Last updated . Source: SnagRes availability record, 61,530,416 checks across 284 restaurants through 19 October 2026. How we measure. Open dataset.
For three or four people, set an alert on the four-top and stay flexible on the hour, because four is the largest party most hard New York rooms release online. At 39 of the 284 restaurants we measure, a four-top is the easier booking of the two: Cote shows a table on 100% of dates for four against 0% for two. For five or more, the big table usually is not online at all, so call the restaurant's private-dining or events line and ask about their large-party policy directly.
Most hard restaurants do not list a six-top in the normal reservation system, so refreshing the app will keep showing nothing even when two-tops are open. Set the size to six at one of these rooms and you will usually get a contact form or a phone number instead of a calendar, which is why we publish availability for parties of two and four and no figure at all for six. Contact the events or private-dining line by phone or email, and ask whether a party of six requires a set menu, a minimum spend, or a buyout.
Up to a four-top, often yes, and an alert on that size is the best tool. Past four, usually no, because large tables are routed to private dining rather than the public calendar. And read an empty calendar carefully: at 22 of the 80 New York restaurants we track, even a party of two found no date in the window, so nothing showing for your group may be telling you about the room rather than about your group.
Often, and on average the two are level: 50% of dates for a party of four against 49% for two across the 284 restaurants where we measure both. At 24 restaurants four is materially easier, at 18 it is materially harder, and at 100 the gap is under five points. Splitting a foursome into two pairs is the move to avoid, since no restaurant in the set showed availability for two while showing none at all for four.
Tuesday through Thursday. At 79 restaurants where the weekday gap is at least ten points, 58 are easiest between Monday and Thursday, with Thursday leading at 23 restaurants and Wednesday at 20. Saturday is the hardest day at 20 of them, and Monday is hardest at 16, so aim midweek rather than simply avoiding the weekend. Lilia showed a table on 87% of Wednesdays against 20% of Saturdays.
Early or late. Prime time between 7:00 and 8:30 PM is an average of just 26% of everything we see open across 132 restaurants, and at 14 of them it was 0%. The most frequently open slot is 9:00 PM or later at 53 restaurants and before 6:00 PM at 37. Cote's most commonly open time is 11:00 PM, and 76% of what opens at Minetta Tavern is before 6:00 PM.
Past four people, the difficulty stops being competition and becomes supply that was never placed online. Most hard restaurants route a party of five or more to a private-dining contact, a phone call, or a set menu with a minimum, so the table you are hunting for is not in the system you keep refreshing. Watching harder cannot find a table that was never listed.
We can be precise about where that line sits, because we measure the calendar itself. SnagRes checks availability at 284 restaurants in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago across Resy, OpenTable, Tock and SevenRooms, and those checks now number 61,530,416. We query two party sizes, two and four, and that is a deliberate limit: they are the sizes these rooms publish night after night, and the sizes you can compare fairly over months. We hold no series for a party of six, and we are not going to invent one.
That limit is worth stating plainly, because it doubles as the answer. Set the party size to six on one of these booking pages and you will usually be handed a contact form, an events address or a phone number rather than a calendar. There is no drop to be early for and no cancellation stream to watch. The useful advice for a group therefore splits cleanly at four: at four and under you are playing the calendar, and above four you are talking to a person.
The other thing the measurements settle is the folklore about small parties. A table for two is supposed to be the easy booking. Across the 284 restaurants where we hold both figures, a party of two found a bookable table on an average of 49% of dates and a party of four on 50%. The advantage that everyone assumes is not there.
If your group is three or four, the four-top is the largest size these restaurants reliably release online, and at a meaningful share of them it is the easier search of the two. At 39 of the 284 restaurants a four-top was materially more available than a two-top. At 18 the reverse held. At the remaining 100 the two figures were within five points, so size barely mattered.
Cote in Flatiron showed a table on 70% of dates for two and 93% for four, every date in its window. Minetta Tavern runs 42% against 94%. In San Francisco, San Ho Won goes from 47% to 93% and Quince from 40% to 43%. Le Bernardin, with three Michelin stars, sits at 61% for two and 74% for four. Z & Y is the extreme: in 170,513 checks we have never recorded an open date for a party of two, and it showed a four-top on 77% of dates.
Dining rooms are built out of four-tops, and seating a couple at one costs the restaurant two covers, so some rooms hold them back for parties of four. That is the mechanism, and it means the common instinct to split a foursome into two pairs is usually working against you.
Not one of the 284 restaurants showed availability for two while showing none at all for four. The scenario that splitting is meant to solve did not occur once in the set. Book the four-top, set an alert on it, and stay flexible on the hour.
Cote: 70% of dates for two, 93% for four.
San Ho Won (SF): 63% for two, 77% for four.
Minetta Tavern: 74% for two, 77% for four.
Le Bernardin: 61% for two, 74% for four.
Z & Y (SF): book for four, open on 80% of dates, since its advance book goes to bigger parties.
Check rather than assume, because the lever runs the other way at 18 of the restaurants we measure. Penny falls from 43% of dates for two to 10% for four, the widest gap in that direction. The Progress in San Francisco drops from 83% to 53%, Bong from 60% to 33%, Lilia from 63% to 47%, Forsythia from 70% to 53%.
These tend to be counters, small rooms, or dining rooms with a fixed seating shape, where four adjacent seats are genuinely the scarcer object. A counter restaurant can seat six couples more easily than three foursomes, and the calendar shows it.
