OpenTable Reviews

by MN_Bulldog

My wife and i are in Park City for a long weekend of skiing and snowboarding. Tonight was out last night here and we were out to celebrate. I have celiac so was excited that they had a massive menu I could enjoy. I also work and travel a ton to Japan so even more excited.

We arrived 20 min early. Was going to enjoy a cocktail. We were rudely told we will not be able to sit you for 30 min. That’s fine so we walked around Main St. We came back down at 8:28. At 9:00 still have not sat down. We were placed at the bar so we were “out of the way”. 15-20 minutes later tables were open yet we were still parked. I was tired. My wife was tired. And truthfully did not feel welcome at this place. The food smelled fantastic yet the customer service was terrible. Should have know this would be the case when we arrived people coming up were like don’t even bother. These people are goofy and it’s not worth your time.

A great night planned for a great dinner ended with so so pizza a few doors down. Move on people.

by Jay 853

My friends and wanted to go eat a STK restaurant. I went online to find reservation details, and had to download the open table app. I created an account and found the restaurant via OpenTable . After a while I was able to make a reservation at 7:30pm, and got my confirmation. When we got to the restaurant it was closed! (Another victim of the Covid crisis)
This place hadn’t been open for months, but Open table was still taking reservations. While outside the restaurant, trying to figure out what had happened with OpenTable , I noticed something strange. Somehow OpenTable booked me a reservation in Mexico, at a restaurant with the same name! In Mexico!!
I gave permission to OpenTable to use my location, and we were nowhere near Mexico, but it made us reservation at a restaurant over 3000 miles away. Even if I had a F-15 fueled and ready to go, I couldn’t possibly make in time. OpenTable totally failed, if you own a restaurant there are much more effective ways to do online reservations!

by Cmillet

At first, I thought all the reviews and photos and “Yelp” like stuff was cool. But the reason I was using OpenTable was to make a reservation, and that’s where things went south, at least compared to earlier versions of OpenTable . Long story short, once you’re on the restaurant detail page, there is no clear way to make a reservation, or there are so many other options that it’s confusing. I ended up “saving”, thinking that would “save” my reservation, but when I showed up at the restaurant, all I got was a snarky gen-z hostess refusing to give me a table (even though there were a half dozen open tables in sight and only two reservations on her list). I’m not happy with Cane Rosso, but I also understand snarky teenage hostesses are all they can afford. I’m very unhappy with how bloated open table has become. Especially since I clicked on a link on Cane Rosso’s website and it took me right down this rabbit hole. It may have something to do with the fact I was on mobile and had to turn it sideways to get all the options. I know it can work, last week I followed the same procedure with Tupelo Honey and my reservation was seamless. Not the same experience with all restaurants, and that’s a problem, especially when you’re with your entire family, your starving, and the hostess could care less.

In conclusion, OpenTable needs better implementation across all restaurants and the need to simplify the restaurant detail page.

by Loosing A Valued Customer

Waited 15 min for a waitress, took another 10 min to get water. After I told Emily I waited a long time, she did not apologize or acknowledge that. During the meal myself and the kids ran out of water and drinks a total of 3 times each waiting for the food of 45 minutes. When food arrived my girl asked for bbq sauce for chicken tenders and her broccoli was cold. My fries with my burger were cold. I asked for hot fries, 10 minutes later they bring me crinkle cut and told me steak fries are t available at the moment as to that’s what i ordered. Furthermore the server tried to give me a bill. I specifically told her i had a togo order when I first ordered for myself and my kids.
No smiles, no acknowledgement, I had to ask her to remove dirty plates from the table. In the restaurant business it’s hands full in and out. Don’t grab a single plate from the table behind me w an extra hand and not help my table out that was full of dirty dishes. Was never offered bread, never offered desert, server never asked how everything was. Maybe in Lexington this concept has stayed alive but if you guys don’t take care of this customer service now in “restaurant city “ you might as well close the doors early. Once I thought this place was on point after just a few months they are going down hill.

by SeanDiegan

I’ve had OpenTable for 10 years and had used it whenever I made a reservation. The big problem with OpenTable and the reason I’m deleting it, is that your points expire. That would be a big deal if they hadn’t let them expire in. Year where there was a pandemic. In my opinion, they took advantage of the situation and cleared their liability in a yess as r where no one could make reservations. I think this company does bad business and there are plenty of other means of making a reservation.

