2 days ago
New Ranking Reveals The Most Exclusive Restaurants In The World
Hungry? If it's one of the world's most exclusive restaurants you're hoping to eat at, you may want to snack in the meantime, as waiting lists are long—or almost impossible to get on at all.
Food is a driving force in many people's reasons to travel and the rise of social media has opened up our collective eyes (and mouths) to tasting possibilities around the world. With it, competition for seats at the best and most unique restaurants has risen exponentially. Many have become destinations in their own right, with hungry customers coming from all four corners of the globe primarily to taste what they're cooking.
The Disfrutar tasting menu—worth waiting (a really long time) for. Europa Press via Getty Images
This has caused what you might consider to be wait list chaos. Indeed, some restaurants now demand bookings up to a year in advance, often with hefty deposits required to secure the table. Some have resorted to even more restrictive measures, creating challenges diners must meet to try and book a table.
Diving into the data behind booking the most popular restaurants, payments provider Dojo has analyzed search volumes, reservation waiting times, and social media followings to reveal the world's most sought-after restaurants, highlighting the growing demand for exclusivity and its impact on hospitality.
The award for the hardest restaurant to reserve a table at goes to The Lost Kitchen in the town of Freedom in Maine on the U.S. east coast. The reason is simple—every booking is down to chance. Instead of online or telephone reservations, hopeful diners need to mail the restaurant a postcard with their request to visit, including name, address, phone number, email and booking season. These are then selected at random and guests called with the good news.
Erin French, brainchild of The Lost Kitchen in Freedom, Maine and its unique reservations system. Portland Press Herald via Getty Images
While that sounds like a lot of effort to go for dinner, The Lost Kitchen isn't struggling for bookings. It receives an average 66,210 Google searches a month and has 350,000 Instagram followers. A five-hour multi-course dinner for the 2025 season costs $295 per person, plus taxes, drinks and gratuity and dinners are held on Saturdays, May through October. Multiple U.S. restaurants have year-long waiting lists
Restaurants across the U.S. dominate the list. At the top, Rao's in New York is legendarily hard to book at a table. Since its opening in 1896, this ten-table Italian diner has grown in fame and stature and commands as much loyalty in its patrons as any other restaurant. As a result, most tables are permanently reserved for those most loyal patrons. Your best bet for a booking is through a connection (try making friends with a regular!), although you could try direct contact as well. Insiders say January and August are the quietest months, as regulars are more likely to be on vacation.
Rao's in New York may look like any other Italian restaurant, but this is likely as close as you'll get to eating there! Getty Images
On the opposite coast, the toughest booking in San Francisco remains the House of Prime Rib, the go-to restaurant for big celebrations and even bigger slabs of steak. Searches on Google top more than 90,000 a month and the wait list for a reservation is thought to be around one year.
The waiting time is equally as long at Damon Baehrel, though the dining experience is about as different to House of Prime as you could imagine. The sole owner and employee, visitors attend Baehrel's 12-acre farm around 110 miles north of New York City to dine on a completely self-derived, sustainable, living-off-the-land cuisine he calls Native Harvest. He may have just 88 Instagram followers, but his reputation ensures his popularity. European restaurants come with Michelin stars and long waits
Three of Spain's best restaurants are ranked among the hardest 15 to get a table at. Disfrutar in Barcelona (meaning 'joy' in English) is a three-Michelin-star experience with a year-long wait for a table. If that's too long, the reservation time is typically just 330 days at El Celler de Can Roca in Girona. And at two-Michelin-star Mugaritz (a regular on the world's best restaurant lists) in foodie-haven San Sebastian, an evening of experimental eating that's known for its divisive effect on diners will need booking around 180 days in advance.
Noma in Copenhagen, where clean design and lots of light sets the scene for some of the world's best cuisine. AFP via Getty Images
Elsewhere in Europe, perhaps the world's most famous and followed restaurant, Noma in Copenhagen gets an incredible 246,000 Google searches a month and has well over a million Instagram followers. Despite this, waiting times are typically just 90 days, although if you're flexible and are in a larger group (six to eight diners is ideal), you can often find bookings sooner.
Boasting not only three Michelin stars but also a green Michelin star that recognizes its cutting-edge approach to sustainable gastronomy, De Librije in the city of Zwolle in the Netherlands is famed for its artistic and delicious cuisine. Currently fully booked until August 2026, hopeful diners can still join the waitlist with the hope of getting a table sooner. Though not that soon.
The 20 hardest restaurant bookings in the world, according to Dojo. Dojo
To see the full list of restaurants surveyed along with the methodology for how they were ranked, go to Dojo.
