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, ranked by the share of dates with a bookable table for two: Enclos (0%), Showa (3%), Benu (30%), Merchant Roots (47%), Saison (63%) and Niku Steakhouse (83%). The median across the SoMa rooms we measure is 39%, with one at 0%.
Be ready at 10:00 AM and aim at its best night. Benu's own reservations page says tables release at 10:00 am each day, 30 days ahead, through SevenRooms. It read 30% for two and 43% for four. It has not opened a table on Sundays, Mondays or Tuesdays in our checks, which usually means it is closed then. Thursday returned open on 70% of our checks, against Saturday's 26%. When it does open, 56% of what appears is between 7:00 and 8:30 PM.
Showa's 174 logged openings were recorded only at 6:00 PM, so its 3% availability is a chance at that seating rather than at dinner generally. Press coverage describes a noon release 30 days out; we have logged 1 release events on 1 observation days.
Catch the batch and pick its best night. Saison's own site says dinner reservations are released at least a month out, by the 1st of the month prior, on OpenTable, so one morning carries the widest choice of dates. It read 63% for two and 53% for four. Tuesday returned open on 90% of checks, against Saturday's 46%. It has not opened a table on Sundays or Mondays in our checks, which usually means it is closed then.
Watch rather than plan, even though it looks easy. At our last reading 25 of 30 dates were open, 83%, but 68% of the 257,070 checks we have run returned a table, so availability comes and goes. Its FAQ says dates release 30 days ahead. The most common opening is 8:30 PM and 47% of openings are in the prime band.
Benu puts 56% of its openings between 7:00 and 8:30 PM, Merchant Roots 52%, Niku 47% and Saison 39%, with 8:15 PM Saison's most common time. Showa's prime-time share is 0%, because it opens only at 6:00 PM.
Benu books on SevenRooms, Enclos, Showa and Merchant Roots on Tock, and Saison and Niku Steakhouse on OpenTable. The SevenRooms one is the trap, because those pages are usually reached through the restaurant's own website rather than a marketplace app, so an opening can appear and be claimed without ever surfacing where a diner is looking. We watch all four platforms on the same cycle.
Ranked by average availability across San Francisco neighbourhoods with four or more rooms: SoMa 38%, Nob Hill 39%, Jackson Square 43%, Presidio Heights 53%, Mission 57% and Fillmore 83%. SoMa has one rooms at 0%.
No. SnagRes watches these calendars across Resy, OpenTable, Tock and SevenRooms 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. TableSwap charges $75 per successful reservation, which is the resale practice New York's 2024 reservation law was written to address. We never book, so nothing happens to a table without you.
The hardest tables in SoMa, by the share of dates in each window with a bookable two-top, are Enclos (0%), Showa (3%) and Benu (30%). On our 19 October 2026 reading Benu showed a bookable two-top on 9 of the 30 dates in its window and a four-top on 13, which is 43%. The full order runs Enclos (0%), Showa (3%), Benu (30%), Merchant Roots (47%), Saison (63%) and Niku Steakhouse (83%). The median across the six SoMa rooms we measure is 39%.
SoMa rooms reading 0% for a two-top at our last check: one. That is worth saying out loud, because the neighbourhood's reputation is built on three-star tasting menus and the assumption that a three-star tasting menu is unobtainable. In our record the tables exist. What varies, wildly, is which hour and which weekday they exist on.
Some of these rooms have almost no clock at all. Showa has opened only at 6:00 PM in its entire history with us. That is the kind of thing a single availability percentage cannot express, and it changes how you would approach the room.
Here is the neighbourhood in order, hardest first, with the share of dates in the current window that had a bookable table for two and for four.
Benu, American, SevenRooms. 30% for two and 43% for four, and 56% of its openings fall between 7:00 and 8:30 PM.
Merchant Roots, American, Tock. 47%, 52% of openings in prime time, 8:00 PM the most common.
Saison, American, OpenTable. 63% for two and 53% for four, 8:15 PM its most common opening. It has not opened a table on Sundays or Mondays in our checks, which usually means it is closed then.
Showa, Japanese, Tock. 3%, and 174 logged openings, recorded only at 6:00 PM.
Niku Steakhouse, steakhouse, OpenTable. 83% for two and 73% for four, 25 of 30 dates, 8:30 PM the most common opening.
Benu is the most interesting calendar in SoMa because it is the inverse of the usual hard-room pattern. Most restaurants at this difficulty release scraps: a 4:30 PM, a 10 PM. Benu releases the middle of the evening. Across the 148,279 open slots we have logged there, 8:00 PM is the most common, and 56% of everything free falls in the 7:00 to 8:30 PM band.
The trade is volume. Those 148,279 openings come from 270,015 checks, a thin calendar next to Showa's 174 openings and Merchant Roots' 1,104. When a Benu table appears it is the table you want, and it appears seldom.
The week is narrow too. It has not opened a table on Sundays, Mondays or Tuesdays in our checks, which usually means it is closed then. Thursday returned open on 70% of checks and Saturday on 26%. So the realistic Benu plan is its best night rather than its worst, and the party-size lever is worth pricing: a four-top read 43% against the two-top's 30%.
Benu's own reservations page says tables are released at 10:00 am each day, up to 30 days in advance, through SevenRooms. That matters twice over: once because ten in the morning is a fixed moment you can be ready for, and once because SevenRooms means the booking usually happens on the restaurant's own website rather than in an app you already have open. We have logged 126 release events there across 50 observation days.
148,279 logged openings from 270,015 checks.
