Momofuku Ko is one of the hottest restaurants in New York right now, and is also one of the hardest to get reservations.  Anyone who wants a reservation needs to go through the Ko online reservation system.  In interviews, David Chang has said that the only person who has ever gotten special treatment was his sous-chef's mother who flew in for the grand opening.  Ko has 12 seats in the whole restaurant.  As of this writing, they offer a 7-course dinner for $100, or a 14-course lunch for $160.  Wine pairings and beverages available at additional cost.


This is the view when you walk in the front door of Ko.  The cooks work behind the bar and serve you directly.

I have developed a system which has allowed me to successfully get reservations on 5 occasions out of 5 attempts.  That includes the time I needed a reservation for a single specific time slot and was able to get exactly what I wanted on my first try.  I have shared this system with several friends who have successfully gotten reservations.  It's not rocket science.  It's really just about being familiar with the system and being quick.  As a bonus, I will show you my technique for transferring reservations to a friend. 

First, a little about how the Ko reservation system works. 

• Each day at 10:00am EST the system comes online.
• The window for Dinner reservations includes the current day and 6 days thereafter. 
• The window for Lunch reservations includes the current day and 13 days thereafter. Also note: Lunch is only served on Friday through Sunday.  Also, lunch is a longer meal than dinner lasting 3+ hours as compared with 2+ hours for dinner.
• Because the restaurant is always completely booked, each morning the only new reservations that become available are for those on the last day of the window.  So dinner 6 days later or lunch 13 days later.
• By about 15-20 seconds after 10:00am EST all of the reservations are taken.

PRELIMINARY STEPS - CREATE ACCOUNT AND FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE SYSTEM
Based on the info above, determine when your desired reservations will become available.  If you want dinner on the 20th, you will be trying for resys at 10:00am EST on the 14th.  If you were looking lunch resys on the 20th, you would be trying on the 7th.  Some time before the day you will be trying for the reservations you should visit the site, set up your account, and familiarize yourself with the system.

• Go to www.momofuku.com and select ko reservations. 
• Select New Account and create an account.  You will need a credit card for this.
• Once your account has been created, login and familiarize yourself with the system.

You should bookmark this page.


Once you login after 10:00am EST, you will see this screen:
Here you select either lunch or dinner then the drop down menu allows you to select the number in your party from 1-4.

Once you enter the information about your party, the next screen will look like this if you select dinner:
The red X's indicate that all reservations for that date and time slot are full.  Green check marks indicate that slot is open and you can click on the green check mark to make the reservation.  You will probably not see any green check marks when you first login.

If you select lunch instead of dinner, the screen will look like this:There are three main differences between this lunch screen and the dinner screen.  There are less times available.  Mon-Thur are closed because they only serve lunch Fri-Sun.  And there is a button for NEXT WEEK which will take you to the second week of lunch seatings (As mentioned above, lunch reservations are done for the current day plus 13 days while dinner resys are only available for the next 6 days.)

You should spend some time familiarizing yourself with navigating through the screens.  Basically, at 10:00am EST on the day you want your reservation you need to be able to navigate this site as quickly as possible.  Now is the time to practice the keystrokes described below in Step 4.  You should also read through and familiarize yourself with all the steps below.

Ok, so now that you've created your account, familiarized yourself with the system, and practiced the keystrokes, here is the step-by-step approach to getting your reservation on the morning your desired date becomes available.

STEP 1:  For this example, let's say you have gone through the preliminary steps and decided to try for dinner on Saturday, May 9th.  You should log in to the Ko reservation system on the morning of Sunday, May 3rd at around 9:50am EST.

Check the system time (at the bottom of the screen) against your clock so you don't miss the 10:00am EST opening time.  At this point you should take your credit card out and have it available for Step 5.  (As an added precaution you may want to have backup credit card ready as well.)

STEP 2: At 9:59am EST, hit the press here button to update the current system time to make sure you're still on track.

