Last updated . Source: SnagRes availability record, 61,530,416 checks across 284 restaurants through 19 October 2026. How we measure. Open dataset.
Five of the fifteen American restaurants we track in New York had every two-top taken across the current window on our 19 October 2026 reading: 4 Charles Prime Rib, The Corner Store, The Four Horsemen, The Polo Bar and Wild Cherry. 4 Charles Prime Rib, The Corner Store and The Polo Bar have never returned a bookable two-top in their entire check history.
Not by the current numbers. Across our fifteen New York American restaurants the median availability is 13%, against 3% for Italian and 4% for Indian. Ranked by average, the hardest New York cuisines with five or more rooms are Indian 11%, Italian 20% and American 30%. The same cuisine in San Francisco has a median of 57% across 24 rooms, so the American difficulty here is a New York supply problem rather than something about American cooking.
By catching a cancellation. Across 644,820 availability checks of The Polo Bar's Resy calendar we have recorded 0 bookable tables, at two people or at four. The widely repeated drop, 30 days ahead at 10 AM, comes from press coverage rather than the restaurant, so treat it as reported, set one alarm, and put a real alert on the cancellations.
4 Charles Prime Rib's own Resy listing says reservations open 21 days ahead at 9 AM, so be signed in with your party size chosen before the hour turns. We cannot confirm that clock from our own log: in 645,420 checks we have recorded 0 bookable dates. A four-top reads 0%, so the realistic path is a cancellation alert plus a backup for the same night.
The Four Horsemen opens 29 days ahead on Resy, and we have logged 292 release events there across 56 observation days. It reads 0% for a two-top in the current window and 0% for a four-top, and its loosest night in our whole record is Friday.
At some of them. Monkey Bar reads 50% of dates open for two and 47% for four. Oriana reads 10% and 3%, The Four Horsemen 0% and 0%, Claud 37% and 40%, Golden Diner 13% and 20%, Red Hook Tavern 7% and 3%.
Mostly lunch and late. Across 643,567 logged openings at Monkey Bar, 0% fell between 7:00 and 8:30 PM and 100% were before 6 PM, with 7:00 AM the most common slot. The Four Horsemen puts 66% of its openings before 6 PM. Oriana runs the other way, with 59% at 9 PM or later.
The most open, from the top: Cecchi's (97%), Eleven Madison Park (94%), Au Cheval (67%) and Atera (60%). Claud reads 37% for two and 40% for four, and Golden Diner 13% and 20%. Those are the rooms to aim at when you want a good dinner rather than a specific trophy, and the ones where the day you pick matters more than your reflexes.
No, and assuming they do costs people tables. Red Hook Tavern books on OpenTable, The Corner Store and Wild Cherry on SevenRooms, and Atera on Tock. The rest of the list is Resy. We watch all four platforms, so one alert covers whichever one a given restaurant actually uses, including the two that never appear in a Resy search.
No. SnagRes re-checks these calendars around the clock and texts or emails you the moment a watched table opens. You book it yourself in your own account at the restaurant's own price, which keeps the reservation in your name and the restaurant's cancellation policy intact. We never hold a seat under another name and never resell one, unlike paid resale services that charge per successful reservation.
Five of the fifteen American restaurants we track in New York had every two-top taken across the current booking window when we last read them, on 19 October 2026: 4 Charles Prime Rib, The Corner Store, The Four Horsemen, The Polo Bar and Wild Cherry. Those are readings of the public calendar taken by checks that run around the clock, not a ranking of reputations.
Some of the zeroes are harder than the others, and the difference should change what you do. 4 Charles Prime Rib, The Corner Store and The Polo Bar have never returned a single bookable two-top in their entire history with us, across 645,420, 644,820 and 263,279 availability checks respectively. Only 14 rooms in our whole 283-restaurant record can say that. The other zeroes do open. They open rarely, briefly, and at hours nobody would pick on purpose.
A 0% reading does not mean a restaurant never seats anyone. It means a table almost never stays open long enough for a person who is not watching to find it and take it. Every figure below is the share of dates in the current window that a party of two could book, with the four-top reading beside it, because at this end of the list the two often disagree.
4 Charles Prime Rib, West Village, Resy. 0% for two and 0% for four, and 0 open readings in 645,420 checks.
The Polo Bar, Midtown East, Resy. 0% for two and 0% for four, and 0 open readings in 644,820 checks.
