In London, booking a table can feel like a competitive sport. You set an alarm for five minutes before the reservations are released.
Two minutes out, you open the page.
Thirty seconds out, you start refreshing.
On the third refresh the times appear….a whole column of them… and you take the coveted 8pm Saturday spot.
The adrenaline carries you the rest of the day. In fact, it probably carries you until the dinner itself.
There is no shortage of new openings this autumn, but there’s a much shorter list of those that’ll require the above.
Sometimes it comes down to the chef, but there are also the groups that’ve spent years building a following, a whole universe a diner can step into for a few hours, and the booking difficulty is inherited before the doors even open.
I went through every new restaurant announcement for the rest of the year and pulled the six I’m certain will be the hardest tables to book in London this autumn.
At the end I’ve included some practical tips on how to actually secure one of these elusive tables.
Set your alarms.
Autumn 2026’s Top Openings
01. Soraya, Marleybone
Cuisine:
Persian
Background:
The latest from Pachamama Group, who have done perhaps the best world building of anyone in London. Same team as Nina, Bottarga, Zephyr and Lagana.
You can measure the demand. Monday morning, I checked availability across the group for that same night. Nina, one table at 10pm. Bottarga, nothing. Lagana, 5pm or 9:45. Zephyr, 9:45pm. That’s a Monday. Try Thursday or Friday and there is nothing at all, at any hour.
Soraya doesn’t have the most pedigreed kitchen in this list, but it won’t matter. What this group does better than anyone is build a room you want to be in, and the food holds up underneath it. What they’re doing differently this time is opening in public, their creative director Yaroslava Malkova has been documenting the build in a register that matches the restaurant itself, so by the time the doors open the audience is already inside. I have felt genuinely invested in a construction delay, which is not a sentence I expected to write. Soraya was supposed to open in June, then July, now August.
Opening:
August 2026
Follow:
02. KID, Soho
Cuisine:
Turkish
Background:
This is Sertaç Dirik’s first restaurant of his own, after years at his family’s cult restaurant, Mangal II, in Dalston, which he left in 2023. He’s opening KID with David Carter, founder of OMA, Agora, Smokestak, and co-founder of Manteca.
Carter has a track record of opening rooms that gain popularity and recognition quickly, most recently OMA earned its Michelin star in under a year, whilst Agora picked up a Bib Gourmand in that same window. Pair that with a chef whose kitchen is still named among London’s best, even three years after he left the pass. The restaurant will be built around sourdough pide, charcoal, and house made çökelek.
Like Soraya, KID has been building in public. Unlike Soraya, the tone is subtler and more aesthetic, this week they posted the craftsmanship behind the restaurant’s tables, built by Jan Hendzel Studio.
Between the chef and the restaurateur, KID is shaping up to be one of the hardest bookings this autumn.
Opening:
1 September 2026
Booking Opens:
Monday, 10 August 2026
Follow:
03. Nakimushi, Notting Hill
Cuisine:
Japanese
Background:
Chris D’Sylva’s restaurant group, which includes Dorian, Eel Sushi, Supermarket of Dreams, the Notting Hill Fish + Meat Shop, is adding Nakimushi to its portfolio.
Nakimushi will put two chefs across three floors of a townhouse in Notting Hill. Chef Robin Kosuge’s will be leading Robin’s Ramen on the ground floor, while chef Yuji Shimokawa Kelly will be opening his sushi restaurant, Urchin, upstairs.
This is the most pre tested opening in London this autumn. Both concepts ran as residencies first, and both built the demand that made a permanent room inevitable. Robin’s Ramen went from a one-day pop-up at Eel Sushi to an eight-month residency that ended in May.
Between both chefs audiences, as well as the audience that comes with any restaurant Chris D’Sylva opens, Nakimushi is launching with a lot of pent up demand.
Opening:
September 2026
Follow:
04. Rump Steak, Notting Hill
Cuisine:
Steakhouse
Background:
Speaking of Chris D’Sylva’s growing portfolio, this week Rump Steak was announced as his next venture. The restaurant will focus on underused, rarer cuts of meat.
Nose to tail isn't new, but building an entire restaurant on the parts nobody orders is. That's a narrow enough premise to fail badly and a good enough one to start a category, and D'Sylva's record says it lands.
The reason it goes on this list is simpler than the rest. It's another Chris D'Sylva restaurant, and he doesn't miss. Dorian took a year to get a star and still is tough to book. Supermarket of Dreams turned a grocer into a destination. Nothing needs to be known about Rump Steak beyond who is opening it.
Opening:
This one was just announced this week and they say it’s set to open later this year but haven’t put a date on it yet.
