A dinner reservation at Eleven Madison Park is coveted. Places like Eleven Madison Park are re-imagining their place in the new culinary landscape. The most inspiring example of this comes from Daniel Humm. Mr. Humm is the chef and owner of three Michelin-starred, Eleven Madison Park. I listened to his podcast with Guy Raz and was humbled. Eleven Madison Park has surprised the restaurant industry by creating completely plant-based menus. I only hope I can get in.
My husband, Daniel, doesn’t understand why I would write about how I got a dinner reservation at Eleven Madison Park. He doesn’t think anyone will read it.
Maybe, he’s right.
For the Love of Food
I’m banking on the fact that there are people out there, like me, who want to eat their way through a city, or a country. People who want to discover a region’s local delicacies or experience flavors and spices that aren’t readily used in their own cooking. People who would give their pinky toe for a reservation at Eleven Madison Park.
While it may seem that if a person is intelligent enough to follow the directions on a restaurant’s website, regardless of the restaurant’s popularity, a reservation would naturally follow. Well, it doesn’t. Not always.
Online platforms like Open Table, Tock, and Resy, have certainly helped the foodies of the world book great tables around the globe. Reservations at Eleven Madison Park, for example. However, there are tricks, hacks, strategies, and (dare I say) skills involved in the process.
I have been known to book a holiday around a particular restaurant, securing the table long before the flights or hotel. I scour the San Pellegrino list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants prior to committing to a country to visit. It may sound extreme, but as it turns out, I’m not alone. The New York Times recently wrote an article about a trend called ‘destination dining’. The article highlighted people who created entire itineraries around the reservation at a particular restaurant. Those who live to eat, rather than eat to live. My people.
Worshipping San Pellegrino
Year to year, the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best List ebbs and flows with the finest epicurean experiences of the times. Some restaurants hold their title for a few years, while others have a shorter tenure. It’s a culinary roller coaster for those in the business of food, and for those who love to eat. I often find myself watching the rise and fall of restaurants the way others might watch the stock market. Can we agree that food is more fun than stocks?
Simply summed up, the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best List ranks the top restaurants in the world according to unique culinary experiences. The list acts as a barometer for dining and food trends—a defining list of what is hot right now.
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Beat the Restaurant Reservation System
There are a few ways to beat the reservation system, which can be frustrating at the best of times. Ways to grab the table you’d like, on the day you’d like, and without fear of getting saddled with the dreaded 5pm or 11pm time slot.
A few personal case stories follow, describing how I secured reservations at some of the best restaurants in the world, including, then number one, Chef Daniel Humm’s Eleven Madison Park. Want to skip the stories and head straight to the cheat sheet? Scroll down. Otherwise, read on. As an aside, I have very little in the way of photographs for these experiences, as I spent my time fully absorbed by the food. Indeed, the sign of a fabulous meal.
Case Story #1: The Test Kitchen, Cape Town
The Test Kitchen (then ranked #50) is one of the hardest restaurant bookings to get in South Africa. Rumor has it that even TV’s most well-loved talk show host, Ellen DeGeneres, was turned away without a reservation.
We were heading to South Africa for a week in Cape Town. I had The Test Kitchen firmly in my crosshairs, yet knew it was going to be a challenge to reserve if I relied solely upon reading the website reservation directions, as my husband seemed to think was so simple.
Reservations open up four times a year at 8am for the following three months. That means if you’d like a table in April, May, or June, you need to book at exactly 8am on March 1st, South Africa time. Did they really mean four times a year? Yikes.
I live in Washington DC, which meant a 1am alarm. Factor in the other like-minded, overachieving foodies scrambling for the same date. And those who live in more accessible time zones. Not as simple.
Having booked the trip months in advance, I had the luxury of time on my side. I emailed our hotel in Cape Town to ask/beg the concierge for help. First, I explained the situation and the semi-problematic time difference. Then, I assured her that my expectations were low, and would appreciate her willingness to try.
