October is generally Tokyo's last good month for open-air dining, but often it's the most pleasant of all. Food, after all, never tastes better than enjoyed outdoors on a perfect Indian summer day.

Parc Cafe has a few tables out on the sidewalk where, during the daytime at least, it feels a little . . . well, exposed. You almost fear that some pedestrian is going to weave his way between your wine glass and your hors d'oeuvre. But it gets cozier at night, and there's always the very pleasant monochrome room upstairs overlooking Shinjuku Gyoen park. The atmosphere is completed with the kind of '60s proto-acid jazz/funk heard everywhere in Tokyo these days except, strangely, at restaurants. That, combined with the offbeat location, gives Parc Cafe a feeling all its own: new and chic, but personable and unforced--and far, far away from the beautiful café crowds of Omotesando. Seek this place out and you'll get the feeling that the people here are happy you made the effort.

The standard lunch course goes for Y1300, a price that would be a bargain for half this much food (starter, main course, dessert, bread and coffee). Up the ante to Y2800 and the chef pulls out the stops. Dinner switches over to mainly à la carte, although they will put together a course if you'd like. Appetizers average about Y1200; main dishes, around Y2000. No Tokyo French café clichés either. Try these on for size: octopus with yellow, green and red peppers with fresh tomatoes and sliced onions; boiled leeks in walnut-oil dressing; sea bass in red wine sauce; and red snapper in a soup laced with celery and olive oil. Or keep it simple, say, with a bowl of vegetable-laden soupe paysanne, a bottle of wine and a whole lot of bread. The wine list focuses on well known French regionals in the Y3000-5000 range--solid drinking if not super exciting.

In a way Parc Cafe could be a kind of test case. It's a high quality, truly cosmopolitan café, not particularly near anything else (except Tokyo's classiest park). "If you build it, they will come," the owner must have heard in his dreams one night, and we hope they do--this place is a civilizing influence, and our town can never have too many of those.

Ali Baba

3-2-7 Nishi Azabu, Minato-ku

Tel: 3470-1497

Open: 11am-11pm

Average check for two: Y5000

Ali Baba appears to function less as a restaurant than a social club for the growing community of Iranians working around the Roppongi area. There they sit, gathered around the tables out front almost any fine evening. You can practically see the passers-by thinking: "Wow . . . that's a place I could never go into." For a country so fascinated by things "ethnic," Japan still gets a little uneasy around the real thing.

The realness in this case has two advantages. Achmet and his staff will welcome you with the kind of ingenuous, almost shy hospitality one gets in places where tourists don't go. Second, and needless to say, the food's real too. If you like Turkish cooking, you'll probably like this. They do a half dozen varieties of kebabs, all juicy and grease-free. They use fragrant, fluffy long-grain rice, spiked with saffron. There are salads, vegetarian stews and lamb's legs and brains, none of it exotically spiced or notably sophisticated, because that isn't what Iranian home cooking is about. Its virtues are those of freshness, healthiness and unstinting portions. Sprinkle everything liberally with the red powder from the shaker on your table--not cayenne, but a lemony mountain herb that supercharges all these good simple flavors. For those who insist on spice, order a Cave Creek Chili Beer. For dessert there's ice cream or fallodeh, a Persian delight of coconut and rosewater. Top it off with their excellent tea or Turkish coffee.

One doesn't sense much high-power business drive here. A flashy "Let's Healthy Persian!" campaign could probably pack this place with trendy Roppongites. Obviously that's not the goal. They could also do more with the slightly cave-like interior. Then again, why bother, with a patio right on a prime stretch of TV Asahi-dori? And they could make the menu a little more comprehensible to non-readers of Perso-Arabic. But they're happy to explain it to us, so why worry?

Sol

3-36-10 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku

Tel: 5269-7225

Open: 5pm-midnight

Average check for two: Y5000

This is a uniquely handy location, about 50 paces from the world's busiest train station. In these environs don't expect spaciousness. The outdoor portion is just a narrow patio, shoe-horned in between a couple of anonymous Shinjuku medium-rises. White parasols and backlit stands of bamboo set the mood: urban jungle with a hint of Manhattan garden. There's some conventionally stylish nouveau beer hall seating indoors, but then you might as well be inside any one of the dozens of similar places around here.

No, the scene here is under the stars, or what can be seen of them from Shinjuku, sipping on a tokubetsu gentei jozo ("special limited edition") Suntory beer. Which of course tastes a whole lot like normal draft Suntory, but it's fresh and cold. Among the food items, we liked the hobusa pita sandwich, the vermicelli-like daikon salad in its sour ume plum dressing, and the "Vietnam maki," a kind of long, thin, curry taquito designed to be wrapped in lettuce and dipped in nuoc man fish sauce. Eclectic? Almost comically so, but these are foods proven to work in this kind of setting. Plus it shouldn't cost more than a few thousand yen a head, and they won't kick you out till within minutes of the last train to Tachikawa.

TIDBITS

The Greening of the Colonel
We had our doubts, too, when we heard that the Kentucky colonel was going au naturel. But despite the cafeteria format and preponderance of 19-year-old girls, this is no Jack & Betty Club. They do fine, fresh, healthy food in a '90s, mainstream American mode: roasted chicken, pita sandwiches (try the chicken teriyaki or bacon and egg), salads, soups, home-style veggies, and desserts. Harvester, in Harajuku at 1-13-13 Jingu-mae, Shibuya-ku (5411-7621) and various other locations.

Beer o' the month: Heckler Bräu Fest Märzen Classic Oktoberfest style: amber-red luster, malty aroma, loads of body--except this one is brewed in Minnesota. From MicroBeers International, a Toyama-based club that will be happy to send you a monthly selection of some of America's best (and freshest) microbrews. Call Craig or Michael at (0766-76-2881) or fax (0766-76-1069).