The Corner Store, SoHo, SevenRooms. 0% for two and 0% for four across 263,279 checks, and it does not list on Resy at all.
The Four Horsemen, Williamsburg, Resy. 0% for two and 0% for four, on 2,581 open readings out of 622,379 checks.
Wild Cherry, West Village, SevenRooms. 0% for two and 0% for four, on 10,687 open readings out of 321,804 checks.
Monkey Bar, Midtown East, Resy. 50% for two and 47% for four, on 58,777 open readings out of 550,180 checks.
Red Hook Tavern, Red Hook, OpenTable. 7% for two and 3% for four, on 3,675 open readings out of 245,764 checks. Also not on Resy.
Oriana, Nolita, Resy. 10% for two and 3% for four, on 57,855 open readings out of 599,635 checks.
Golden Diner, Lower East Side, Resy. 13% for two and 20% for four.
Clemente Bar, Flatiron, Resy. 17% for two and 3% for four.
Claud, East Village, Resy. 37% for two and 40% for four.
Atera, Tribeca, Tock. 60% for two and 53% for four, sold as a tasting menu rather than a table.
Au Cheval, Tribeca, Resy. 67% for two and 67% for four, on 356,610 open readings out of 537,483 checks.
Eleven Madison Park, Flatiron, Resy. 94% for two and 94% for four.
Cecchi's, Greenwich Village, Resy. 97%, or 29 of the 30 dates in the window.
Most open American room we track in the city: Cecchi's (97%).
Across the fifteen American rooms we follow in New York, the median availability is 13%. For comparison, the New York Italian median is 3%, Indian 4%, French 41%, Japanese 49% and Korean 40%. Ranked by average rather than median, the New York cuisines with five or more rooms run, hardest first: Indian 11%, Italian 20%, American 30%, Korean 32%, French 37% and Japanese 51%.
The comparison that says the most is the same cuisine in another city we cover. Across 24 American restaurants in San Francisco the median is 57%, and the two rooms most often called impossible there are not. Boulevard read 87% of its window open and Rich Table 73% on the same reading. Same food, same platforms, an entirely different problem. Our San Francisco list is a guide to picking a night; this one is a guide to a fight.
The shape behind the New York numbers is consistent. Small dining rooms, a single scheduled release, and in several cases a very short calendar. Oriana opens 14 days ahead at 9 AM, Claud 14 days ahead at 9 AM, Wild Cherry 14 days ahead at midnight and The Corner Store 13 days ahead at 10 AM. A fortnight of demand landing on one new date each morning concentrates the crowd far more brutally than a 30-day calendar does, because there is no quiet far edge where nobody has looked yet.
It is worth naming what that means. At the very hardest rooms, this is a supply problem more than a timing problem. Being faster at the release helps, and hearing first about a returned table helps more, because that is where the rest of the seats come from.
American in New York, 15 rooms: median 13% of window dates open for a two-top.
Italian, 13 rooms: median 3%. Indian, 6 rooms: median 4%.
French, 8 rooms: median 41%. Japanese, 10 rooms: median 49%. Korean, 7 rooms: median 40%.
American in San Francisco, 24 rooms: median 57%.
5 of the 15 New York American rooms had every two-top taken on this reading, which is where the release and an alert matter most.
Most of this group opens one fresh date each morning at the far edge of a rolling window, and the useful answer is per room rather than per city. Monkey Bar opens 21 days ahead at 9 AM on Resy, and we have recorded 483 release events there across 57 days. The Four Horsemen opens 29 days ahead, measured across 292 release events. Claud opens 14 days ahead at 9 AM and Au Cheval 21 days ahead at 9 AM.
Some belong to the night shift. Golden Diner opens 30 days ahead at midnight, logged across 475 release events. Wild Cherry opens 14 days ahead at midnight on SevenRooms, across 397 events. Cecchi's opens 28 days ahead at midnight. Red Hook Tavern opens 14 days ahead on OpenTable.
Then there are the hours we will not state flatly. The Polo Bar's commonly reported drop, 30 days ahead at 10 AM, comes from press coverage rather than the restaurant, and catching a release there requires finding a date in the act of becoming bookable, which our checks have never done. 4 Charles publishes 21 days ahead at 9 AM on its own Resy listing, which we quote as the restaurant's statement rather than as our measurement. The Corner Store opens 13 days ahead at 10 AM, through SevenRooms and not Resy.
