Last updated . Source: SnagRes availability record, 61,530,416 checks across 284 restaurants through 19 October 2026. How we measure. Open dataset.
We watch 284 rooms across New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago and re-check each one continuously. For each room we record the share of dates in its current booking window that had at least one bookable table, for a party of two and a party of four, plus the individual time slots that came free. The restaurants on this page were open on nearly every date in their windows in a snapshot taken on 7 September 2026. We have logged 61,530,416 checks in total, and each restaurant's own page carries its current figure.
No. Every restaurant on this list is strong and well regarded. A high open share reflects supply keeping pace with demand, not weak quality. Per Se, Essex, Delfina and Nopa are all destinations that simply carry enough availability to seat you without a fight.
Yes, in our data. On the day of measurement a two-top at Per Se was bookable on every one of the 30 dates in its window, and so was a four-top, with 4:30 PM its most frequently open slot and Thursday its easiest night. It is the clearest example of a celebrated fine-dining room being far more available than its reputation implies.
Usually not. Because a table is open on nearly every date we check, you can book these directly whenever you like. Alerts and release-hour timing pay off for the 26 rooms that released no bookable two-top on any date in their window, where the openings come at the release and from last-minute cancellations at unpredictable hours.
We re-check every tracked room continuously. The room-by-room figures on this page are a snapshot from 7 September 2026, kept as they were measured that day; the other figures are current. The New York and San Francisco trackers show current availability rather than a stored snapshot, so they are the place to check before you book.
Most of this list books through OpenTable, with several on Resy, two on Tock and one on SevenRooms. That contrasts with the hardest New York tables, which concentrate on Resy: 18 of the 168 Resy rooms we measure show no bookable two-top on any date at the last check. When a restaurant is not scrambling at a fixed release hour, the platform it uses matters far less.
Yes, and it is common. Minetta Tavern had a two-top bookable on 13 of the 31 dates in its window at the last check, yet 0% of its recorded open slots fell between 7 and 8:30 PM and its most frequently open slot is 10:30 PM. 17 of the rooms we measure have logged at least 200 open slots but never one in that window, so the useful question is always at what hour.
Sometimes, and it is worth testing. Across our whole list, 45 rooms are easier to book for four than for two while 53 are easier for two than for four. In the 7 September 2026 snapshot most rooms on this page were equally open to both, but Casa Mono, Kokkari and Niku Steakhouse each had fewer open dates for four than for two.
For the opposite list, see the hardest tables we track and the release hours behind them on when the harder rooms release. The full measurement study is at the full measurement study.
Before paying anyone for a table, it is worth reading alerts, bots and resale compared, what a resold reservation actually buys and how Dorsia's minimum spend works. Or check what is open tonight in New York and San Francisco.
Most reservation coverage fixates on the tables you cannot get. The more useful list is the opposite one. We watch 284 rooms across New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago and re-check each one continuously, and a large group of genuinely good rooms turned up a bookable table on nearly every date we looked at. These are the strong, desirable restaurants that still have a seat most nights, so you do not need an alert, a bot, or a lucky cancellation to get in.
The room-by-room figures below are a snapshot measured on 7 September 2026 and are kept as they read that day, so a room may have tightened or loosened since. Each restaurant's own page carries its current figure, and we have now logged 61,530,416 checks of live booking calendars in total. The open share is the percentage of dates in the restaurant's current booking window that had at least one bookable table for a party of two. A room at the top of this list had one on nearly every date.
The contrast is the point. 39 of the 284 rooms with a full measurement record released no bookable two-top on a single date in their window. Both groups are well regarded, and several of the rooms on this page are more celebrated than several of the rooms in that one. The difference is that these tables come to you.
This is also the clearest demonstration of why we watch a short list. Nobody monitoring tens of thousands of restaurants can tell you which specific celebrated dining room is quietly open on a Tuesday, because the answer requires measuring that one room over and over rather than listing it.
Here are the New York rooms that combined a strong reputation with availability on nearly every date in the 7 September 2026 snapshot, ranked by open share for a party of two. Platform and neighborhood are listed for each.
Essex (Lower East Side, Resy): a two-top was bookable on all 31 dates in its window, and a four-top on all 31 as well. Its most frequently open slot was 8:45 PM, which is a genuine dinner hour rather than a leftover one.
Shinzo Omakase (East Village, Resy): open on all 31 dates for both party sizes, with a third of its open slots falling in the 7 to 8:30 PM prime window.
Sushi Hayashi Williamsburg (Williamsburg, Resy): open on all 31 dates, most often at 5:00 PM, so the seats that sit unclaimed there are early ones.
Per Se (Columbus Circle, Tock): open on all 30 dates in its window, for two and for four, which is remarkable for a celebrated fine-dining room whose reputation suggests it should be far harder to book. Thursday was its easiest night.
César (Hudson Square, Tock): open on all 30 dates, with just over a third of its open slots in prime time and 6:00 PM the most common.
Cecchi's (Greenwich Village, Resy): open on 29 of 30 dates for two and for four, most often at 9:45 PM.
Golden Steer Steakhouse NYC (Greenwich Village, OpenTable): open on 29 of 30 dates, and nearly sixty percent of its open slots were prime-time, which is unusual anywhere on this list.
