How to Dine Al Fresco Like You’re on the Mediterranean
21 August 2026 • 13 min read
Bring the relaxed spirit of Mediterranean dining home with thoughtful outdoor furniture, alfresco cooking and a garden designed for long lunches, late dinners and evenings spent outside.
There is a particular kind of Mediterranean evening that feels almost impossible to recreate at home.
The table is set beneath olive trees. There is something cold in your glass, warm bread in the middle of the table and a plate of tomatoes, figs, olives and mozzarella being passed from one person to the next. Nobody seems to be in a hurry. Dinner is less an event than an excuse to stay outside for another few hours.
You do not need a villa in Mallorca to borrow the feeling.
The secret is not to recreate a Mediterranean garden literally, but to bring together the things that make outdoor dining there so appealing: generous seating, natural materials, unfussy food, warm lighting and a kitchen that means nobody has to keep disappearing indoors.
At Lurano, that idea sits at the heart of outdoor living. Its furniture, outdoor kitchens, Kamado barbecues, decking, pergolas and other garden solutions are designed around the same principle: the garden should feel like another room of the home, rather than somewhere you only visit when the weather happens to cooperate.
Start with the table
Mediterranean dining is generous by nature. It is rarely about one perfectly plated course. Instead, there are bowls to share, dishes arriving at different times and enough room for everyone to settle in comfortably.
That makes the dining table one of the most important pieces in the garden.
The Lurano Summer 6 Seat Dining Set is designed with exactly this kind of gathering in mind. Its rectangular table gives you the space to spread food across the centre, while the six dining chairs make it practical for a proper meal rather than simply an occasional coffee outside. The hand-woven crosshatch rope brings texture, while premium olefin cushions add softness. Acacia wood detailing gives the set a warmer, more natural character, balanced by the contemporary polycrete table finish.
It is also designed for year-round outdoor use, with weather-resistant construction and a low-maintenance finish. That matters in a British garden. Mediterranean-inspired does not need to mean Mediterranean weather.
The styling is best kept relaxed. Think linen napkins rather than formal tablecloths, ceramic serving bowls, mismatched-looking glassware and plenty of food in the middle of the table. Add a few candles once the sun begins to disappear and let the garden do most of the decorating.
In Mediterranean homes, the dining table often leads naturally into somewhere more relaxed. This is where a good lounge area earns its place.
For a larger garden, the Eleanor Corner Sofa Lounging Set creates a generous corner for conversation. The footstool can be used as an extra seat or casual table, making it useful when guests inevitably spread out after dinner. The generous proportions and plush cushions are intended for exactly the sort of long, informal evenings that make outdoor entertaining worthwhile.
For a more compact space, the Eleanor 2 Seater Sofa Lounging Set takes up considerably less room while still giving you somewhere comfortable to sit with drinks after dinner. It is particularly suited to smaller patios, balconies and garden corners.
There is also something to be said for furniture that does more than one job. The Heidi Lounge Dining Set combines a corner sofa with a rising table, allowing the same area to move from low coffee-table height to dining height. It means you can have breakfast outside, spend the afternoon lounging and still sit down for dinner without changing the furniture around.
That flexibility is useful in a British garden, where space often has to work harder.
Mediterranean gardens rarely feel overly manicured. They are full of life: olive trees, citrus, rosemary, lavender, trailing herbs and pots of flowers.
That is useful inspiration for an outdoor dining space because it creates atmosphere without requiring much decoration on the table itself.
Plant herbs close to where you cook. Rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage and basil all work beautifully around an outdoor kitchen, while pots of lavender and olive trees bring that unmistakable Mediterranean character.
If you already have established planting, work with it rather than trying to redesign the entire garden. Position your dining area so that greenery forms the backdrop. A table surrounded by foliage will always feel more inviting than one sitting in an empty expanse of paving.
And when evening arrives, keep the lighting warm and low. Festoon lights suspended through trees, candles on the table and discreet garden lighting create a softer atmosphere than bright overhead illumination.
The aim is simple: you should still be able to see the food, but you should also be able to see the garden after dark.
Bring the kitchen outside
There is a practical problem with outdoor entertaining that becomes obvious after the first few gatherings.
Someone is always going inside.
Someone is fetching the drinks. Someone else needs another serving dish. The barbecue is on one side of the garden while the fridge is in the kitchen. Plates accumulate by the back door. By the time dinner is served, the person cooking has spent half the evening walking backwards and forwards.
