Please suggest a casual restaurant with good food and outdoor seating for dinner in January in the Palm Springs area - prefereably La Quinta or Indian Wells.

Le St. Germaine in Indian Wells, Cuistot bistro or Las Casuelas in Rancho Mirage.

Dinner will not be comfortable outdoors in January, unless they have heaters.

totally agree sf!!

Sorry, as much as I love the ambiance at the
RM Las Casuelas, I can't endorse the food quality.

I would suggest Jackalope Ranch. It is closer to La Quinta and Indian Wells than Las Casuelas Nuevas.

Never had a bad meal..guess it depends on what you order.
No, its not the best but its decent and suits the op's request and the patio with the roving marachi's, flowery bouganvilla is lovely..downtown location is better but not as close to your criteria.
Le Vallauris is another fav but its not cheap but the patio is great.

We had an excellent memorable meal at Le Vallauris in PS - not a casual restaurant. As ksucat noted, it was not inexpensive but in our experience, a similar meal in the DC area where we live would have been much more. If you click on my name, you will find a PS trip report with some more restaurant descriptions. Many of the restaurants had outdoor heaters.