The Prado at Balboa Park

The Prado occupies the House of Hospitality on El Prado, the central promenade of Balboa Park, in a building put up for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition and now a national landmark. Its Spanish, Moorish and Mexican detailing, tiled fountains and courtyard terrace make it one of the more striking rooms to eat in anywhere in the city, and it is run by the Cohn Restaurant Group.

The alcohol-free offering is short and clearly labelled. Under a Spirit Free heading the bar prints two built drinks, both on Lyre's, the Australian range of non-alcoholic spirits. The Italian Spritz NA combines Lyre's Italian Spritz with Mionetto's alcohol-free sparkling and orange, which is the aperitivo shape done properly — bitter, orange-led and long. The Prickly Pear Margarita NA uses Lyre's agave blanco with prickly pear, lime and agave, and is the better of the two for anyone who finds aperitivo flavours too bitter. Beside them the menu lists house sparkling lemonades in strawberry, passion fruit, mango, pink guava and raspberry, which are simple, cheap and made to order.

Two named builds is a modest programme rather than a deep one, and worth describing as exactly that. What earns the listing is that they are printed, named and built from real non-alcoholic spirits rather than left to a bartender to improvise, in a restaurant that serves a very large number of visitors who are in the park with children, driving, or simply not drinking at lunchtime.

The practicalities matter here more than at most restaurants. The Prado is closed on Mondays and serves from half past eleven in the morning until eight, with a half past seven close on Sunday, so it is a daytime and early-evening venue rather than a night out. Parking in the park fills at weekends. The terrace is the reason to come, and it is worth asking for when you book.

The building holds more than twenty-two thousand square feet of indoor and outdoor space, including gardens, terraces and a ballroom, so the restaurant runs weddings and events alongside ordinary service and can feel busy in a way a neighbourhood room does not. The food is Californian with Spanish influences — the kitchen's own list of favourites runs to spicy calamari fries, red wine braised short ribs and a paella — and the sangria is the house drink on the alcoholic side. If you are visiting the park's museums for the day, this is the one sit-down restaurant on El Prado itself, which is worth knowing when everything else within walking distance is a counter.