8:00 PM the most common opening, and 56% of all openings in the 7:00 to 8:30 PM band.
Thursday 70% of checks open, Saturday 26%.
Four-top 43% against a two-top's 30%.
Released at 10:00 AM daily, 30 days ahead, on SevenRooms, per the restaurant's own reservations page.
This is the most unusual measurement in the neighbourhood. Showa read 3% available, 1 of 30 dates, and across 174 logged openings it has opened only at 6:00 PM.
So 3% at Showa is not a chance at dinner in any general sense. It is a chance at the one seating it runs. If that works, Showa is one of the more available good tables in SoMa: Thursday returned open on 35% of checks and Friday on 10%. Mondays or Saturdays book up before we see them, so aim for another night or catch a cancellation.
Merchant Roots is the same idea with an extra option. It read 47%, with 48% of openings early and 52% in prime time, 8:00 PM the most common. Wednesday came back open on 75% of checks and Tuesday on 26%. It has not opened a table on Sundays or Mondays in our checks, which usually means it is closed then.
Press coverage of Showa describes spots being released 30 days in advance at noon, and we have logged 1 release events on 1 observation days there. For a restaurant with so few seatings, the exact minute is the whole game.
Showa: 174 logged openings, recorded only at 6:00 PM.
Showa week: Thursday 35%, Friday 10% of checks open.
Merchant Roots: 52% of openings in prime time, 8:00 PM most common.
Showa is reported as a noon release 30 days out.
Saison read 63% for a two-top and 53% for a four, 19 and 16 dates of 30. Its most common opening is 8:15 PM, and 39% of its 325,768 logged openings fall in the 7:00 to 8:30 PM band, with another 39% early and 9% late. For a tasting-menu flagship, that is an unusually usable spread.
The weekday shape is steep. Tuesday returned an open table on 90% of checks, against Saturday at 46%. It has not opened a table on Sundays or Mondays in our checks, which usually means it is closed then. A booking on its best night is close to routine; one on its worst is a genuine hunt.
The release rule is the part to write down. Saison's own site says dinner reservations are released at least one month out, by the 1st of the month prior, through OpenTable. That is a batch rather than a rolling window, so one morning carries the widest choice of dates you will ever see, and missing it means working cancellations for the rest of the month. We have logged 75 release events over 48 observation days.
63% for two, 53% for four. 8:15 PM the most common opening, 39% of openings in the prime band.
Tuesday 90% of checks open, Saturday 46%.
Released by the 1st of the previous month on OpenTable, per the restaurant's own site.
Niku needs careful reading. At our last check, 25 of the 30 dates in its window had a bookable two-top, which is 83%. But across all 257,070 checks we have ever run against it, 68% came back with an open table, from 77% on Tuesdays to 48% on Sundays.
Those two numbers are not in conflict. They measure different things. The window figure says how many dates opened at some point. The per-check share says how often, at any given moment, the table was sitting there. Where availability comes and goes rather than persisting, a watcher catches what a person checking once a day will miss.
When it does open, it opens well: 8:30 PM is the most common time, and 47% of its 2,424,100 logged openings are in the prime band. Its own FAQ says reservations are released 30 days in advance, and we have logged 193 release events across 59 observation days. A four-top read 73% against the two-top's 83%.
Ranked by average availability across San Francisco neighbourhoods where we track four or more rooms: SoMa 38%, Nob Hill 39%, Jackson Square 43%, Presidio Heights 53%, Mission 57% and Fillmore 83%. SoMa and Jackson Square sit inside the same Downtown SF cluster on our live pages, and they behave differently: Jackson Square's tightest room is Verjus (10%), SoMa's Enclos (0%).
Set against New York the contrast is sharper. Across the 60 San Francisco rooms we measure the median is 65% and six read 0%. Across the 84 New York rooms the median is 35% and 23 read 0%. SoMa has some of the most decorated dining rooms in the country in a few blocks and one of them at 0%, against seven in the West Village.
The practical conclusion for SoMa is narrower than a difficulty ranking. Decide the hour first. If you want eight o'clock, Benu and Saison are where the openings actually are. If six o'clock works, Showa is a 3% room. If your date is fixed and your hour is flexible, Niku will very likely open at some point, and the only question is whether you are looking when it does.
SoMa: 6 rooms, 39% median, one at 0%, 736,198 checks.
Jackson Square, in the same Downtown cluster: 4 rooms, 30% median, Verjus at 10%.
Mission: 13 rooms, 57% median. Nob Hill: 7 rooms, 43%. Fillmore: 4 rooms, 90%.
San Francisco overall: 65% median across 60 rooms, six at 0%. New York: 35% across 84, 23 at 0%.
We track 284 restaurants across four cities, and these SoMa rooms account for 736,198 of the 61,530,416 availability checks we have run. Table Alert advertises 62,198 restaurants. Nobody watching 62,198 rooms can tell you what hour Showa opens, what share of Benu's openings is prime time, or how often Niku's table is actually sitting there. We traded coverage for knowing the rooms we cover.
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-event counts are cumulative across the whole period we have been watching, because the raw snapshots are pruned after a few days while the counters keep running. Where a release rule comes from press coverage rather than the restaurant, as with Showa, we say so.
We also never book a table. SnagRes watches these calendars, including the SevenRooms pages that live only on a restaurant's own website, and texts or emails you the moment a table opens. You book 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, and we are not in that business in either city.
Keep reading: Jackson Square, averaging 43% open · How to get a Benu reservation · How to get a Saison reservation · Downtown SF, live availability · The Mission, averaging 57% open · The hardest reservations in SF
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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.