There are as many different restaurant layouts as there are ways to prepare chicken, but window seats are always a good spot. “Restaurants fill window tables first so that the dining room looks crowded to outsiders,” says Brett Anderson, a restaurant critic for the Times-Picayune, in New Orleans. Go early to get one, or request it when you make a reservation. Booths are also hot tickets, for the squishy seating and the feeling of being closed off from the rest of the room. Often waitstaff will try to fill up less desirable seats early in the evening (especially in the absence of prominent sidewalk and front-window seating) so that they’ll have good tables available as the night progresses. If the host seats you at a small table but you spot a larger, more comfortable one, ask nicely to be relocated. The best seat can also be at the bar—especially in an expensive or very popular restaurant. You rarely have to wait, and you can order quickly. Places to avoid? Near the waitstaff station, where credit-card machines might drown out your conversation, and close to the kitchen, from which noise and smells often drift out.