Follow:
No Instagram account yet
05. Kong, Spitalfields
Cuisine:
Chinese
Background:
Chef Andrew Wong and Dishoom’s co-founder Amar Radia are opening a first of its kind Chinese pub in Shoreditch.
Wong already holds two stars at A. Wong and Radia helped build the most reliable queue in British hospitality with Dishoom. A Chinese pub is the kind of idea that gets written about before it serves anybody, and this pairing means it has already attracted a lot of attention.
The only thing that’s unclear to me is that given the pub format, will they take reservations or run on walk-ins only. If Kong holds most of its room back, the difficulty won’t be making the booking, it’ll be the queue on arrival. Stay tuned.
Opening:
Autumn 2026
Follow:
06. Coreus by Clare Smyth, Admiralty Arch
Cuisine:
Seafood
Background:
Smyth’s third London restaurant, after three starred Core and Corenucopia, which took a star within months of opening. It sits inside the Waldorf Astoria at Admiralty Arch, in the former home of the First Sea Lord, and it’s built around coastal and lesser-known British seafood.
Between Smyth’s Midas touch and a Grade I landmark on The Mall with a view down to Buckingham Palace, this will be the hardest table to book on the list.
Opening:
Autumn 2026
Follow:
Coreus doesn’t have an Instagram yet, but you can follow the Waldorf Admiralty Arch’s account here, or Clare Smyth’s Instagram here
(bonus) 07. The Horses, Clerkenwell
Cuisine:
Pub
Background:
Of course, two hours after I hit publish on this article, The Public House Group announced they’ll be opening their next pub, The Horses, so (as promised) I’m adding this as a bonus 7th. The group has gone from strength to strength opening pubs that are chic, elevated and truly celebrate British cuisine, and its reflected in their popularity. Try booking the Fat Badger or The Hart on a Friday or Saturday at 8pm, it is not easy. This will also be their first opening with an east postcode, in the ever growing food mecca that is Clerkenwell. I expect this will be one of the hardest reservations to secure this autumn.
Opening:
September 2026
Follow:
Follow The Horses on Instagram
Practical Tips for How
To Actually Book a Table
As we’ve discussed, I’m no stranger to setting an alarm and the pre-booking scramble to snag a Saturday night reservation. But I do like to take a more calculated approach to the booking mania. Below are a few tips I’ve learned over the years to actually secure a table at an impossible-to-book new opening.
Before bookings open
Join the restaurant’s mailing list, not just their Instagram - Restaurants email their own list ahead of public release, sometimes a full day before. If the restaurant doesn’t have its own mailing list yet then join the group’s list. Both Pachamama and D’Sylva have proper mailing lists which I’d bet will get booking priority. Instagram will tell you when bookings are open, but the the email will usually provide you with first access.
Set up your account on the platform now - Resy, OpenTable, SevenRooms, most of us already have accounts across all of these platforms but it’s crucial to make sure you’re set up with card details saved, phone verified and logged in before the booking opens. The ninety seconds you lose creating an account is the ninety seconds the table exists. Worth checking which platform each restaurant uses before release day, because they differ and you don’t want to be signing up while the calendar empties.
Turn on Instagram Story alerts, not just post alerts - Soft launches, friends and family nights and early-access links will go out on Instagram Stories, rather than posts, and disappear in 24 hours.
Follow the chef and the group, not only the restaurant - Announcements often land on the personal account first.
The day it drops
Find out the release pattern - Most London restaurants use a rolling window, a fixed number of days out, at a fixed hour, or the first of the month for the month ahead. Once you know the pattern you never have to guess again, and you can set a recurring calendar reminder rather than relying on an Instagram post you might miss.
Book on desktop, logged in, one tab - I hate to say I’ve lost reservations because the booking site was open on multiple tabs. Stick to one tab and avoid any tech frustrations.
Adjust your party size - Tables for two usually go first. If your search comes out blank search for four, these usually are easier to book, and then you get to invite friends.
Take the bad slot - This one’s a bit cheeky but take the five thirty or nine forty-five, then amend upward. Many systems (not all) let you move an existing booking, and moving is much easier than getting one.
If you don’t get the booking…
Work the cancellation window - No-show fees usually bite at 24 or 48 hours, which means cancellations arrive in clusters at exactly those marks. Check the site at the 48-hour and 24-hour points before the date you want.
Sign up for notify on every platform the restaurant uses - Then actually respond fast, those alerts go to everyone simultaneously.
Walk in for the counter seat - Counter and bar seats are frequently held back from the system entirely, making it possible to snag a seat as a walk in.
Go early, not late - Counterintuitive but true: the hardest week is usually around week six, once the reviews land, so go right after opening.
Can’t wait to try some of these (hopefully!!) Thanks for sharing
Adding these to my never ending list! Thank you!