Resy Release Times for NYC's Hardest Tables

By JustReservd · Updated October 15, 2026 · 6 min read

Most hard-to-book NYC restaurants release tables on a rolling schedule: a fixed number of days ahead, at a fixed time each day. The table below collects those windows in one place. Times are Eastern. Schedules change, so use it as a planning aid and confirm on the restaurant's release schedule page, which we keep current.

Release windows at a glance

Most of these windows come from Resy's own guide to the toughest restaurant reservations in New York (published August 2025) and our own tracking. Restaurants adjust their policies, so verify before you set an alarm.

How to read the table

• Days ahead is how far in advance a date opens. A 30-day restaurant opens the date exactly 30 days from today.
• Midnight drops open the new date at 12:00 AM Eastern — late the night before, in your local time if you are west of New York.
• Ramen By Ra is the outlier: the 1st opens the 16th to month-end, and the 15th opens the 1st to the 15th of next month.

A worked example

Say you want Theodora on Saturday, November 14. Theodora opens dates 30 days ahead at 9:00 AM ET, so the morning to be ready is October 15. Say you want Rubirosa on the same Saturday: it opens a week ahead at midnight, so the date opens just after midnight on November 7 — nearly a month later. The same Saturday needs two completely different plans.

Do not rely on being awake

With midnight and early-morning drops across the list, the practical answer is to automate. Set an alert for the date that opens next, turn on auto-reserve if you want the table booked for you, and let it run through the drop and the cancellations that follow.

Frequently asked questions