There is no single hardest table, because six Italian restaurants we track all sat at 0% availability over the measured window: Carbone, Don Angie, I Cavallini, I Sodi, Torrisi, and Una Pizza Napoletana. Via Carota sits just behind them at 3%. All of them released essentially nothing to the open public during our tracking.
We monitor about 140 restaurants across New York and San Francisco and re-check each one every 15 minutes. The open share is the percentage of tracked days that had at least one bookable table, and a restaurant scores 0% when none appeared inside the window. These figures were measured as of August 19, 2026.
No, and that is the trap. Four of the six rooms at 0% book on Resy, but Don Angie and Una Pizza Napoletana both book on OpenTable. Among the more available Italian spots, Roscioli books on SevenRooms. Watching only Resy misses those tables entirely.
Forsythia showed a bookable table on 70% of tracked days, the most available on our Italian list. Lilia followed at 53%, with L'Artusi and Lucia Alimentari both at 47% and Roscioli at 40%. These are strong rooms that still hold availability on many days.
Less than its reputation suggests. Lilia showed a bookable table on 53% of the days we tracked, so a seat was open on more than half of them. It is far more available than Carbone or Torrisi, both of which sat at 0%.
Yes, but rarely in a way a manual refresh can catch. Most openings at a 0% Italian restaurant come from last-minute cancellations that surface at random hours. That is why being alerted the instant a table opens matters more than checking the app over and over.
Some do. Carbone releases tables at 10 AM exactly 30 days in advance, and every prime night is claimed within seconds. For restaurants that drop on a schedule, being at the calendar the moment it opens is the best shot, and for everything else a cancellation alert is the reliable path.
The hardest Italian reservations in New York are the ones that never show a bookable table, and SnagRes tracks six Italian rooms that sat at 0% availability across the entire window we measured. Carbone, Don Angie, I Cavallini, I Sodi, Torrisi, and Una Pizza Napoletana all fall into this hardest tier, and Via Carota sits just behind them at 3%. These are the tables that almost never appear on their own, no matter how often you refresh the app.
This ranking was measured as of August 19, 2026, and we re-check each restaurant every 15 minutes. The open share is the percentage of tracked days that had at least one bookable table. A score of 0% does not mean a restaurant never seats anyone. It means a table almost never sits open long enough for a normal person to find it and book it.
Here are the hardest Italian tables in New York, ranked from least available, with the neighborhood and the booking platform for each.
Carbone (Greenwich Village): books through Resy and showed a bookable table on 0% of the days we tracked, the hardest Italian reservation on this list.
Don Angie (West Village): books through OpenTable rather than Resy, and also sat at 0% availability across the entire window.
I Cavallini (Williamsburg): books through Resy and never showed an open table on any day we checked.
I Sodi (West Village): books through Resy and held at 0% availability throughout the tracked window.
Torrisi (Nolita): books through Resy and showed no bookable table on any day we tracked.
Una Pizza Napoletana (Lower East Side): books through OpenTable and sat at 0% availability the whole time.
Via Carota (West Village): books through Resy and showed a bookable table on just 3% of the days we checked, the near miss below the six rooms at zero.
Not every celebrated Italian room in New York is out of reach. These well-regarded restaurants showed a bookable table on a large share of the days we tracked, so you can often open the app, pick a night, and book without an alert or a lucky cancellation. Here they are ranked by open share, from most available down.
Forsythia (Lower East Side): books through Resy and showed a bookable table on 70% of the days we tracked, the most available Italian room on this list.
Lilia (Williamsburg): books through Resy and showed a bookable table on 53% of the days we checked, despite its long-standing reputation as a hard table.
L'Artusi (West Village): books through Resy and showed a bookable table on 47% of the days we tracked.
Lucia Alimentari (SoHo): books through Resy and also showed a bookable table on 47% of the days we checked.
Roscioli (NoHo): books through SevenRooms rather than Resy, and showed a bookable table on 40% of the days we tracked.
The hardest Italian tables cluster on Resy, but that is not the whole story, and assuming that Italian means Resy will cost you seats. Two of the six rooms sitting at 0% do not use Resy at all. Don Angie books through OpenTable, and Una Pizza Napoletana books through OpenTable too. Roscioli, one of the more available names, lives on SevenRooms. If you only watch Resy, you never see a Don Angie or a Una Pizza opening at all.
Each platform releases tables on its own rhythm, so knowing where a restaurant books tells you where to point your attention. A tracker that watches Resy, OpenTable, SevenRooms, and Tock at the same time removes the guesswork of remembering which app a given Italian restaurant happens to use.
The honest answer is that refreshing does not scale, because openings at a 0% Italian room arrive at unpredictable moments. Two things actually work. First, show up at the exact release time for the restaurants that drop on a schedule, with your calendar open and your party size ready. Carbone releases tables at 10 AM exactly 30 days in advance, so every prime Friday and Saturday is claimed within seconds of the calendar opening.
Second, catch cancellations, which surface at random hours and account for most same-week openings at a 0% restaurant. A table someone gives up at 4 PM on a Tuesday is invisible unless something is watching for it. SnagRes re-checks every restaurant every 15 minutes across all four platforms and emails or texts you the moment a table opens, so you are not the one stuck refreshing. If Carbone or Torrisi stays booked out for weeks, the same view shows an easier sibling like Lilia or L'Artusi in a single glance.
Six NYC Italian restaurants sit at 0% bookable, from Carbone to Torrisi, ranked from real data, plus the Italian tables you can still book.
The hardest Italian restaurant reservations in New York, ranked from real availability data, with the platforms they book on and the Italian rooms you can still book.
Keep reading: Italian restaurants, live availability · The hardest NYC reservations · How to get a Carbone reservation