OpenTable Vs Resy: What’s the Best Way to Reserve a Table?
If you are like me, you love to eat. In fact, you probably love to eat so much that you do it several times a day. This is why our millennial-centric economy has gifted us with many apps (short for “apps”) that make it easy to find and reserve a table at a food service establishment. But there are so many different ways to choose where to get your apps (short for appetizer), so let’s see which software is best for you in your stylish restaurant.
Open table
OpenTable is by far the main player in this area, which is both a plus and a minus. They have the advantage of the number of restaurants on their platform, which is great if you like options like the 24-hour diner menu. But the problem is too many options. If you use OpenTable’s search feature to find restaurants for a specific price range in a specific area, you get dozens (maybe hundreds) of places, from Michelin-starred to Planet Hollywood. This is a curation issue and OpenTable will just show you all the options, not tell you what is good, what is popular, and what is rubbish.
In keeping with their populist restaurant model, OpenTable’s star rating method is entirely based on user feedback. User reviews are like under-seasoned soup: they should be treated with a grain of salt. While they tried to mitigate this by posting reviews from The Infatuation at the top, most restaurants end up rated 9.0 or higher, so you should do your own independent research before booking.
OpenTable is really brilliant at trying to find a place for a large group dinner. You can search for groups of up to 20 people, and in most cases you do not need to show a credit card. Plus, if you’re preparing dinner for 20 people next Tuesday, they probably don’t expect a better lunch, so you’re bound to find something to please the public.
Resy
Available in only 18 US cities (so far), Resy calls itself the “best restaurants.” When they started it was definitely true. They suggested reservations in a few select (but well-known) locations so you can search for reservations by time and date and be sure you are somewhere worthwhile. However, Resy has recently launched a rapid expansion , which means more restaurants on the platform (hooray!) And more chances that you end up running out of food (ugh!). They continue to maintain a well-informed blog on restaurant news on the platform, have easy-to-navigate tags besides “suitable for groups,” and offer push notifications when highly coveted tables open at the last minute.
So, while you still want to keep up to date with restaurant news in your area so you know where you should dine, Resy is still your best bet for getting to more desirable places.
Other
As with all disrupted industries, there are so many different startups, each offering a slightly different model. The backup system works similarly to Resy, but it doesn’t have many options in New York (it’s not bad in Chicago), DINR is great in Canada for last-minute cancellations at hotspots, and Tock sells prepaid tickets at high-end stores. tasting menu.
Then of course there is Yelp , which allows you to book some of its offers. In my experience, there are not many restaurants that participate in Yelp’s booking feature, and Yelp suffers from the same mass market review system as OpenTable, so this is not a viable option just yet.
Telephone
Yes, you can still call the restaurant on the phone. I have done this (in the past) and I want to draw a few conclusions: 1) Most restaurants only answer phone calls when they are open, which means they are very loud and the owner is probably too busy to do anything – what you could do yourself online, and 2) They use a very similar system that you would use on the Internet, so they rarely have better times.
Conclusion
These features most of all influence the search and choice of a restaurant. If you’re planning a special occasion, you should still do your research ahead of time and set a reminder when a reservation will open at the restaurant of your choice.
But for brunch or dinner with friends, I usually make plans like this: as soon as a date is proposed to have lunch with friends, go to Resi and look for a party with so many people. If it’s a couple of days before the tournament, you should be able to find a pretty decent table. Most places have no cancellation fees (and even if there is one, you can always call the restaurant and they’ll waive it). Then go back to the group text and tell your friends when and where you will be eating.