, on the chance it gets a little chilly. The food is smart and good: iceberg wedge with green goddess dressing, grilled spicy coconut shrimp, New York strip with herb butter. If you’re feeling a wee lonely, you can join the communal table inside.

At the nearby Avalon Hotel, with an updated ‘60s decor, curtained cabanas are arranged around the kidney-shaped pool. Rent one with friends and settle in on banquettes furnished with plenty of pillows for drinks and sophisticated snacks, or dine by candlelight. Think salt and vinegar hand-cut fries, crab cakes with remoulade and cinnamon braised short ribs. Or if you’re ravenous, the blue on blue burger, with, of course, blue cheese and a “sex kitten” martini.

The entire dining room at Firefly in Studio City is under the stars, with a free-standing fireplace in the middle of the patio and tables lost in lacy shadows created by Moroccan pierced brass sconces. You can really relax in one of the curtained cabanas. Then start with fried olives and garlic aioli, maybe the spring pea agnolotti, and almond flour-crusted calamari with chickpeas and tiny currant tomatoes. The menu is French-Mediterranean all the way.

At Firefly Bistro in South Pasadena, the dining room is a tent but, sorry, no small boys to fan you with palm fronds. The atmosphere is festive, definitely summer, and the menu is filled with quirky Cal-Med dishes that make you want to linger. Thursday nights you can stop in for tapas just when the farmers market in front is winding down. My favorite appetizer is smoldering Firefly shrimp served with a soothing mint yogurt, mango chutney and chickpea salad.

On a hot day, the Japanese garden at Elixir in West Hollywood invites with groupings of comfy wicker armchairs under the shade of the broad veranda or clumps of bamboo. Order one of Elixir’s signature tonic herbal teas or a pot of Chinese or Japanese green tea. There are board games and magazines to amuse, and sometimes a tarot card reader. The gurgle of the fountain not only cools, it unravels the knots of the day.

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The hot list

Moonshadows, 20356 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu. Late night menu, $5-$14; entrees, $16-$26. (310) 456-3010.

Nirvana, 8689 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. Appetizers, $8-$22; entrees, $18-$39. (310) 657-5040.

Tantra, 3705 W. Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake. Appetizers, $8-$12; entrees, $11-$16. (323) 663-8268.

Oasis, 611 N. La Brea Ave., L.A. Appetizers, $6-$15; entrees, $10-$19. (323) 939-8900.

Boe, the Crescent, 403 N. Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills. Dinner menu, $5-$23. (310) 247-0505.

blue on blue, Avalon Beverly Hills, 9400 W. Olympic Blvd., Beverly Hills. Dining cabana with a table for 12, $500 minimum; cocktail cabana with lounge seating for up to 25, rental fee $150, plus $500 minimum. Appetizers, $8-$14; entrees, $27-$37. (310) 277-5221.

Firefly, 11720 Ventura Blvd, Studio City. Appetizers, $7-$16; entrees, $15-$22. (818) 762-1833.

Firefly Bistro, 1009 El Centro Ave., South Pasadena. Tapas, $2.50-$5; appetizers, $6.50-$9.50; entrees, $16.50-$26.50. (626) 441-2443.

Elixir, 8612 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood. Pots of tea, $3.50-$6.50. (310) 657-9300.

S. Irene Virbila, The Times’ restaurant critic, can be reached at irene.virbila@latimes.com.