STEP 3: Starting at 9:59 and 50 seconds click on the press here button continuously until it lets you in.

STEP 4:
At this point you should immediately select Dinner or Lunch and then the number of persons in your party.

Note for FIREFOX users:  If you want to be superquick you can try using the keyboard.  For example if you wanted dinner for two the keyboard strokes are:  TAB, TAB, TAB, down-arrow, down-arrow, ENTER.  You should practice these keystrokes beforehand.  I have used this technique on Firefox v 3.0.10.  Other browsers are different so you can figure out the keystrokes on your own, or stick with the mouse. 

STEP 5: At this point you will be taken to the reservation availability screen.  If you were quick to this point, your screen should look like this:
See those beautiful green check marks?  You can click on any of those for a reservation.  Be quick though!!!  Sometimes you see a green check mark and by the time you click on it someone else has beaten you to it. 

Note for step 5:  If you have familiarized yourself with the system then you should have a rough idea where to point your mouse as soon as you get to this page.  Be prepared to click on your green check mark.  For example if you knew you wanted an early reservation for the newly opened 7th day then you will be looking for the top right area of the grid.  Or if you want a late resy then you would just go for any green check marks in the bottom right of the screen.   The system gets bogged down with the hundreds of other people trying to make reservations so some times it takes a few seconds for the images of the check marks to load.  I've found that I can click on the spot where the check mark should be WHILE THE IMAGES ARE STILL LOADING.

SECOND CHANCE - If you don't get any green check marks off the bat, or if you click on one and it says someone else already beat you to it then continue to hit the "RELOAD" button repeatedly for the next 3-5 minutes.  Sometimes people click on the check mark then either decline the resy or don't get their credit card info entered in time or whatever.  So you get a second chance.  Also, if you sporadically check throughout the day and following days you might catch a resy that has been canceled.  I would imagine that many people who cancel tend to do so around 24-26 hours before their appointed time to avoid the $150/person penalty.


STEP 6: 
If you click on the green check mark fast enough you will be taken to this screen and will have 45 seconds to accept or decline.

Clicking Accept takes you to this screen:
You have 180 seconds to enter this information.  That is why it is important to have your credit card ready in advance.


Other notes:

• Please remember that if you have to cancel your reservation you must do it AT LEAST 24 hours in advance other wise you will be charged $150 per person.
• There has been conjecture in the blogosphere that Ko resys open up around 11:00am EST.
• I have definitely found available resys by sporadically checking throughout the week.
• Most people make their resys while sitting in front of their computer at work.  As such you will have more luck if you are going for a Friday or Saturday reservation since those become available on the prior Saturday and Sunday respectively (when people are not at work).  Same holds true for holidays.

HOW TO TRANSFER YOUR RESERVATION TO A FRIEND

Ko says they are very strict about reservations.  Although in my experience they are not very careful about checking once you get to the restaurant.  (They didn't ask for my ID).  So you'd probably be alright if you wanted to use your friends reservation by just having them print up their confirmation and giving it to you.

However, if you really want to do an official transfer, I have found a way to do it that worked the one and only time I tried it.

Basically, you pick a time with your friend that is not during regular business.  We did it at 8:30pm EST. 

1. The person to whom you are giving the resy will need to log in to the system and enter the appropriate dinner or lunch and the number in the party.  They will be taken to the next screen that will be full of red X's.
2. The person who has the resy will then go to their confirmation email and click on the link to cancel the reservation.
3. It took about 20 minutes from the time I canceled the resy to the time it showed up as available on the system.
4. I wouldn't take any chances though, and have the friend you are transferring it to continually reload the screen with the red X's starting from the time you cancel.
5. NOTE: This isn't guaranteed.  There is a chance that someone else might be looking around the time your cancellation gets added back to the pool and then both you and your friend will be out of luck.  And as stated above, I think you would be fine if you just printed up the confirmation email and gave it to your friend - they aren't checking id at the door as of this writing.