Previously I wrote this a few years ago too when it happened:

I’ve been using OpenTable for several years now and should have over 2000 points but despite being able to see all my reservation history, the points are suddenly down to 200. I emailed OpenTable about it but my email went unanswered. OpenTable is useless if the points expire. I’m sure they’re making fees from the reservation, but then they limit how long you get your points? That’s crap...and so is OpenTable .

by RoseAnn

OpenTable is useless. It used to be good. I booked a reservation and invited people and it notified them of the invites but then it didn't bother to notify any of them that I canceled the reservation. It also didn't push any notifications to me and didn't text. It sent an email. Who wants an email when PUSH and TEXT are turned on. When I canceled it did the same thing. My cancelation confirmation was NOT texted or pushed to my phone, OpenTable just sent an email. Who wants email when a text is so convenient? N O B O D Y!

Additionally, on the Home screen of this now totally useless app, it shows the reservation as still being open and confirmed, then it blinks and flips to reservation canceled and it just keeps spinning and switching between open and canceled. I logged out and shut it down. Same issue. I check all settings and everything is as it should be. I checked for an app update. There is none. I waited a day and tried again. Same issues. App is useless and I am tired of playing a guessing game. If I want a reservation I will book through the restaurants from now on. OpenTable is unreliable and it's more work than it's worth. I had to contact everyone on my guest list to notify them our reservation is canceled. Terrible!

by HahahaComedy

I've had OpenTable for about 5 minutes and I'm ready to delete it. I booked a table on my desktop and it asked me for my email address for the confirmation. Then it said to open an account to keep track of the reservation and have me the option of logging in with Google (which is different than my email address I used to send the confirmation). So I went to my account and sure enough the reservation isn't there. I try downloading OpenTable and guess what? No option to log in with Google on OpenTable . So I go back to the desktop to change the password because my Google password doesn't work on the "log in with open table" option. I get into OpenTable , no reservations. I go to the email confirmation I received and click on change/view reservation and it of course takes me to my profile page for the account with no reservations. So I click on add to calendar and invite Google email to my own reservation. In the account I get a notification that I was invited, and then accept. Then I click on upcoming reservations and there are no reservations. And the alert icon is still red letting me know I was invited to my own reservation.

by SVWIL

As other reviewers pointed out, when you know exactly which restaurant you want to go and when, using OpenTable is a no-brainer - book, dine, and get points. However, when searching for future dates, for example, when planning vacation travel, is AGGRAVATING. OpenTable keeps resetting to 2 people today. I like using map view to search, and I’d zoom out to widen the area, click “redo search” - a whole bunch of options pop up, but when you click on them turns out they aren’t available at the selected time and it literally just brings up all the restaurants in that area regardless of time and date you are trying to search. Developers clearly know of this issue, as it even brings up a pop-up box asking if you want to update your search to the criteria you set previously - but even after you click “Yes”, it runs the search and again the results are populated with restaurants that do not have availability at times you are looking for. USELESS! Fix this please!

by Ekim7434

First of all, who are these people detailing the restaurant’s tilapia and their server ignoring them on what is supposed to be the Open Table app review?! This is not Yelp, folks.

This latest update resolved my ire with the searching. We can FINALLY search for restaurants in San Francisco in its entirety. For a long while you had to specify a SF neighborhood when looking for an available restaurant i.e. 3 people at noon in the Mission, San Francisco, CA. Every other city, you were able to indicate and search by just the city name all except for SF. Looks like the capability has returned.

