Last updated . Source: SnagRes availability record, 61,530,416 checks across 284 restaurants through 19 October 2026. How we measure. Open dataset.
By our 19 October 2026 reading, House of Prime Rib (0%), Naides (0%) and The Big Four (37%), measured as the share of dates with a bookable table for two. House of Prime Rib showed a bookable two-top on 0 of the 30 dates in its window, and across 168,311 checks we have logged 131 open slots. A four-top read 17%. The median across the Nob Hill rooms we measure is 43%.
Ask for four, and watch rather than plan. The two-top read 0% of dates open while a four-top read 17%. Our whole record holds 131 open slots from 168,311 checks, 97% of them at 9 PM or later. Saturdays book up before we see them, so aim for another night or catch a cancellation. A cancellation alert is the realistic route.
Pick its best night. Friday returned an open table on 41% of our checks, against Thursday's 12%. It read 37% overall on a 14-day SevenRooms window, per the Huntington Hotel's own FAQ, and 35% of its 738,634 logged openings fall between 7:00 and 8:30 PM.
By our last reading, Liholiho Yacht Club (87%) and The Happy Crane (60%). Liholiho Yacht Club's own page says dates release 30 days ahead at 10:00 PM. The Happy Crane is a strong prime-time option, with 39% of its openings in the 7:00 to 8:30 PM band.
The two published rules worth an alarm are The Happy Crane, which its FAQ says opens 30 days ahead at noon on OpenTable, and Liholiho Yacht Club, 30 days ahead at 10:00 PM on Resy. The Infatuation reports Naides opening the next month on the 15th at 11:00 AM on Tock. The Big Four runs a 14-day window. We have logged 721 release events across the Nob Hill rooms.
It splits sharply. Folklore puts 89% of its openings before 6 PM, peaking at 2:15 PM. House of Prime Rib's openings are 97% at 9 PM or later. The rooms that release actual dinner include Friends Only at 57% prime time and The Happy Crane at 39%.
By average, Nob Hill runs at 39% across 7 rooms and the Mission at 57% across 13. Across San Francisco neighbourhoods with four or more rooms, the ranking runs SoMa 38%, Nob Hill 39%, Jackson Square 43%, Presidio Heights 53%, Mission 57% and Fillmore 83%.
No. SnagRes watches these calendars across Resy, OpenTable, Tock and SevenRooms and texts or emails you the moment a watched table opens, including on the SevenRooms pages that only exist on a restaurant's own site. You book it yourself at the restaurant's own price. TableSwap charges $75 per successful reservation, the resale practice New York's 2024 reservation law was written to address. We never book.
The hardest tables on Nob Hill, by the share of dates in each window with a bookable two-top, are House of Prime Rib (0%), Naides (0%) and The Big Four (37%). On our 19 October 2026 reading House of Prime Rib showed a bookable two-top on 0 of the 30 dates in its window. Across 168,311 checks we have logged 131 open slots in total, most often at 10:00 PM. A four-top read 17%, 5 dates of 30.
Behind it the neighbourhood is ordinary. The Big Four read 37%, Friends Only 43%, Naides 0%, Folklore 47%, The Happy Crane 60% and Liholiho Yacht Club 87%. The median across the seven Nob Hill rooms we measure is 43%, which puts the neighbourhood in the middle of San Francisco rather than at the hard end.
The percentage is the share of dates in the current booking window that had a bookable table, so a lower number is a harder room. What it deliberately does not tell you is which hour opened, and on Nob Hill that matters more than usual: some of these restaurants open at very few times of day, and one opens mostly in the afternoon.
Here is the whole neighbourhood, hardest first, with the one measurement that changes how you would approach each room.
House of Prime Rib, steakhouse, OpenTable. 0% for two and 17% for four. 131 open slots logged in 168,311 checks, 97% of them at 9 PM or later.
The Big Four, American, SevenRooms. 37% on a 14-day window. Friday returned an open table on 41% of checks, against Thursday's 12%.
Friends Only, American, Tock. 43%, with openings between 5:30 PM and 8:30 PM in our record. It has not opened a table on Sundays, Mondays or Tuesdays in our checks, which usually means it is closed then.
Folklore, American, Resy. 47% for two and 43% for four, with 89% of openings before 6 PM and 2:15 PM the most common time.
The Happy Crane, American, OpenTable. 60%, 39% prime time, and open on 98% of Thursday checks.
Liholiho Yacht Club, Hawaiian, Resy. 87%, open on 85% of all checks.
This is the fact worth carrying away from the page. House of Prime Rib has produced 131 open slots across 168,311 checks in our record. Its most common open time is 10:00 PM, the earliest 4:30 PM, and 2% fell in the 7:00 to 8:30 PM band.
A 0% reading does not mean the restaurant seats nobody. It means a table almost never sits unclaimed long enough for a person checking by hand to find it. The weekday breakdown says the same thing in a different way: across all 168,311 checks, 131 found a table. Saturdays book up before we see them, so aim for another night or catch a cancellation.
We have logged 427 release events there across 60 observation days. So the calendar is moving constantly, it just does not stay open. That combination, high release activity and near-zero availability, is the signature of a room where everything is claimed at the moment it appears.
