Table for 20, please

This? Or your Ikea card table?

By Shane Redsar, Special to Metromix

So you’ve unwittingly decided to host a grand dinner party, but you live in a 400-square-foot Downtown loft that’s costing you a fortune. What's an urbane social butterfly to do? You might try shoehorning your guests around your Lilliputian table, or try convincing them that sitting on mismatched cushions while balancing paper plates on their laps is totally retro.

Grown-up times call for grown-up decisions, people. Some of L.A.’s grooviest restaurants have got the space—and the well-trained patience—to accommodate the raucous horde that you call your friends. We’ve gathered the biggest, elbow-roomiest, most solid tables to suit your large party needs. And let’s face it: A swanky Neo-Edwardian setup at a poolside cabana trumps your Ikea card table any day.