Getting a table at a fully booked Paris restaurant

A table at a fully booked Paris restaurant is seldom a matter of luck. It comes from knowing the day and the hour at which the restaurant opens its bookings, and from following cancellations as they come in. It also comes from moving the request a little: lunch rather than dinner, a Tuesday rather than a Friday, two covers rather than six. ‘Fully booked’ describes the reservation book at a given moment, and the bookings often move right up to service.

We take table requests in Paris both before you arrive and during your stay, including for the same evening. What follows is what works, and what rests with the restaurant alone.

When a Paris restaurant opens its bookings

Many highly sought-after restaurants open their bookings no more than two months ahead. They often work on a rolling window: each day, a new date becomes available, three weeks, a month or two months out depending on the house. Others release an entire month at once, on a set date. Bookings often open at a precise hour, online, and some restaurants also take calls during a short window that same day.

At the most coveted tables, dinner slots are gone within the hour, sometimes within minutes. Nothing then replaces being there at that hour, on the exact day your date becomes available. A day late may be enough to miss it.

The rule can be found on the restaurant’s booking page, or by telephoning the restaurant. It differs from one house to the next, it sometimes changes from one season to another, and a few restaurants announce it on social media rather than on their website. As soon as your dates are settled, the first thing to establish, for each table you want, is the day and the hour at which it will open.

Waiting lists and late cancellations

Plans change, a table for six becomes a table for four, a duplicate booking is released: those places come back online, and they go again quickly.

The waiting list

Many booking systems offer a cancellation alert: you give the date, the time and the number of covers, and a text message or an email tells you as soon as a matching table becomes free. The alert usually goes to everyone on the list at the same moment, and the table goes to whoever confirms first. You therefore need to be able to answer within the minute. Some systems also allow the restaurant to notify its regulars before releasing the table to the rest of the list.

The card guarantee, and when cancellations happen

In Paris, a booking is often secured with a card guarantee. This is a pre-authorisation: the card details are held, nothing is charged, and a fee applies only if you do not arrive or cancel late. The amount and the free cancellation period must be set out before you confirm; depending on the house, that period runs from a few hours to two days.

Cancellations therefore tend to cluster in the days and hours before the free cancellation deadline, and then on the day itself. Those are the moments to check availability and to telephone, the day before and again in the morning, rather than once a day at a fixed time.

The hours, days and tables in less demand

Demand concentrates on dinner, around 8pm, on Thursdays and Fridays above all. Moving the request away from those slots often changes the answer.

Lunch. At a number of highly sought-after restaurants, the midday service is markedly easier to book than the evening one. For a first visit, it is an option worth considering from the start.

Days. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are more open than Thursdays and Fridays. Many Paris restaurants close on Saturday and Sunday, or on Sunday and Monday, and a good number close for several weeks in August: opening days are checked before anything else is fixed.

Hours. Parisians rarely book before 8pm. Dinner at 7pm, or a late second sitting, may be easier to find than a table at 8.30pm.

Counter seats and tables kept for walk-ins. Some restaurants keep counter seats, or part of the room, for those who arrive without a booking; others take no bookings at all. You then need to arrive before opening and be prepared to wait, with no certainty of being seated.

The number of covers. A table for two is generally easier to place than a table for six. For a larger party, a private room or two neighbouring tables are best requested from the outset.

Going through your hotel or a private concierge

Your hotel concierge can book for you during your stay, and is a natural first call once you are in Paris.

We take the request as soon as your dates are known, before you travel. You need neither wait up for the hour bookings open nor watch for an alert, and if the table you want does not come free, we look for another.

Your allergies, your dietary requirements, the table you prefer and the wine you drink are passed to the restaurant with the booking. If your plans change, we move or cancel the table within the period set by the restaurant. For a table the same evening, we take the request and come back to you with the answer. At each stage you know what is confirmed and what is pending.

Dining and experiences are handled in this way, like the rest of a stay in Paris. Within the Essential membership (twelve memberships at most), these requests go through a single point of contact, reachable at any hour.

What does not work

Booking several tables for the same evening in order to choose at the last minute. With a card guarantee, each table not taken up may be charged, and each late cancellation takes a table away from someone who was waiting for it.

Arriving for dinner without a booking at a restaurant that only takes reservations. In recent years Paris restaurants have kept fewer places for those who arrive unannounced, and in the evening the answer is often no.

Pressing the point on the telephone. A full reservation book does not reopen through persistence. Asking to be put on the waiting list, then calling back as the cancellation deadline approaches, achieves more.

Conclusion

For a table at a fully booked Paris restaurant, most of it comes down to two moments: the hour bookings open and the cancellation deadline. A flexible request, a lunch or a Tuesday, widens the options. The most useful step is to settle your dates early and note, for each table, the day its bookings open.