r/thefrenchlaundry

First timer here! I was just able to snag a precious 2-top reservation in June, and thought I'd share some insights :)

For context, we live in the Bay Area, so our schedule was pretty flexible. Yountville is still a 2-hour drive away (on a good day) though, so it's not like we can just drop everything and go anytime.

We knew that sharing a 4- or 6- top with another party was an option, but we were saving that as the last resort if we still couldn't get in after several months.

Here's what I did -

1. Tried the monthly reservation release for 3 consecutive months, and had pretty much the same experience as everybody else. Already logged in at 10 AM PST on multiple devices, constant browser refresh, waited until ~10:20 for temporarily held tables to be released. Every time we found something, it was snatched up by somebody else in the blink of an eye :(
2. Posted in this subreddit and the Facebook group and checked both every day for someone looking to transfer a reservation. No luck for 2 tops for the dates that would have worked for us.
3. Signed up for Tock notifications. I did get some, but the tables were either already taken by the time I saw the emails, or they were for a larger group (I did specify the party size, but I'm guessing they send you a notification for anything larger than).
4. Religiously checked Tock multiple times every day. This is ultimately what worked for me! I noticed that openings pop up randomly once in a while. When I saw the date that I eventually booked, I actually hesitated for a minute since it was a week night. Big mistake, because it disappeared while I was trying to decide if my husband and I could both take a half day off from work. But then I waited 10 minutes to see if it would come back - it sure did! So if anyone's in the same boat as us, here's my advice: don't hesitate! If there's any chance that opening might work for you, at least start the booking process to hold the table, or just go ahead and book it anyway. You'd definitely be able to transfer it to someone if you decide not to go. Even if you missed it by a second, don't give up and try waiting for 10 minutes. Because chances are the other person's also trying to figure out if that date / time works for them :)

Good luck to everyone trying to get a reservation!

I have a question....now I'm trying to share a table June 3rd I'm the one holding the reservations for 4 now I tried to transfer 2 seats and I just found it's impossible I called the restaurant and they confirmed it's impossible to transfer partial seats...now I want to tell the other party we met on Facebook to send me the Money directly for the 2 seats I have provided everything needed the screenshots(tock) the emails..... Am I doing something wrong??? Please enlighten me

Just failed at getting a reservation for our preferred dates (did the site crash for everyone or did I get lucky?). Looking for a table for 2 on June 3 or 4, or happy to join a larger table! On the 3rd would need to be after 6pm, and on the 4th could do any time after 4pm.

Thanks!

Hi all — I have a reservation for 2 that I would like to trade due to a scheduling conflict.

Current reservation:

• Saturday, June 13, 2026 at 4:00pm

Looking for:

• Any dinner reservation (for 2) on:
  • June 5
  • June 6
  • June 19
  • June 20

Update: Apologies, first time poster and didn't know we needed to share the face value. Total (including tax) for 2 people of the seating is $915.88.

Looking for a table for two June 1-4. Any time :)