Oriana's own Resy listing publishes 14 days ahead at 9 AM, and that is the alarm to set; we have logged 400 release events there across 56 days. Where a restaurant publishes its own schedule we quote the restaurant and let it win, and if you are serious about Oriana, check the evening as well as the morning.
One detail costs people drops they were awake for. A restaurant that says it books 21 days in advance usually reads, on our side, as a calendar whose far edge is 20 days out. If you are unsure by a day, look on both mornings. It costs nothing.
The Four Horsemen: 29 days ahead. Monkey Bar: 21 days ahead at 9 AM.
Oriana: 14 days ahead at 9 AM. Claud: 14 days ahead at 9 AM. Au Cheval: 21 days ahead at 9 AM. 4 Charles Prime Rib: 21 days ahead at 9 AM, per its own Resy listing.
The Corner Store on SevenRooms: 13 days ahead at 10 AM. The Polo Bar: 30 days ahead at 10 AM, reported, never confirmed.
Cecchi's: 28 days ahead at midnight. Golden Diner: 30 days ahead at midnight.
Wild Cherry on SevenRooms: 14 days ahead at midnight. Red Hook Tavern on OpenTable: 14 days ahead.
Little of what comes free at the hardest of these rooms is dinner at a normal hour. At Monkey Bar we have logged 643,567 open slots, and 0% of them fell between 7:00 PM and 8:30 PM. The single most frequently open slot is 7:00 AM, and 100% of everything that opens there is before 6 PM. The Monkey Bar people are fighting over and the Monkey Bar that opens are two different restaurants.
The pattern repeats with different clocks. The Four Horsemen has produced 3,904 open slots, 66% of them before 6 PM, with 11:15 AM the most common single time and 2% in the prime 7:00 to 8:30 PM band. Oriana runs the other way: of its 127,550 logged openings, 59% land at 9 PM or later, most often at 9:45 PM. Red Hook Tavern's openings concentrate at 9:30 PM.
The weekday split is just as lopsided, and it is the cheapest thing on this page to act on. Red Hook Tavern returned an open table 920 times on a Thursday and 43 times on a Saturday. The Four Horsemen's loosest night is Friday. Oriana's Sunday and Monday record is 0 and 0 openings, which is a closing pattern rather than a hard night. Among the bookable rooms, Claud reads 45% on a Tuesday against 8% on a Friday, and Golden Diner 29% on a Tuesday against 8% on a Saturday.
Party size is the other lever, and at this end of the list it can be worth more than speed. Monkey Bar reads 50% for two and 47% for four. Oriana reads 10% and 3%, The Four Horsemen 0% and 0%, Claud 37% and 40%, Golden Diner 13% and 20%. Check both before you give up.
The exceptions are the rooms with no texture at all. 4 Charles Prime Rib, The Corner Store and The Polo Bar have produced no open slots, no good weekday and no party-size relief, because they have produced nothing. There is no clever hour to aim at when the record is empty.
Monkey Bar: 643,567 logged openings, 0% between 7:00 and 8:30 PM, 100% before 6 PM. Most common slot 7:00 AM.
The Four Horsemen: 3,904 openings, 66% before 6 PM, Friday the loosest night.
Oriana: 127,550 openings, 59% at 9 PM or later, most often 9:45 PM.
Red Hook Tavern: most common slot 9:30 PM. Thursday returned 920 hits, Saturday 43.
Wild Cherry: 40,289 openings with 5:00 PM the most common.
Four-top versus two-top: Monkey Bar 47% against 50%, Oriana 3% against 10%, Claud 40% against 37%.
Two approaches work and neither of them is refreshing at random. The first is being set up before the release rather than arriving at it: signed in on the right platform, party size already selected, card saved, on the morning your date first appears at the far edge of the window. The seconds you spend tapping are the seconds somebody who prepared last night is spending booking. At a room like The Corner Store, where the window is short and the platform is SevenRooms rather than Resy, finding the right screen is itself the thing that loses the drop.
The second, and the one most diners actually get in on, is a cancellation. Those arrive at no fixed hour. They surface as plans change, parties shrink and deposits get reconsidered, and they cluster in the last day or two before a date, when somebody who booked three weeks earlier gives the seat up. A table that frees at 4:10 PM on a Tuesday is invisible unless something is watching for it, and it is usually gone again within minutes.