Lurano’s Outdoor Kitchens are designed as a complete cooking and preparation hub, bringing cooking, refrigeration, washing up and serving into the garden. The configuration includes a sink and fridge cabinet with an integrated stainless steel tap and outdoor fridge, finished with a black marble worktop. The main barbecue unit has five main burners, a side burner and rear burner, with stainless steel cooking surfaces and integrated lighting. There is also a dedicated cabinet designed to house an 18-inch pizza oven.
That combination is particularly useful for long lunches and evenings where several things are happening at once.
The fridge can keep drinks and ingredients cold. The sink means you can rinse herbs, vegetables and utensils without going indoors. The generous worktop becomes the place where you dress salads, prepare toppings and assemble plates. And the barbecue gives you enough cooking capacity to move beyond the traditional British idea of putting a few burgers on the grill. It is effectively a second kitchen, only one that happens to be outside.
That is the difference between an outdoor kitchen that looks good in a photograph and one that actually works as part of everyday life.
Lurano outdoor kitchen with integrated barbecue, generous preparation space and built-in storage.
The Kamado is where dinner gets interesting
If the outdoor kitchen is the heart of the space, the Kamado is where you can start experimenting.
A Kamado is not simply another barbecue. Its ability to retain heat makes it suitable for grilling, smoking, roasting and baking, allowing you to move between cooking styles rather than relying on one high-heat grill. Lurano's Kamado Barbecues are housed in sleek aluminium cabinets with a black powder-coated finish and black sintered stone worktops, giving them a more considered architectural appearance than the typical standalone barbecue.
There are two sizes available. The 22-inch model has a double-door cabinet measuring 750 × 750 × 900mm, while the 18-inch version has a more compact 575 × 580 × 900mm footprint. Both provide storage beneath the Kamado, making the system useful as part of a wider outdoor cooking area rather than simply somewhere to put the barbecue.
For smaller patios, the 18-inch version is particularly interesting. It gives you the cooking character of a Kamado without demanding a huge amount of floor space.
Lurano Kamado BBQ set within a Mediterranean-inspired garden, ready for high-heat grilling, roasting, smoking and outdoor pizza cooking.
How to cook pizza in a Kamado
Pizza is one of the best reasons to learn how to use a Kamado properly. The enclosed cooking environment, high heat and excellent heat retention make it possible to achieve a crisp base and blistered crust rather than the soft, pale result you can get from a conventional barbecue.
You will need a pizza stone or suitable pizza-baking setup for the best result. A ceramic stone works by distributing heat and absorbing some of the moisture from the dough, helping produce a crisp base.
1. Prepare the dough
For a simple Mediterranean-style pizza, keep the dough relatively light.
Use:
500g strong white bread flour
325ml lukewarm water
10g salt
3g dried yeast
A little olive oil, if preferred
Mix the flour and yeast, gradually add the water, then add the salt. Knead until smooth and elastic. Leave the dough covered until doubled in size, then divide into individual balls and leave them to rest again.
If you have time, an overnight rise in the refrigerator will give you a more developed flavour and a beautifully extensible dough.
2. Get the Kamado hot
Light good-quality lump charcoal and allow the Kamado to come up to temperature gradually.
For a classic thin pizza, aim for roughly 260°C or higher as a practical starting point. Some pizza styles benefit from considerably higher temperatures, with Neapolitan-style cooking commonly reaching around 420 to 450°C.
3. Keep the toppings simple
This is where Mediterranean cooking earns its reputation for being uncomplicated.
Stretch the dough rather than rolling it flat, leaving a slightly thicker rim around the edge. Add a thin layer of tomato sauce, then mozzarella, basil and a little olive oil.
Or try something more suited to a summer table: prosciutto, fresh figs and rocket; roasted courgette with ricotta and lemon; or burrata, tomato and basil added after cooking.
Do not overload the pizza. Too many wet toppings make the base harder to crisp.
4. Transfer it quickly
Dust a pizza peel with flour or semolina and build the pizza on it.
Give the peel a small shake before launching. The dough should move freely. If it sticks while you are trying to transfer it, you will have a much harder time getting it onto the stone in one piece. Ooni also recommends using semolina to help prevent sticking and making sure the pizza does not sit on the peel for too long before launching.
