Tips & tricks

How to book a table at the world’s most sought-after restaurants

restaurant noma Kopenhagen

Want to spontaneously book a table at a popular restaurant in Amsterdam or other major cities around the world? That seems almost impossible. But is it really that difficult? We’ve put together a number of tips for you, so you can still get a table at that new or wildly popular place whenever you want. Follow these strategies and enjoy a delicious dinner without the stress!

Foto van culinair journalist Sharon van Lokhorst

Have you always dreamed of visiting one or more of the 50 best restaurants in the world? I completely understand, because I share that dream. But even for me, booking a table at restaurants such as Disfrutar in Barcelona (the best restaurant in the world!) Noma or Geranium in Copenhagen or Central in Lima (Peru) seems impossible. They are always fully booked.

Still, there are ways to secure a table. To start with my own personal tip—which works well in the Netherlands, at least: go for lunch. While evenings are consistently booked up months in advance, you can often still have lunch at your restaurant of choice, provided the restaurant in question offers this option, of course. Would you still prefer dinner? Then follow one of these tips.

Dining without a reservation

  1. Follow your favorite restaurants on social media. Popular restaurants sometimes post last-minute cancellations on their social media channels. Make sure you follow them and have notifications turned on.
  2. Contact the restaurant in question on the day itself. Who knows, a table may have just become available due to a cancellation, allowing you to dine there after all. FavorFlav’s Jeske was once called by the famous restaurant Noma and invited to dine there that same day. (You can read here why that evening at Noma did not end well.)
  3. Go to the restaurant bar. Have a drink to work up some courage, because many restaurants nowadays have a bar where you can enjoy an aperitif and wait until a table becomes available. The restaurant manager often keeps a separate waiting list for people who have a drink at the bar first. As soon as a table becomes available, you will be escorted from the bar to your table.
  4. Ask the hotel concierge for help. If you are staying at a hotel, at home or abroad, stop by and visit your new best friend: the hotel concierge. Hotel concierges have a huge network, know all the local contacts and can easily make sure doors open for you that remain closed to others.

100% success guaranteed

Want to take a more professional approach? Then make a deal with Con Questa. This is the Netherlands’ first concierge & lifestyle service. We said it already: the concierge is your best friend—and at Con Questa, that means an entire team of concierges. Its local network is an international network, enabling the team to get you through the door almost anywhere. Restaurants, as well as special hotels, exceptional bars, hard-to-get-into festivals and events, you name it.

You do need to become a Con Questa member first. But then you get something in return: ultimate service just one phone call away, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Prices for this ultimate luxury range from 250 euros per month to 650 euros per month. It costs a bit, but it also saves you a great deal of stress. Do the math.

And would you like to spontaneously eat out without a reservation in our capital city? You can visit these Amsterdam restaurants without making a reservation.

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