How to book hard restaurants in New York

A New York restaurant sells its tables through one platform, sometimes two, and the platform shapes what you need, such as an account, a saved card or a DashPass membership. Resy is the most common among the restaurants we watch.

Most restaurants release one new date a day at a fixed hour, so the calendar rolls forward. Of the 108 New York restaurants we watch, 42 show a repeatable release time over the last 90 days. Times are New York time and observed; each restaurant guide states the published rule.

• Rolling daily: Carbone, on Resy, added dates about 30 days ahead around 9:40 AM, and the typical table was gone in about 8 minutes.
• A short window: Don Angie, on OpenTable, added dates about 7 days ahead around 9:00 AM, and a table opened on all 90 of the 90 days to November 11, 2026.
• Monthly: Atomix, on Tock, opens a month on the 1st (we saw around 3:00 PM), and a table opened on only 17 of those 90 days, usually gone in about 45 seconds.
• No fixed time: The Corner Store, on DoorDash, opened tables on 76 of the 90 days, about half of them for that same day, and the typical table was gone in about 2 minutes.

Resy's own guide lists a drop rule for each hard restaurant, such as '14 days out at 10 a.m.' for Somssi. It also shows the rule is not universal: Ambassadors Clubhouse releases the whole month about two weeks before the first.

Tables also opened on days other than the release day. These are probably cancellations, but our data cannot tell them apart. We counted 11,144 openings across these restaurants in 90 days, and the typical table stayed bookable for 55 minutes. Hard rooms are the exception: their tables go in minutes.

Only 2% of openings were for the same day. Most were for dates days ahead; the busiest seatings are 5 to 9 PM, as of November 11, 2026.

So an alert that runs all day covers more than a check at the release hour.

Resy describes Notify as a virtual wait list: you pick a restaurant, party size and date and time range, and it alerts you if a table opens. It does not hold the table. Resy says an alert is not a guarantee of a reservation, and you must claim the table yourself.

Two limits follow. Notify works only on Resy, so it cannot watch a SevenRooms, OpenTable, Tock or DoorDash restaurant. And the Resy article we read states no cap on requests or how long one lasts, so check the app.

Many hard restaurants keep seats for walk-ins. Resy's guide says Somssi holds seats at the bar and in the dining room, and that Bistrot Ha takes walk-ins who line up by 4:45 PM before the 5:30 PM opening.

It also warns where the bar is not an exception: at Ambassadors Clubhouse, even the bar is reservation only.

Our restaurant guides give each walk-in rule with its source, for example Torrisi's bar counter and Monkey Bar's bar. Arrive before opening and expect a wait.

DoorDash says DashPass members will see exclusive tables available only for them, bookable at some of the most coveted times. DoorDash marks The Corner Store and The Eighty-Six as exclusive to DoorDash.

A non-member cannot book those tables. The restaurant guide for each venue says what we saw.

New York's Restaurant Reservation Anti-Piracy Act (Senate bill S9365-A, signed December 19, 2024) says a third-party restaurant reservation service shall not list, advertise, promote, or sell reservations for a restaurant without a written agreement with that restaurant.

Penalties run up to $1,000 per violation, accruing daily for each establishment. Services the restaurant has contracted with are outside the definition. This is not legal advice; read the bill, and see our plain guide to it.

1. Find the restaurant's platform on its own website, not a list.
2. Make an account and save a card on Resy, SevenRooms, OpenTable, Tock and DoorDash before a drop.
3. Know the release hour and be on the page a minute early.
4. Set an alert for the dates you want, so a table that opens at any hour reaches you.
5. Book the moment it appears, and read the cancellation terms first.