Open the Kamado carefully. If it has been running at a very high temperature, follow the manufacturer's instructions for safely opening the lid to avoid a sudden flare-up.
Slide the pizza onto the hot stone and close the lid.
5. Watch the crust, not the clock
Cooking time will depend on the temperature, dough, toppings and configuration.
At around 260 to 315°C, a thin pizza may take several minutes. At substantially higher temperatures, it can cook much faster. Look for a browned, blistered crust, bubbling cheese and a base that has developed enough colour to hold its structure. If the top is cooking faster than the base, your Kamado not be hot enough.
Remove the pizza, give it a minute to settle, then finish with fresh rocket, basil, parmesan, burrata, prosciutto or a drizzle of good olive oil.
Think in plates, not courses
A Mediterranean table should feel generous without becoming complicated.
Start with bowls of olives, salted almonds and warm bread. Add grilled peppers, tomatoes dressed with olive oil, burrata, figs and a little prosciutto. Then bring out the pizzas. Follow them with grilled fish, chicken, prawns or vegetables from the barbecue. You do not need to make every dish elaborate. In fact, the simpler the ingredients, the more they benefit from being cooked outside.
Finish with fruit, something cold and creamy, or a plate of figs and dark chocolate.
The important thing is that everything can be shared.
Choose furniture that can actually live outdoors
The Mediterranean look is easy to imitate badly. Too much themed decoration can make a garden feel staged rather than lived in. Natural textures do more. The woven rope of the Summer Dining Set, the warmth of acacia wood, stone-look surfaces and neutral upholstery create the right foundation without turning the garden into a set.
The Summer 6 Seat Dining Set is particularly suited to this approach because its materials bring texture without relying on ornament. The hand-woven rope gives the chairs a tactile quality, while the premium olefin cushions make them comfortable enough for a meal that turns into several hours at the table.
The result should look as though it belongs there.
Let the garden do the decorating
The result should feel as though it belongs there, rather than looking as though it has been decorated specifically for summer. Mediterranean gardens have a naturally relaxed quality to them, with olive trees, citrus, lavender, rosemary and terracotta pots providing much of the character. There is no need to fill the table with decorative objects when the garden itself can provide the atmosphere.
The same principle works when choosing outdoor furniture. Rather than trying to make every element match perfectly, start with a strong foundation and allow the different areas of the garden to feel connected. The Summer 6 Seat Dining Set can form the centre of the dining area, while a separate lounge space gives guests somewhere to move to once dinner is finished. For gardens where space needs to work a little harder, the Heidi Lounge Dining Set is particularly useful, combining relaxed seating with a rising table that can move between dining and coffee-table height.
This layered approach also means the garden can evolve naturally throughout the day. Breakfast might happen at the dining table, the afternoon could be spent lounging with a book and, come evening, the same spaces become the setting for drinks and dinner. It feels considerably more relaxed than designing a garden around one fixed purpose.
Give the garden some shade
The Mediterranean garden is often defined by shade as much as sunshine. An olive tree, a pergola covered in climbing plants or a simple canopy creates somewhere to escape the heat while still keeping the garden open and connected to its surroundings. In the UK, where sunshine can be less predictable, having some control over the elements is just as useful for a different reason.
A Lurano aluminium pergola can create a defined outdoor room without making the space feel enclosed. Its adjustable louvred roof allows you to control the amount of sunlight reaching the furniture, while additional options such as screens and side panels can provide greater shelter when the weather changes. This makes it possible to position a dining table or lounge set beneath the structure and use the space for considerably more of the year.
It also helps give the garden a sense of structure. Rather than having a table, chairs and barbecue scattered across the patio, a pergola can establish the main entertaining area and provide a natural relationship between the dining space, cooking zone and surrounding planting. With warm lighting and comfortable furniture underneath, it can become the part of the garden that naturally draws everyone outside in the evening.
What matters most is that the garden works well when people are actually using it. The furniture should be comfortable, the cooking area should be close enough to the table to remain part of the conversation, and there should be somewhere to sit when the meal is over. Once those practical decisions are right, the Mediterranean atmosphere tends to follow quite naturally.
After all, the appeal of dining outdoors in the Mediterranean has never really been about recreating a particular look. It is the slower pace, the abundance of food, the pleasure of cooking for other people and the feeling that there is no reason to hurry inside. With a garden designed around those same principles, a long summer evening can feel remarkably close to the real thing.