Flexibility beats persistence at every room on this list. Try the four-top, take the room's own best weeknight, take lunch or a late seat. Each of those moves points you at where the openings are in our record instead of at the one slot the whole city is refreshing.
And hold a real backup. If you have an alert running on a 0% room, book somewhere you would be happy to eat for the same night and release it in good time if the alert fires. That is a better evening than refreshing, and it is fairer to the restaurant you would otherwise leave holding an empty table.
Set the alarm for the exact hour and window listed above, and do your setup the night before, not at the drop.
Check the right platform. Red Hook Tavern is OpenTable, The Corner Store and Wild Cherry are SevenRooms, Atera is Tock. Searching Resy for those is a wasted morning.
Compare the four-top with the two-top: Monkey Bar reads 47% against 50%.
Aim at the hours that actually come free: lunch at Monkey Bar, late at Oriana and Red Hook Tavern.
At the fully booked rooms, be ready at the release and keep an alert on for the tables given back after it.
Let an alert do the waiting, since openings surface at hours no person can sit and refresh through.
Hold a backup for the same night, and release it early if the alert fires.
The most open end of the list, from the top: Cecchi's (97%), Eleven Madison Park (94%), Au Cheval (67%) and Atera (60%). Cecchi's showed a bookable two-top on 29 of 30 dates, opens 28 days ahead at midnight, and 21% of everything it opens sits in the 7:00 to 8:30 PM band. If what you want is a good American dinner in Greenwich Village on a night of your choosing, that is the whole answer.
Au Cheval reads 67%, with 356,610 open readings across 537,483 checks, which makes it one of the steadiest calendars in the city. It shares 4 Charles Prime Rib's ownership and almost none of its difficulty. Thursday is its loosest night at 67% and Monday its tightest at 65%. Its most frequently open slot is 10:30 PM, and 64% of its openings are before 6 PM, so the middle of the evening is still the contested part.
Atera reads 60%, on Tock and as a tasting menu rather than a table, which makes its calendar behave like an event listing. Its Tuesday record is 0 openings in 579 checks, and 0% of what it releases lands at 9 PM or later. Claud at 37% for two and 40% for four, and Golden Diner at 13% and 20%, round out the group where patience and a well-timed check usually land something.
The practical division of labour is simple. Aim at the bookable rooms when what you want is dinner, and save the alerts for the nights when you specifically want one of the zeroes.
We track 284 restaurants across New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. That is the entire list, and the small number is the point. Table Alert advertises 62,198 restaurants. Nobody watching 62,198 rooms can tell you what share of Monkey Bar's openings fall between 7:00 and 8:30 PM, which night The Four Horsemen loosens on, or how often Red Hook Tavern opens on a Saturday. We traded coverage for knowing the rooms we cover.
The figures come from re-checking the same calendars around the clock: 61,530,416 availability checks so far across the tracked list, of which 7,195,246 belong to these fifteen American restaurants. The percentages are a point-in-time reading of the current booking window, dated 19 October 2026. The counts are cumulative, because the raw snapshots behind them are pruned after a few days while the counters keep going. When a number here moves, it moves because a restaurant changed, not because we rewrote a sentence.
We also never book a table. SnagRes watches these calendars and texts or emails you the moment one opens, and then you book it yourself, in your own account, at the restaurant's own price. There is no bot holding a seat under a stranger's name and nothing for sale afterward. TableSwap charges $75 per successful reservation, which is the paid resale practice New York's 2024 reservation law was written to address, and we are not in that business.
The practical upshot: the reservation is in your name from the first second, the restaurant keeps its own cancellation policy intact, and nothing happens to the table without you tapping to confirm it.
The hardest American tables in NYC, measured: when each one releases, the hours and party sizes that do open, and how people get in.
Keep reading: American in SF, where the median is 59% open · The hardest Italian reservations in NYC · American restaurants, live availability · Why a four-top opens more often than a two-top · How to get a Monkey Bar table · The hardest reservations in NYC
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SnagRes checks 284 hard-to-book restaurants across four cities and alerts you when one opens. Watching one is free and no card is needed: watch a table free in New York City, or last-minute tables in NYC tonight, or see the hardest tables right now.