But scrolling through the list of restaurants was and still remains to be both annoying af and difficult as where my finger lands to swipe up or down to move the page up or down, it’ll attempt to drag and drop that restaurant as a link to a message whether text or email. Why anyone ever thought that would be a good idea when everyone in OpenTable is using a touch screen phone is beyond me. Can we get that fixed, please?

by Ty Star 9000

We love making reservations through OpenTable and earning points. It’s so easy to find and reserve time slots for our favorite, tried and try restaurants as well as new ones to try. However, redeeming your points and actually using them are quite a different story. After a very lengthy and difficult process of redeeming the points we earned through making reservations with Open Table, it turned out that the restaurant that we chose to use the redemption certificate didn’t have a clue as how to use the credit… and pretty much washed their hands of the responsibility of doing so.. stating that even the manager couldn’t figure it out. So, we left without using our certificate… which was disappointing. Needless to say… I have this wasted certificate that apparently I cannot redeem. It’s making me think twice about using OpenTable due to this situation.

by Jojoclown

Overall? I am very happy I can reserve in advance and not have to worry about long wait times while on vacation. Good Job! However, OpenTable to get you to “some” places are not accurate, and when I called the restaurant no one answered, which isn’t all of the OD App’s fault, but the horrible directions from their link to the restaurant in OpenTable is an oversight that can be fixed. I did appreciate that when they contacted me in email to remind me it is courteous to cancel reservations (i.e., as I DID already try, due to no fault of my own or lack of effort) the context of their email left a tone that didn’t assume it was ALL the customer (my) mistake. The email left a kind of open, placing no exact fault on any one party as the email just went over the correct procedure to cancel for next time kind of thing. I found no negative remarks in my account as a result of this mix-up, which was how it should have went. This is why I am trying Open Table again, and still providing a good score of 4/5. Honestly 4.5; but that isn’t an option. Good App Overall. Fix these little quirks like, a direct link to the restaurant’s email account, so when someone cannot get through on phone, the company can go see what is up, and then can offer up the canceled seat in real time to another party on the waiting list; thus, leaving everyone covered, and common courtesies can be given between all parties.

by Won't Fo Back - Bad Everything

Nothing worse than tasteless poorly prepared Italian food. Not only was the pasta overcooked, but it was not strained, so the water it was cooked in diluted the tasteless bolognese sauce. The white bean soup was served cold and equally tasteless. After waiting a few minutes for the waitress to bring salt and pepper, I asked the manager who brought them. It was better, but now really cold. We needed something to help the food so I asked for bread. Again, after another lengthy wait, it came when we could not eat any more of the lousy pasta. Sourdough served with Italian food. Ouch!

In summary, the only thing worse than the food was the service. Nice pleasant girl, but she was like a ghost. After simply asking for salt and pepper for already cooled soup, she sat a 4 top, served soda to another table, went back to the 4 top to take their order and then got lost in the back. We left 1/2 the soup and 3/4 of the pasta, but yet not a word or anything after not wanting to take the poor food home.

by SF987654

It's a useful service that I've used for years but there are a couple of annoying things about OpenTable :
1) first of all, because you're on mobile, OpenTable defaults you to "book a table near me now" mode and it's a little hard to navigate out of that. Most of the time I'm using OpenTable , it's because I'm on the go or in a meeting - not because I need a table right then. It's annoying to constantly figure out how to book a table for a future date, in a distant neighborhood. It takes way too many clicks to do this. App designers: there's more than one mobile use case; more than one user journey.
2) rebooking a table doesn't seem to work. I tried at various times of the day and kept getting error messages, or no error just no success. I ended up having to call the restaurant directly which to me, defeats a lot of the purpose of this app.

