Reservations & Booking
Per Se is easier to book than The French Laundry, and the reason is structural: Manhattan generates more cancellations, more business diners and more last-minute changes than a Napa destination trip does.
By Reservations Research Desk · Published April 2, 2025 · Last updated · 7 min read
Dining-room tables open on a rolling basis roughly two months ahead, Eastern Time, with prepayment at booking. As at Yountville, a new date enters inventory each night rather than in a monthly batch.
Weeknights in January, February and late summer are the softest periods. December, restaurant-week-adjacent weekends and the days around major holidays are the hardest.
The salon serves an à la carte menu from the same kitchen, with a lower minimum commitment and much shorter booking lead times. For a first experience of Keller's cooking in New York, it is genuinely good value.
Salon seating also absorbs guests who could not secure the dining room, which is why it fills later in the cycle rather than earlier. Checking a week out is reasonable.
Early seatings — the first hour of service — are consistently more available and, for a nine-course menu that runs three hours or more, easier on a weeknight schedule.
Requesting a park-facing table is fine; expecting one is not. Window seats are allocated by the restaurant based on party size and turn timing, and they are not sold as an upgrade.
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.