The one crack in it is party size. A four-top read 17% against the two-top's 0%. If your plan can absorb four people, that is where our record says your odds live.
0 of 30 dates open for two, 5 for four, on our 19 October 2026 reading.
131 open slots logged in 168,311 checks, 97% of them at 9 PM or later.
427 release events over 60 observation days.
Almost every hard restaurant we measure is weakest on Friday and Saturday. The Big Four is worth checking against that instinct: Friday returned an open table on 41% of checks, against Thursday's 12%, with Saturday at 40% and Sunday at 36%.
It also opens at a useful hour. We have logged 738,634 open slots, with 9:00 PM the most common and 35% of everything free falling in the 7:00 to 8:30 PM band. 25% of its openings are early and 24% late, which makes it one of the more evenly spread calendars on the hill.
The catch is the runway. The Huntington Hotel's own FAQ puts the window at 14 days, the shortest on Nob Hill, so there is no booking this one two months out. Our logs show 121 release events across 62 observation days, a daily roll rather than a monthly batch.
The Big Four also books through SevenRooms, which for most diners means the restaurant's own website rather than an app they already have open. That is a real part of why a 37% room feels harder than 37%.
Friends Only read 43%. In our record its openings run from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM, 8:30 PM the most common, with 57% in prime time. It has not opened a table on Sundays, Mondays or Tuesdays in our checks, which usually means it is closed then. On the nights it does open it is reliable: Thursday came back open on 100% of checks.
Naides read 0%. Our Tock figures for Naides were reset on 17 October 2026 after a measurement fix showed the earlier readings ran high, and the new record is still rebuilding. Its release is the dependable route meanwhile.
The Infatuation reports that Naides opens the following month's reservations on the 15th of the previous month, on Tock from 11:00 AM.
Friends Only: 891 logged openings, 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM.
Naides releases the next month on the 15th at 11:00 AM on Tock, per The Infatuation.
Folklore read 47% for two and 43% for four on a 31-day Resy window. 89% of its openings are before 6 PM and 6% in the prime band. It has not opened a table on Sundays, Mondays or Tuesdays in our checks, which usually means it is closed then.
The practical consequence: this is afternoon availability. Folklore's earliest recorded opening is 9:00 AM and its most common is 2:15 PM, from 8,143,040 logged openings. If you read 47% as a decent shot at dinner, our record says otherwise. If you want a mid-afternoon table on Nob Hill, it is one of the most available rooms in the neighbourhood.
The most bookable rooms on the hill are Liholiho Yacht Club (87%), The Happy Crane (60%) and Folklore (47%). Liholiho Yacht Club came back open on 85% of all checks. Its most common opening is 9:00 PM, 39% of what it opens is early and 32% in the prime band. Its own reservations page says dates go live 30 days ahead at 10:00 PM.
The Happy Crane is a good prime-time bet at 60%, with 39% of its 1,210,069 openings in the 7:00 to 8:30 PM band. Thursday returned open on 98% of checks and Wednesday on 77%. Its FAQ is unusually precise: reservations open 30 days in advance at noon, OpenTable only.
Put together, that is the plan for the hill. Book The Happy Crane or Liholiho when the night is fixed. Take Folklore when the afternoon is fine. Check which nights The Big Four is strongest. And treat House of Prime Rib as a watch rather than a booking, because in 168,311 checks we have seen 131 openings.
Liholiho Yacht Club: 87%, released 30 days ahead at 10:00 PM per its own site.
The Happy Crane: 60%, 39% prime time, released 30 days ahead at noon on OpenTable per its FAQ.
Folklore: 47%, but the availability is mostly mid-afternoon.
House of Prime Rib: a four-top and an alert, because the two-top reads 0%.
We track 284 restaurants across four cities, and the Nob Hill rooms on this page account for 1,904,959 of the 61,530,416 availability checks we have logged. Table Alert advertises 62,198 restaurants. Nobody watching that many rooms can tell you when Friends Only's openings fall, which nights Naides opens, or what hour House of Prime Rib's rare openings land.
The percentages are a point-in-time reading of each restaurant's current booking window, dated 19 October 2026. The slot counts, weekday counts and release events are cumulative across the whole time we have been watching, because the raw snapshots are pruned after a few days while the counters keep going. Where the evidence is thin, we say so instead of rounding it into a claim.
We never book a table. SnagRes watches these calendars, including the SevenRooms pages that exist only on a restaurant's own website, and texts or emails you the moment a table opens. You take it yourself, in your own account, at the restaurant's own price. TableSwap charges $75 per successful reservation, which is the paid resale practice New York's 2024 reservation law was written to address. We are not in that business, in either city.
Keep reading: The hardest reservations in the Mission · Jackson Square, averaging 43% open · The Fillmore, averaging 83% open · Nob Hill restaurants, live availability · Restaurants you can actually book · The hardest reservations in SF · Resy vs OpenTable vs Tock vs SevenRooms
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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 San Francisco, or last-minute tables in SF tonight, or see the hardest tables right now.