Also, as others have noted, using rewards is a pain. This is the fault of the company, not OpenTable , so it doesn't figure into my app rating, but I would advise against giving an Open Table gift certificate as a gift to anyone. There are way too many limitations, rules, and annoying steps to redeem.

by J3jjj2jj2

We sat at bar first for drinks. Nice selection of drinks for resort. I was very pleased with wines/ wine list. Bartenders seemed very knowledgeable. One could have been a little friendlier. So I read a review about the chef and staff snd food. We tried the shareable bread. It was good not great. I was excepting a very rustic complex bread. We had dinner and I ask about their bread. We tried the sour dough with grains. ***** five stars. Very fresh and rustic and light. Yummmmmmy. Our waitress was very knowledgeable and friendly and made our experience pleasant. I tried a few red wines. Very pleased. My wife had some cocktails that she was happy with. I tried the Neopolaltin pizza. 7.3. Good flavor margarita pizza. Crust was flat. Nice and light crust. Pizza had slightly to much sauce. But I like the sauce. The cheese was very Goood but sparse. It tasted very good. Just not great. My wife had plan pasta with basil and garlic and oil. It was very good. Yet lack some oil or butter. But that was my wife’s faults. LoL. I had the ceviche. Very citric and at one point fishey. I did enjoy it. But the citric over powered the ceviche. I definitely recommend this place. We will be back for the service, location and food and complimentary valet. We plan to go back to try there signature dishes.

by Juniorsgv

As soon as you step in was welcomed with sample of wine. Presented with drink options and then was able to walk around and see what items they had for sale. Unfortunately we didn’t plan this part better and enjoyed the wine experience more. Next time. Off to our reservation we had quite a mix of food. Shrimp Rosotto which was amazing. Chicken sandwich that was listed as a favorite which was also good. The turkey burger though was of a softer consistency and not like a traditional patty. It was good, but not what we were expecting. They did exchange for a regular burger which turned out to be great. We decided after a couple more samples each to indulge in monthly membership and will definitely be returning. It’s amazing seeing all of the wines they offer from their own branding it’s pretty overwhelming actually. But now with a membership we can try them all.

by One Impressed Diner

Last night was our first time dining at this establishment. We were greeted upon arrival and addressed (by name) when seated at our table. Marc introduced himself and gave us the overview of the restaurant. Then talked to us about their delish appetizers. We chose the crab cakes. They were delish and the sauce served with them, so good. Our next course, my husband and I ordered salads…my son, lobster Mac and cheese. Our main courses arrived and what a presentation. We had a combination of red snapper, steak and chicken cordon blue. We were not disappointed. Lastly, coffee and chocolate cake. The cake is huge, so we split between the three of us. It was a perfect choose.
If you haven’t tried this place…go!! The ambiance is so pretty, it’s quiet, the food is delish. Ask for Marc….he sure has a calling for serving!! 🤍

by Dee Honest Ratings

All I can say is WOW WOW WOW! We came here for the second time (first time yesterday) and still the same review! Fresh homemade food served as described, but even better! The past two days we have almost tried everything and took food home to go! Amazingly, delicious food and it’s going to be hard not to drive by and stop no matter what! I recommend the calamari, hummus, pizzas, the lamb (doesn’t matter burger or the entree). This place knows the proper cooking temps on the lamb and the “Mediterranean” is truly “Mediterranean” if you know what it should taste like! Also, the talent within the restaurant is professional, well-versed on the menu and the wine list. Customer service is definitely a 5+ along with the food! You have a diverse variety of food to choose from such as pasta, pizza, seafood and it’s all amazing! A must try and you will be hooked! Seriously, it is one of the best restaurants in the valley!

by Meals From The Heart

It’s been maybe three weeks since we evacuated for Ida. Upon returning to Nola yesterday evening we were of course hungry from a days traveling and decided to order from our go to the true food kitchen. Besides their dishes being just plain good the service is also above board as if you have real and or serious food allergies the staff will go out of their way and pleasantly I might add to ensure that you don’t get anything you shouldn’t. The staff are never put off by that so if you like me have actual and not pretend n fashionable food allergies you might call the kitchen and they’ll go all out for you! Having been here working since May (4 plus months) True Food Kitchen is a perfect go to for lunch or more so dinner when you’ve just walked in the door and not really wanting to whip up something on your own. I’ve tried a few different delivery services yet have found ordering directly from the kitchens website is best and again you can always call it in..

