Book a table, including the ones that just came free

Booking a table is a solved problem right up until the place you want is full, which is the only time you actually needed help.

Booking

Pick a place, pick a time, done. It is free, and the booking lands in the same diary the staff are looking at rather than in an inbox somebody checks between services.

You get a confirmation, and a reminder before the day. That last one sounds trivial and is not: the overwhelming majority of missed bookings are people who forgot, not people who changed their minds.

Deposits, and why some bookings want one

Most do not. The ones that do are usually a large table, a peak Saturday, or a set menu the kitchen has to shop for.

A deposit comes off your bill — it is not a fee, and Mosey takes nothing from it. It exists because an empty table of ten on a Saturday is a genuinely bad night for a small place, and the alternative to deposits is places simply refusing large bookings.

When somewhere is full

This is the part worth knowing about.

If a night is booked out, you can join the waitlist rather than giving up. When somebody cancels — and somebody always cancels — the table goes to the list instead of sitting empty.

That is how most people get into a place that is "fully booked" three weeks out. The tables exist; they just become available on a Tuesday afternoon when nobody is looking.

Cancel properly, and early

If you cannot make it, cancel. It takes ten seconds and it is the difference between a table somebody else gets and an empty one.

There is a practical self-interest in it too. Whether you turn up to bookings is recorded, and a place looking at a request for a table of eight on a Saturday can see it. One missed booking is noise. A pattern means you may be asked for a deposit, which is a reasonable response rather than a punishment.

Tables that come free at the last minute

The other half of the waitlist is worth knowing about on its own.

Places lose tables on the day — a cancellation at four for a booking at eight. That table is the most expensive empty seat a place can have, and it is frequently somewhere you could not have booked three weeks ago.

If you are the sort of person who can eat out on short notice, that is a genuinely good way to get into places that are otherwise full. It is not a discount mechanism and it is not a lottery; it is a table that existed, became free, and would otherwise have stayed empty.

What a booking is worth to a small place

Worth a sentence, because it explains the deposits and the reminders.

A table of four that does not turn up on a Saturday is not a minor inconvenience for somewhere with thirty covers. It is food bought, staff rostered, and other people turned away. That is why a place asks for a deposit on the bookings where it hurts, and why the reminder exists at all.

Big tables and whole rooms

Where a place offers it, you can book a private room or a whole space, and ask about a set menu for a group.

It is the same diary and the same process, with one difference: a place will usually want more notice and often a deposit, because they are turning away other bookings to hold the space.

What else to look at

• Ratings — whether it is worth booking
• Dishes — what to order when you sit down
• Order ahead — when you would rather not sit down
• Food guides — where to eat, written up properly