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The convention is "outdoor seating area" because it is a condensed version of "an outdoor area for seating customers."
From the restaurant's viewpoint, it's a seating area. From a customer's viewpoint, it could be considered a sitting area (or an eating area, a fork-dropping area, an undertipping area, a complaining area...)
Does a restaurant have an outdoor seating area, or an outdoor sitting area?
If meals will be served in the area, it is seating. If it is simply a bench that people will sit on to smoke a cig or wait for their names to be called, (no food involved), it is a sitting area.
"It was so beautiful outside, we took advantage of the outdoor sitting area while we waited for our names to be called. We requested outdoor seating, which was very popular this time of year".
We requested a seat near a window. I think of sitting as an action word whereas 'outdoor seating'" is a discription as is wine celler or an upstairs apartment. In any case it will not be inside a building. Outside seating an be on the Left Bank or hear a pool.
Words are regional. I never heard a waiting room or wating area called a sitting area. When I was a kid a sitting room was a small room attached to a bedroom. On ther other hand I never heard a common screwdriver called a 'flat head' until I moved to another area of the United States.
I think outside seating as it pertains to a restaurant indicates an area where drinks or dinner will be served and smoking, and in some cities, pets are also allowed. .
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