Planning Your Visit
Planning a starred itinerary badly is easy: three tasting menus in three nights, no lunch, and by the second dessert nobody can taste anything. Sequence matters as much as selection.
By Reservations Research Desk · Published March 19, 2025 · Last updated · 10 min read
Build the trip around the restaurant with the tightest release window and the least flexibility. Everything else — flights, hotels, easier bookings — can move around it.
In practice that means securing the three-star reservation at its release, then filling the surrounding days once the date is confirmed rather than before.
One tasting menu every other night is the maximum most people genuinely enjoy. Fill the gaps with bistros, wine bars and markets, and keep at least one lunch deliberately light.
Palate fatigue is real, and it arrives faster than jet lag. The second luxurious meal in twenty-four hours will register as less impressive than it deserves.
One-star restaurants often deliver the most memorable food per dollar, because the kitchen is ambitious but the format is looser and the room smaller. Two stars tend to be where technique peaks relative to price.
A well-built trip usually has one three-star centrepiece and several one-star or Bib Gourmand meals around it, not a wall of maximum ratings.
Cost the trip as menus, plus pairings, plus service where it is not included, plus transport home from late dinners. In wine regions add tasting fees; in cities add the surcharge of dining near the venue.
A useful rule: whatever the headline menu price is, the evening will cost roughly 1.8 times that per person once wine and service are included.
Confirm dress codes before packing, declare dietary requirements at least 48 hours ahead, arrange transport in advance in rural regions, and reconfirm any booking made more than a month out.
In Napa specifically, plan the drive. In Manhattan, plan for the theatre traffic that surrounds Columbus Circle on weekend evenings.
Check for returns in the final week, look at lunch instead of dinner where it is offered, consider the bar or salon menu, and look seriously at the same chef's casual restaurants.
Trips built around a single unobtainable reservation tend to disappoint. Trips built around a region rarely do.
Reservations Research Desk — Booking and availability analysts
The reservations desk tracks release schedules, cancellation patterns and deposit policies across Tock, Resy and OpenTable for high-demand restaurants, and documents what actually works for guests trying to secure a table.
This guide is compiled and checked against our verification process and editorial policy.
Availability at Thomas Keller's restaurants moves quickly. Check what is open now, then use our guides to prepare for the release.