Go big or go alone: how to bag a table at the hottest restaurants

The Lost Kitchen, a vastly oversubscribed restaurant in Maine, is taking only handwritten postal bookings this year. But not every in-demand eaterie requires you to put pen to paper – here are eight ways to get a seat at the toughest tables

Would you send a restaurant a hand-written note to secure a table? You’ll need to if you want to eat at Erin French’s the Lost Kitchen in Freedom, Maine. No reservations by phone, email, text or WhatsApp – just requests sent by post, with lucky diners chosen at random. French had to do something to deal with the demand: her restaurant seats just 40, and there were 10,000 phone calls when reservations for 2018 opened last April.

Fortunately, few places to eat are quite as oversubscribed as the Lost Kitchen. But with long waits to get into the most popular, and the irresistible rise of no-reservation restaurants, here are a few tips for getting the table you really want.