As any concierge worthy of her post would do, she replied that she’d be happy to help. I gave options for dates, as we were in Cape Town for 7 nights, thanked her in advance, and followed up immediately to confirm our conversation.
A few months later, she replied with the news that she had successfully secured the booking. I was amazed, but not completely surprised. Never underestimate the power of a detail-oriented, capable, and willing concierge. In case you’re wondering, the hotel had no special ‘in’ or connections to The Test Kitchen, just a finger on the trigger, in the right time zone, at exactly the right time.
The evening began upon entry into the Dark Room—cozy, ambient, and moody. We were handed a scrolled parchment map that outlined the origins of the upcoming bite-sized courses.
After drinks, and the ‘map of small bites’, we were ushered through an unassuming doorway. Hello, Light Room—buzzing and bustling with bright-eyed waiters and an energized open-plan kitchen. A contrast in settings, decor, and festivities. It was theater, and we were an eager audience.
Chef Luke Dale-Roberts’ inventive food hit all the marks. Each dish had an interesting juxtaposition of ingredients. It was, however, the Billionaire Bite, an indescribable savory shortbread, topped with gold leaf, that sent our tastebuds into overdrive. We paired the meal with the sommelier’s wine choices, rolled back to the hotel, and immediately fell into a food-induced coma. Bravo, Chef Luke.
Case Story #2: Pujol, Mexico City
The Netflix series, Chef’s Table, has always been a stimulant for our food obsession. One lazy winter’s night, an episode about Chef Enrique Olvera from Mexico City’s Pujol, particularly caught my husband’s attention. Then, Pujol was rated the 12th-best restaurant in the world by San Pellegrino and the 3rd-best in Latin America. When the show ended, Daniel casually intimated that he would love to go there one day.
My mind began to spin. Daniel is not one to ask for much in the way of gifts. He had a birthday coming up the next month. That birthday happened to fall on a Saturday night. I discovered there was a direct flight to Mexico City from DC. The stars were beginning to align.
While I could book the flights to Mexico City on miles without worry, I didn’t want to book the hotel until I had the restaurant reserved. What to do first? Another situation where my new BFF, the concierge, came into play. Even if it was a future concierge.
I called the hotel and explained my predicament. I assured him that I would book a room the moment the reservation was secured. Again, a reliable and helpful concierge to the rescue.
Less than a month later, we were happily sitting in the dimly lit, black-walled dining room of Pujol in Mexico City, savoring Chef Olvera’s famous 100-day mole, and tasting menu. We overheard a young couple next to us explaining to the waiter that they had based their entire trip around this reservation after having seen Chef’s Table. So much for originality.
I’ve since discovered that Pujol can be reserved on Open Table. I plugged in today’s date as an experiment. The next available is three months from now at 6pm.
Case Story #3: Eleven Madison Park, NYC
How to get a reservation at the best restaurant in the entire world? Perhaps the triad of strategy, knowledge, and plain old good luck. In the case of Chef Daniel Humm’s Eleven Madison Park, luck was a key player.
A girls’ trip to NYC in February 2019 seemed a good way to beat the winter blues. After choosing the date, we decided to divide and conquer—one friend chose the hotel, and another the Broadway show. I was in charge of dinner.
I googled the reservation policy for Eleven Madison Park, which then held the #1 spot on the San Pellegrino 50 Best List. The site read: ‘We open reservations at 9am EST on the first of every month for the following month. For example, all May reservations will become available on April 1st at 9am EST’. Seemed simple enough under ordinary circumstances, but Daniel Humm’s restaurant is considered anything but ordinary.
For a February reservation, the date to book was January 1st, 9am EST—New Year’s Day. What better way to try to beat the system than to take advantage of a morning when a good part of the country is sleeping late, hungover, or both? I marked my calendar and created a Tock profile, as recommended. As long as I didn’t oversleep, I had a shot.
Timing Is Everything
At 8:55am, on January 1st, I was waiting with my finger on the trigger. Eleven Madison Park has a pay-in-advance dinner policy, so I had already cleared it with my friends should the reservation come to fruition. Refresh, refresh, refresh. Click. Click. Ticking clock, ticking clock…. 8pm. Confirmed. Wow.
