UK pub with four-year waiting list named world’s hardest restaurant to get a reservation

A pub in Bristol has been named as the hardest restaurant in the world to get a reservation for its exclusive Sunday Roast, with a waiting time of four years.

A new study by Dojo, a payment provider for businesses, has revealed the world’s top 10 hardest restaurants to get a reservation. The Bank Tavern in Bristol topped the charts as the hardest restaurant in the world to reserve a table. Two other UK restaurants also ranked in the top 10.

The waiting times are based on how long customers can be expected to wait for a table to become available, with some restaurants only releasing tables in monthly waves and others having a backlog due to Coronavirus related closures.

The Bank Tavern posits itself as a “uniquely inhospitable place”, and no wonder, considering the four-year-long wait for one of its famous Sunday Roasts. The British pub is tucked away from the hustle and bustle of Bristol’s city centre, according to its website, which claims that the historic public house has stood since the 1800s, surviving “an alarming number of riots, two world wars, Bristol City Council town planners and Thatcher”.

Two other UK establishments made their way into the top 10 hardest restaurants to get a reservation — celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck in Bray and London-based The Cove Club.

Damon Baehrel in New York, USA ranked as the second most exclusive restaurant, with a waiting list of approximately a year.

The list of the top 10 hardest restaurants to get a reservation is as follows, according to the study conducted by Dojo. The most exclusive restaurants were discovered by analysing TikTok views for some of Google’s most exclusive restaurants. Waiting times were then confirmed by checking on the relevant restaurant websites or through Google reviews. All data is correct as of 6th June 2023.