How far ahead the hardest tables book

Three months or less, for almost all of them: 31 of the 36 tables on this list that publish a booking window open no more than three months ahead. The exception is Disfrutar in Barcelona, which opens 365 days out.

So the month you start planning matters less than the minute a table opens. Most of these restaurants release on a fixed clock, and a few of them hand out a whole month of dinners in one morning. I'd plan a trip around that minute. Pick the restaurant, find its release time in the table below, and put it in your calendar in your own time zone before you book anything you can move.

The list has 45 tables and 2 hotels, in Tokyo, Kyoto, Paris, London, Copenhagen, Rome, Lake Como, Positano and Capri, plus four tables in Modena, Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon. Every row comes from the venue's own page or its official booking partner, with the date it was checked. Where a venue does not say something, the cell is blank. Download the data as a CSV.

1. The longest window is a year: Disfrutar opens tables 365 days ahead. Only four other tables here book more than three months out: Belcanto in Lisbon, whose calendar ran 180 days ahead on November 1, 2026; La Pergola in Rome at 120 days; and Osteria Francescana and Mosuke, which each open a whole month at a time months in advance. June 2027 at Osteria Francescana opens on December 1, 2026.
2. Tokyo releases a month at a time. Half its tables open a whole month or more on one set day. Narisawa, Nihonryori RyuGin, Sazenka, Hommage and Esquisse each open the next month or two in one go. Elsewhere it is 5 of 35 tables: Kei and Mosuke in Paris, Ikoyi and Kitchen Table in London, and Osteria Francescana. On a monthly release, every Friday and Saturday in the month goes at the same minute.
3. From California, the hardest European tables open in the middle of the night. Kei opens at 00:30 PT on the first Tuesday of each month, Septime and Osteria Francescana at 01:00 PT, Ikoyi at 04:00 PT and La Sponda in Positano at 06:00 PT. Tokyo lands the afternoon or evening before: Quintessence at 16:30 PT, Narisawa at 17:00 PT, RyuGin and Den at 19:00 PT.
4. Four open at midnight local time: Florilège in Tokyo, Core by Clare Smyth in London, DiverXO in Madrid and Armando al Pantheon in Rome. Florilège releases each date one month ahead at 00:00 Tokyo, which is 07:00 PT the day before. DiverXO releases one date a day 90 days ahead, and Armando al Pantheon one a day 30 days ahead, both at 15:00 PT the day before. Core opens each date 91 days ahead at 00:00 London, 16:00 PT the day before.
5. The shortest windows are in Italy, and some are short on purpose. Il Tridente in Positano books non-guests at most 14 days ahead, Roma Sparita in Rome takes bookings 15 days before the date, and Terrazza Les Etoiles in Rome 20 days. Roma Sparita says why: too many mistakes and cancellations. Septime's 21 days is the shortest outside Italy.

No restaurant here says how fast its tables go. Two were already gone when checked: Alchemist had sold every 2026 ticket on November 2, 2026, and Plénitude at Cheval Blanc Paris took requests only on every dinner to early September 2027.

One card per city, Tokyo first, opening on the release to watch. California times are Pacific Standard Time, for November 2026 to March 2027. Where a release is the day before in California, the card says so. From March 14, 2027, add an hour to the Tokyo times. The European times hold all year, except in the weeks when the US and Europe change their clocks on different dates, such as March 14 to 27, 2027, when they are an hour later in California.

Each time or window links to the venue's own page, and the names link to Carmen's guide where one exists, with the date math for specific nights. The CSV has every row, with the release style, where to book, the source and the date each was checked.

Earlier than any table, but almost no hotel will tell you how far. Of the 20 luxury hotels checked for this page, two publish a window, both from one group: Hoshino Resorts, which takes Hoshinoya bookings a year and a half ahead. That covers Hoshinoya Tokyo and Hoshinoya Kyoto.

The other 18 publish nothing on how far ahead their rooms book: Hiiragiya, Six Senses Kyoto, Bulgari Hotel Tokyo, Janu Tokyo, Claridge's, The Connaught, Villa d'Este's neighbors on Lake Como (Passalacqua, Grand Hotel Tremezzo, Il Sereno, Villa Serbelloni, Mandarin Oriental Lago di Como), and on the Amalfi Coast and Capri, Il San Pietro di Positano, Hotel Santa Caterina, Monastero Santa Rosa, Palazzo Avino, Borgo Santandrea, Belmond Caruso and Grand Hotel Quisisana.

For a hotel, the window is not the constraint. The room inside it is. I'd book the hotel as soon as the dates are fixed, then ask for the specific room: the Ritz Paris room guide and the Aman Tokyo room guide name the rooms worth asking for.

Plan the trip around the release, and keep everything else changeable until the table is confirmed. With a one-month window like Florilège's, the flights are usually booked before the table opens, so book fares you can change.

• For a rolling window, count back from the night you want. For Septime that is 21 days, at 01:00 PT. The Septime guide does the math. Pierre Gagnaire works the same way, two months ahead to the day.
• For a month that opens on the 1st, be on the page that morning. Le Bernardin opens January on December 1 at 7:00am Eastern, and Eleven Madison Park opens the month on the 1st without a published hour.
• For a monthly release, know your three dates in order before the page opens, because every weekend goes at once. The Narisawa guide has the next release dates.
• For a window counted back three months, Quintessence opens the same date three months ahead at 9:30am Tokyo time.
• For no bookings at all, the plan is the door. Da Enzo al 29 and Clamato seat in order of arrival; the Da Enzo guide says when to be in line.
• For a hotel concierge rule, book the hotel before the table. The Sukiyabashi Jiro guide explains why.

To work out when your own date opens, the reservation release calendar does the math for the tables with a fixed release. For more Tokyo sushi counters, the Tokyo omakase guide lists release dates and fees, and the Japan booking order puts a table release next to flights and hotels.

Every row is from the restaurant's or hotel's own site, or the booking partner it links to, read between October 29 and November 6, 2026. The checked date for each row is in the table and the CSV. Nothing is estimated: a window stated in months stays in months, a release time is listed only when the venue gives one, and California times are converted from the local time the venue states.

Twenty rows come from Carmen's own reservation guides; the other 27 were checked for this page. Restaurants that publish no window at all, such as Kikunoi, Hyotei and The Ledbury, are left out rather than guessed. Rules change, often at the start of a season, so check the venue's page before the morning you book. Download the CSV to sort or chart the data yourself.