Casa Mono (Union Square, OpenTable): open on 29 of 30 dates for two and 26 for four, most often at 7:15 PM, with Tuesday the easiest night and Monday the hardest.
Oberon (Lower Manhattan, Resy): open on 28 of 30 dates, most often at 8:30 PM.
San Francisco has the same pattern and more of it. These are well-liked rooms that held open availability across almost the entire window in the same 7 September 2026 snapshot, again ranked by open share for a party of two.
Delfina (Mission, OpenTable): a two-top was bookable on all 30 dates in its window, and fifty-nine percent of its open slots sat in the 7 to 8:30 PM prime window, which is the rarest combination on this page.
Hinodeya (Marina, OpenTable): open on all 30 dates, with sixty percent of its open slots in prime time and 7:15 PM the most common.
Horsefeather (Divisadero, OpenTable): open on all 30 dates, most often at 6:30 PM, and Sunday was its easiest night.
Nopa (NoPa, OpenTable): open on all 30 dates despite being one of the neighborhood's most enduring destinations, with half its open slots in prime time and 7:30 PM the most common.
Nari (Japantown, Resy): open on all 31 dates in its window for two and four, most often at 9:00 PM, with Monday its easiest night.
Bar Jabroni (Lower Haight, SevenRooms): open on all 30 dates, most often at 5:00 PM. It is also a reminder that SevenRooms rooms are easy to miss entirely, because they never appear in a marketplace people browse.
Elena's (West Portal, OpenTable): open on all 30 dates for two and 28 for four, most often at 4:30 PM.
Copra (Fillmore, OpenTable): open on 29 of 30 dates, with 6:15 PM the most common slot.
The Anchovy Bar (Fillmore, OpenTable): open on 29 of 30 dates, most often at 7:15 PM, and Sunday was its easiest night.
Kokkari Estiatorio (Jackson Square, OpenTable): open on 29 of 30 dates for two and 27 for four, most often at 5:15 PM.
Niku Steakhouse (SoMa, OpenTable): open on 28 of 30 dates for two and 24 for four, most often at 7:30 PM.
An open date is not the same as an open dinner, and this is the distinction most reservation writing skips. We record the individual time slots that come free, so we can say whether a room's availability is a 7:30 PM table or an 11 PM one.
The rooms on this page are unusual in that many of their open slots are the ones people actually want. Hinodeya puts 17% of its free slots inside the 7 to 8:30 PM window, Delfina 59%, Horsefeather 20% and Golden Steer Steakhouse NYC 30%. That is the opposite of what the hard list does.
Minetta Tavern is the sharpest illustration of the difference, and it is why it does not appear above. A two-top was bookable on 13 of the 31 dates in its window at the last check, and a four-top on 24, which sounds easy. 0% of its recorded open slots fell between 7 and 8:30 PM, and its most frequently open slot is 10:30 PM. The room is available; the hour you had in mind is not.
17 of the rooms we measure have logged at least 200 open slots but never one in that prime window. When someone tells you a famous restaurant is bookable, the honest follow-up question is at what time, and that question has a measured answer.
The hardest tables are hard for structural reasons. They release a small number of seats on a fixed schedule, often at 9 or 10 in the morning on a rolling window, and every prime night is claimed within seconds. Of the rooms with a confirmed release rule, 23 release at 10 AM and 25 at 9 AM. The restaurants on this page do the reverse. They carry enough covers, turn tables often enough, or draw a steady rather than frenzied crowd, so supply keeps pace with demand and a seat is almost always sitting open when you look.
Notice how the platforms split. Of the 168 Resy rooms we measure, 18 show no bookable two-top on any date at the last check, against 7 of 59 on OpenTable. The median room is open on 62% of its dates on Resy, 77% on OpenTable and 40% on Tock. This page leans heavily on OpenTable, with Resy and two Tock rooms mixed in.
That is not a coincidence and it is not a verdict on the platforms. When a restaurant is not fighting a scramble at the release hour, the app it uses matters far less, because the table is there for anyone who checks. When it is, the release mechanics of its platform decide how brutal the fight gets.
Per Se remains the finding we double-checked the most. It is a celebrated fine-dining room that most people assume is out of reach, and on 7 September 2026 a two-top was bookable on every one of the 30 dates in its window. At the last check it read 40%. Reputation and real availability are not the same thing, and only measurement tells you which is which.
Treat it as the low-effort tier of your reservation plan. For anything here, you can open the app, pick a night, and book, without setting an alert or waking up for a release. Save the harder tools for the harder tables, because alerts and release-hour timing are worth it for the 39 rooms that were fully booked for two, where a seat surfaces at the release or as a table given back at a random hour.
Check the hour as well as the date. If you want 7:30 PM specifically, the rooms with a high prime-time share are the ones to aim at, and the rooms with none are worth a different night or a different room entirely.
Availability also moves, which is why we re-check continuously rather than publish a static guide. A room that is wide open this month can tighten after a review, and a hard one can loosen. The live New York and San Francisco trackers show what is bookable right now, and they are free to browse without an account.
Real availability data on great NYC and SF restaurants with a table most nights: Per Se, Essex, Delfina and more you can book now.
Strong, well-regarded restaurants in New York and San Francisco that had a bookable table on nearly every date we tracked, drawn from live availability measurements.
Keep reading: The hardest NYC reservations · Live NYC availability · Live SF availability
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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: last-minute tables in NYC tonight.