San Francisco's House Of Prime Rib Restaurant Is Nearly Impossible To Get Into — Unless You Know This Trick

Getting into a popular restaurant can be far harder than some of us realize. If you live in a smaller town, reservations are much easier to pull off simply because fewer people are making them. In a city like San Francisco, which has nearly 900,000 residents and is known to be a hub of fine dining, things get more complicated. Reservations are often booked a year in advance at the House of Prime Rib, so the casual diner has almost no chance of enjoying the meal there. But you might if you show up early and ask to be put on the waitlist to sit at the bar.

For those who aren't willing to book a year in advance, getting a reservation at the House of Prime Rib can be a chore. It's long been known as one of the toughest reservations to get in San Francisco. You can roll the dice on the restaurant's reservation app. When we tried, the first available date we found was seven months away at 5:00 pm, though earlier times may have existed on other dates. However, the restaurant accepts walk-ins daily for both the restaurant and bar, and timing is key. If you want dinner at 7:00, it's probably not going to play out like that. But if you show up several hours early and are willing to wait it out, you will likely be seated when a spot opens up.

Established in 1949 and known for serving some of the best prime rib you'll ever have, the House of Prime Rib is considered one of the best restaurants in San Francisco. Their 21-day-aged beef is extremely high quality. It's no wonder that everyone wants in.

You can sign up to be on a cancellation list, but don't expect that to get you in very quickly, either. One writer for the San Francisco Chronicle tried it and still had to wait over 100 days for her chance. When a cancellation happens, an alert goes out to everyone who signed up. If you aren't quick enough to claim it, someone else will.

If you ask to sit at the bar, your wait time may be greatly reduced. It's not an intimate dinner for two, but they'll still serve you a meal at the bar. Your wait time could be under half an hour. Of course, it could be over an hour, too. The trade-off is they don't bring out the meat cart for you to carve it tableside, and you have a lot less room to work with. Even so, it's still the same quality meal.

Rumor has it that some people make multiple reservations to cover their bases, then choose the one they want and cancel the others when the day arrives. Because a table for two is the hardest to get, some people book larger tables and have friends arrive later, if they show up at all. You can see how competitive this gets. If you want to try their legendary prime rib for yourself, be patient but flexible, and it should work out.