It depends entirely on the room. Among the New York counters we track, Raku showed a bookable seat on 0% of tracked days and Kono on just 20%, while ICCA opened a seat on 77% of the days we checked. New York omakase concentrates on Resy, which uses timed daily releases, so the hardest rooms reward being ready at the exact drop minute or catching a cancellation through an alert.
For rooms with a high open share, above about 50%, you can open the app, pick a flexible night, and book directly. Many omakase counters use Tock, where you pay for the meal up front when you reserve, and others use a Resy timed release that drops seats at a set hour. For the hardest counters, an alert that watches every 15 minutes catches the cancellation seats you would otherwise miss.
On our data, Akiko's in San Francisco is the most available strong omakase, showing a bookable seat on 83% of the days we tracked, followed by Wako and ICCA at 77%. In New York, ICCA is the most bookable counter on our list. All three combine a genuine reputation with availability on most nights, so you rarely need an alert to get in.
San Francisco omakase leans heavily on Tock, which uses prepaid tickets, so most of the city's counters ask you to pay when you book. The good news is that SF sushi is quite bookable: Akiko's ran at 83% open, Wako at 77%, and both Ju-ni and Showa at 73% of tracked days. A flexible weeknight is usually available on Tock without any special effort.
ICCA, on Tock, was the most available New York omakase we track, with a bookable seat on 77% of the days we checked. Tsukimi, also on Tock, followed at 57%. Both are far easier than the Resy counters like Raku and Kono, which sat at 0% and 20% respectively over the same window.
Tock built its business around prepaid ticketing, which suits a tiny counter that cannot afford no-shows, and San Francisco sushi rooms adopted it widely. Every SF omakase we track, including Akiko's aside, books on Tock: Wako, Ju-ni, and Showa all use it. Paying up front feels unusual, but it is why these seats stay available rather than getting locked up by no-cost holds.
We track 11 Japanese and sushi rooms 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 seat, measured as of August 19, 2026. A score of 0% means a seat almost never sat open long enough for a normal person to find and book it.
Omakase counters are tiny, often just 8 to 20 seats, so a single seating sells out fast and most rooms manage that scarcity with one of two systems. Many use Tock prepaid tickets, where you pay for the meal in full at the moment you book, and San Francisco omakase leans heavily on Tock. Others use a Resy timed release, dropping a batch of seats at a set hour each day, which is the pattern across most of the hardest New York counters.
The reputation that every omakase is impossible to book is wrong. SnagRes tracks 11 Japanese and sushi rooms across New York and San Francisco and re-checks each one every 15 minutes, and the open share, the share of tracked days with a bookable seat, ranges enormously. As of August 19, 2026, availability runs from 0% of tracked days at Raku in New York all the way to 83% at Akiko's in San Francisco. The practical lesson is that omakase is not one level of difficulty. It is a wide spectrum, and half of it is genuinely within reach.
Here are the toughest counters we track, ranked from least available to most. Every room in this hardest tier sits on Resy in New York, where timed drops reward whoever is watching the calendar at the exact minute.
Raku (New York, Resy): showed a bookable seat on 0% of the days we tracked, the single hardest omakase on our list.
Kono (New York, Resy): opened a seat on just 20% of the days we checked, so most nights it shows nothing at all.
Sushi Ikumi (New York, Resy): turned up availability on 33% of tracked days, roughly one day in three.
Umeko (New York, Resy): opened a seat on 37% of the days we tracked, still more closed than open.
Ito (New York, Resy): showed a bookable seat on 50% of tracked days, sitting right at the midpoint between hard and easy.
The other half of the list is genuinely bookable if you stay flexible on date and time. These rooms turned up a seat on most days we checked, and the more available ones skew toward Tock and toward San Francisco.
Akiko's (San Francisco, OpenTable): showed a bookable seat on 83% of the days we tracked, the most available omakase on our entire list.
Wako (San Francisco, Tock): opened a seat on 77% of the days we checked, available on more than three nights in four.
ICCA (New York, Tock): also turned up a seat on 77% of tracked days, making it the most bookable omakase in New York.
Ju-ni (San Francisco, Tock): showed availability on 73% of the days we tracked.
Showa (San Francisco, Tock): opened a seat on 73% of tracked days, matching Ju-ni almost exactly.
Tsukimi (New York, Tock): available on 57% of the days we checked, a comfortable book if you are flexible on the night.
Split the list in two and treat each half differently. For the mid-range and easy rooms, roughly Ito and everything above 50% open share, you do not need any tricks. Open the app, pick a flexible date, and book. ICCA, Tsukimi, and the San Francisco Tock counters seat on most days, so a weeknight is usually there for the taking without an alert or a lucky cancellation.
For the hardest rooms, Raku, Kono, and the rest of the Resy tier, refreshing by hand rarely works, because a seat at a counter this small surfaces at an unpredictable moment, almost always a cancellation. That is the gap an alert fills. SnagRes re-checks every room every 15 minutes and emails or texts you the instant a seat opens, so you are not the one stuck refreshing. Set an alert for the hardest counters, book the mid-range ones directly, and remember that San Francisco omakase leans on Tock, where a prepaid ticket means you commit to the meal up front.
Real availability data on NYC and SF omakase. Raku sits at 0% open, Akiko's at 83%. Set an alert for the hardest counters, book the rest.
Keep reading: Japanese restaurants, live availability · Why SF omakase is on Tock · Set an availability alert