The strategy of working the timeline backward to a holiday is not foolproof, but will certainly increase the odds, especially if you have any flexibility in dates and times.
Eleven Madison Park was formal, yet not stuffy, with an intelligent, funny, and self-deprecating waitstaff. Its location is in a 30-story art-deco skyscraper that originally housed Metropolitan Life. The grandiose pillars and sky-high ceilings had a warmth and happy buzz that filled the entire space. Culinary bucket list—check.
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Eleven Madison Park In the news
Chef Daniel Humm’s recent announcement to serve a 100% plant-based menu upon re-opening is one that will likely have a ripple effect on the restaurant world. As he points out in his podcast, it is harder to turn a carrot into a meal than a tail of a lobster. Each of his plant-based dishes will certainly still uphold his four-pronged combination: to be delicious, beautiful, creative, and intentional. In his soothing understated manner, Daniel Humm maintains that if all four are achieved in a single dish, he has created a new language.
I can’t wait to learn it. Eleven Madison Park, here I come.
Tips and gratuities
Finally, the cheat sheet. Ten practical, logical, and strategic tips on how to get that coveted reservation, regardless of price or popularity.
- Follow the rules: Look at the restaurant’s website in advance and take note of their particular method of reserving.
- Mark your calendar: Once you have the date in mind, backtrack to the day (and time) you can officially book. Set an alarm, or two, so you don’t forget.
- Be flexible: Are you able to book the restaurant for a variety of dates? Mark your calendar for multiple days in case the first time you aren’t successful. Have those dates ready so you can make a snap decision.
- Create accounts in advance: Many restaurants, especially the ones you pay for the meal in advance, have an online system to join or use a reservation platform like Tock. Get your account set up and credit card input.
- Refresh: Get the website up and ready five minutes before the allotted time to book. Refresh the page as needed.
- Make a new BFF: Don’t be afraid to ask the concierge for help, especially when dealing with countries that don’t speak your language, or are in a different time zone. Then don’t forget to tip when they come through.
- Dial it in: When all else fails, try calling for a reservation. We have gotten lucky with last-minute cancellations time and again. Keep calling, you never know.
- Think backward: Take advantage of holidays like New Year’s Day and Christmas morning. Plan ahead to that date.
- Settle for the next best thing: A chef’s expertise goes well beyond dinner. Does the restaurant also serve lunch? There is something wonderful about devoting an afternoon of vacation to a long boozy lunch.
- Time out: Many reservation systems time out after five minutes. If the system opens at 10am and you miss it, log back on at 10:05am, as some people may have changed their minds or have run out of time.
Admittedly, there are many great places to eat around the world, and most don’t require the advanced legwork described above. From the ones in Manhattan with white-linen tablecloths to the ones in the backstreets of Cartagena with red and white plastic ones. We all have different tastebuds, but we all want to eat where we want to eat. Yet, in the end, it’s just food, after all. Daniel, don’t you agree?
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where will you find yourself next? Just Click.
Head to Cape Town and try your luck reserving The Test Kitchen.
Don’t forget the wine and the wine country of South Africa. Stellenbosch offers panoramic views and decadent restaurants.
If a long, boozy lunch is your idea of a perfect afternoon, head to Catherine’s Café on the lovely island of Antigua.
If you ever want to get in touch, ask a question, or discuss a way to partner, please email me at [email protected].
Thanks for the tips about the San Pellegrino best restaurant list. I am going to have to check that out and try some of them.
Thank you for reading, Ashley! Happy travels! -Jamie
Great tips, thanks for sharing! 🙂 All the food looks amazing too!
I appreciate the kind words, thank you! -Jamie
Very cool…nice read!
Great tips! I’ll definitely keep in mind to make friends with a future concierge 😉
I think it is ABSOLUTELY amazing that you were savvy enough to reserve a table at a restaurant Ellen was not even able to reserve!!! XD so amazing.