I’ve been to several restaurants with difficult to get reservations over the years. So when a food/dining site I follow shared an article from a website called timeout.com listing what they think are the 21 toughest reservation in America, I had to look. What I saw, though, was quite puzzling.
I’ve never heard of Time Out before, though they’ve, apparently, been around since 1968 to help people discover new and exciting culture in London, UK. According to their website, the brand now has a media division and an e-commerce one, with the media division dedicated to providing the best content on “around the best food, drinks, culture, art, music, theatre, travel and entertainment in 333 cities and 59 countries.” Well, based on their list of the 21 toughest reservations in America, I’m not so sure about that.
The 21 Toughest Reservations in America
Before I go over the list, I just want to say that Time Out doesn’t provide any methodology for how they ranked these restaurants. All they did was attempt to make reservations at restaurants on the list and then rank them based on their difficulty. Further. they included restaurants that simply doesn’t allow most people to make reservations at all, which is a bit odd. But anyway, here the list of the 21 toughest reservations in America from most to least difficult:
- The Polo Bar, New York
- Torrisi, New York
- Kasama, Chicago
- Hayato, Los Angeles
- Boia De, Miami
- Rao’s, New York
- Talula’s Table, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
- Mini Bar by José Andrés, Washington D.C.
- Via Carota, New York
- Zahav, Philadelphia
- Carmelina, Boston
- Dirty Candy, New York
- Benu, San Francisco
- Tsuke Edoma, Austin
- Mujo, Atlanta
- Kann, Portland, Oregon
- é by José Andrés, Las Vegas
- N/Naka, Los Angeles
- The French Laundry, Yountville
- Ltd Edition Sushi, Seattle
- The Catbird Seat, Nashville
That’s a decent list, and I’ve only ever been to two of these restaurants. However, even between these two restaurants, I disagree with the way they’ve been ranked.
é! by José Andrés
If you’ve been following me for a while, you may recall that I got to dine at é by José Andrés at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas back in 2021. The diminutive restaurant has six to eight seats and only offers two seatings per night. As such, availability is tight. Combine that with the attraction of the avant garde cuisine offered at the restaurant and the notoriety of Chef José Andrés, and you can see how difficult it might be to get a reservation.
However, while I made sure to book my reservation as soon as my booking window opened, finding spots later in the window isn’t as difficult as other spots. In fact, looking at their current availability, there are eight days with seats for two availably through the end of their current window. The selection gets even larger if you’ll be dining solo.
And that brings to me my next point. é by José Andrés states that you can book from two months out. In other words, reservations for the entire month of July opened on May 1. However, in Time Out’s list of the 21 toughest reservations in America, they state that you’ll wait “a month or more” to snag a reservation at é by José Andrés. Huh? At any rate, in my opinion, getting a reservation here isn’t all that difficult, especially if you plan accordingly. My other experience with a restaurant on this list, though, was an entirely different experience altogether.
The French Laundry
Call me a strange kid, but The French Laundry had been on my bucket list since I was in high school. So when we were going to be in the vicinity in 2018, and Mrs. Island Miler was reaching a milestone birthday, it only made sense to attempt a visit at the time. But as I began researching reservation, I came to realize getting one, even if I went for it at the precise second the window opened, would be difficult. As such, I applied for and got an American Express Platinum card to enlist the help of their crack team of concierges to assist me.
It’s a good thing I went with Amex’s Concierge service for this reservation. You see, when you make a reservation with The French Laundry, you go through Tock. Your Concierge will attempt this, too. However, in my case, that didn’t work. Reservations were snapped up in literal seconds. As a result, my concierge picked up the phone and called the restaurant – not something you can typically do – and made arrangements for me that way.
Now, I don’t have to tell you that The French Laundry was far more difficult to get than my é one. Yet, in the list of the 21 toughest reservations in America, it slots two spaces below and is the third-to-last restaurant on the list. Further, the list states that the wait time is about a month, even though reservations open up on the first of every odd month for the following two months. For example, on March 1, they open for March and April.
The 21 Toughest Reservations in America, Final Thoughts
Again, I no methodology was given on how they determined what the 21 toughest reservations in America are, but just by going off of my two examples, it’s clear that they didn’t exactly do their homework. They couldn’t even get the booking window information correct! That’s not great, especially when you claim to be a leading provider of high-quality content on food, drink, culture, art, music, theatre, travel, and entertainment around the world.