The practical version: at a room built around a counter, expect three or four people to be the hard ask and consider whether two separate pairs at the bar is the honest plan rather than a trick. At a full dining room, expect the four-top to be the opening. The per-restaurant numbers are published for exactly this reason, since a general rule gets it backwards half the time.
Penny: 43% of dates for two, 10% for four.
The Progress (SF): 83% for two, 70% for four.
Bong: 60% for two, 50% for four.
Lilia: 67% for two, 33% for four.
Four Kings (SF): 13% for two, 10% for four.
Call, and call the right line. For groups of five, six, or larger, most hard-to-book restaurants do not release big tables through the normal online system at all, and instead route large parties to a private-dining or events contact, a direct phone call, or a prix-fixe menu with a spending minimum or a full buyout. It is a deliberate choice, because a large group ties up a big share of the dining room and the restaurant would rather manage that itself than hand it to whoever clicks first.
An empty calendar is therefore not evidence about your group at all. At 22 of the 80 New York restaurants we track, even a party of two found no bookable date in the visible window, and 16 of the 284 rooms overall were at zero for both sizes. The Polo Bar has not shown a single open date in 644,820 checks, and 4 Charles Prime Rib has not in 645,420. Refreshing those pages for a six-top tells you nothing you did not already know.
When you reach a human, ask two plain questions: what is the policy for a party of our size, and is there a minimum spend or a set menu we should plan around. Both answers change what you book and when. If the room takes large parties only as a buyout, you want to know that before you have promised eight people a Friday.
One warning about the shortcuts. Resale services will offer to sell you a large table, and TableSwap charges $75 per successful reservation, which is the practice New York's 2024 reservation law was written to stop. SnagRes never books, holds or resells a table. It watches the calendar and tells you when something opens, and you book it yourself in your own name, which is also the only version a restaurant will honour without an argument at the door.
For three or four, set an alert on the four-top and stay flexible on the hour.
For five or more, contact the events or private-dining line rather than waiting online.
Ask about the minimum spend and any set menu before you commit the group to a date.
Treat an empty online calendar as no information: at 16 of 284 rooms nothing shows for any size.
Two four-tops on the same night are far easier to find than one eight-top, and at a counter room that is the honest plan rather than a trick.
Midweek, and the measurement is more specific than the usual advice. At 79 restaurants the gap between their easiest and hardest weekday is at least ten points, and at 58 of those the easiest day falls between Monday and Thursday. Thursday leads with 23 restaurants, Wednesday takes 20, Tuesday 13. Saturday is the single hardest day of the week at 20 of them.
The spread is worth the schedule change. Across those 79 rooms the average distance between the easiest and hardest day is 29 points. Lilia showed a table on 87% of Wednesdays and 20% of Saturdays. Foreign Cinema in San Francisco runs 83% on Wednesdays against 74% on Saturdays. Izakaya Rintaro goes from 93% on Thursdays to 84% on Tuesdays, which is a reminder that the soft night is not the same night everywhere.
Do not assume Monday. Counting only the nights we have actually seen open, it is the hardest day at 16 restaurants, more than Friday, so the quiet Monday is a reputation rather than a measurement. Tuesday through Thursday is the version of this advice that survives contact with the data.
At the rooms sitting at zero for every size, none of this helps. There is no soft night to find when no night has been bookable, and those are the rooms where the release time or a cancellation is your only route in.
Thursday is the easiest day at 23 restaurants, Wednesday at 20, Tuesday at 13.
Saturday is the hardest day at 20 restaurants, and Monday at 16.
Average gap between a restaurant's easiest and hardest day: 29 points.
Lilia: 87% of Wednesdays bookable against 20% of Saturdays.
The edges of service, and the slot data says so plainly. Across the 132 restaurants where we have enough time-level samples, prime time between 7:00 and 8:30 PM accounts for an average of 26% of everything we see open. An average of 33% of openings fall before 6:00 PM and 25% at 9:00 PM or later. When you count the single most frequently open slot per restaurant, it lands at 9:00 PM or later at 53 of them, before 6:00 PM at 37, and inside prime time at only 28.
A group needs several adjacent seats to free up at once, so the hours where a room is not defending its best covers are where that happens. At 14 restaurants prime time made up 0% of the openings we recorded. Cote's most frequently open slot is 11:00 PM. Minetta Tavern's is 10:30 PM, and 76% of what opens there falls before 6:00 PM. Asking for 5:30 or 9:45 is not a consolation prize at these rooms, it is the only shape of table they release.
If your dates fall inside a release window, the drop is the other reliable moment. Across the 136 restaurants where we have watched releases, the booking window runs from 7 days ahead to 31, so check the room you want rather than planning to thirty days. The hour varies just as much: we see Monkey Bar add dates at 9:00 AM across 273 observed release events, Carbone at 10:00 AM across 300, Ha's Snack Bar at noon, Tatiana at 1:00 PM, Don Angie at 3:00 PM and Bistrot Ha at midnight.
Flex the day and the hour and a tough group booking becomes a gettable one, which is exactly what an availability alert is built to catch.
Keep reading: Two against four, restaurant by restaurant · How to catch a cancellation · The easiest night to book · Booking a table for one · The hardest NYC reservations · Set an availability alert
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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: see the hardest tables right now.