by Pat Holder

When I want fine dining and a friendly atmosphere, I always think of Al Biernat’s Restaurant on Oak Lawn! Now they have added a terrific new colleague, James Gee, whom is truly a great match for their wonderful team! James is always so attentive and he makes you feel like family when you walk in. I particularly like the way James gives extra special attention, by taking the time to post social media photos of himself with his guests in front of Al Biernat’s signage. James always tries to be so helpful and thoughtful in every way; and, from here forward, it will be a pleasure to call him when I need special dining arrangements, etc. Thank you James, and thank you Al Biernat’s, for being on my “favorite list” of maitre d’s and top restaurants in Dallas!

by Yessamp

I’ve been using OT for ages, always had awesome experiences but today it was a train wreck.
I was trying to dine at the Galvez Bar and Grill in Galveston Texas, after an hour and too much trouble with the wait staff we decided to leave and go at a more reliable restaurant.
I tried to use this app to make a reservation and this app said “want to modify your reservation”, I said “yes”. this app popped up with “Call the restaurant”.
I was one hour into dining.
“Hello”
Did OpenTable not connect I had already been checked in? The restaurant checked me in on OpenTable .
By now I had already told the restaurant I was leaving. I tried to book another restaurant Gaido’s in Galveston Texas but the Open Table reservation would not process. Got to the they said you don’t have a reservation. Tried to reserve again and OT insisted I call again. So I called again spoke to The Galvez they said they were cancelling.
Still the this app app would not let me cancel.
After dining at Gaido’s OpenTable does not show Galvez Bar and Grill since it is cancelled and Gaido’s never got logged.
The tool was built to simplify, but now they have changed the way their data is managed and so they have broken the process.
It was a good many years but I believe OT is about to lose a very loyal customer, not willing to go through OT hassles.

by Slipstreamer69

My wife and i are in Park City for a long weekend of skiing and snowboarding. Tonight was out last night here and we were out to celebrate. I have celiac so was excited that they had a massive menu I could enjoy. I also work and travel a ton to Japan so even more excited.

We arrived 20 min early. Was going to enjoy a cocktail. We were rudely told we will not be able to sit you for 30 min. That’s fine so we walked around Main St. We came back down at 8:28. At 9:00 still have not sat down. We were placed at the bar so we were “out of the way”. 15-20 minutes later tables were open yet we were still parked. I was tired. My wife was tired. And truthfully did not feel welcome at this place. The food smelled fantastic yet the customer service was terrible. Should have know this would be the case when we arrived people coming up were like don’t even bother. These people are goofy and it’s not worth your time.

A great night planned for a great dinner ended with so so pizza a few doors down. Move on people.

by SendingOutAnSOS

The photo section is the worst. How many photos can one person take of seeing plates of food? How about a section dedicated to showing the rooms, bar, patios, and outside of the building? Let’s face it, restaurants make it largely because of their design at least as much as because of their food.

I’ve (reluctantly) been using OpenTable for many years, and use to love it. Nowadays as I open it, I try to prepare myself for aggravation. Every time I find some new and creative way that Open Table is limited. Tonight’s new issue? I’m trying to change the location to the city of Detroit, Michigan but can only get Detroit, Minnesota and other none Michigan locations. And about half the time the restaurants I’m looking for are not listed anywhere on Open Table. I find myself more and more often going old school and just calling restaurants to make reservations.

Also, how about giving the user the option of having a choice in default maps when adding a reservation to our calendars (per OpenTable ’s feature). Some of us don’t use Google, nor do we want to.

by SailorTommie

Been using this app for years, spent literally thousands of dollars at affiliated restaurants, finally got around to claiming the rewards I've earned, and it's a pittance! Do the math: a typical meal's 100-point reward = 50 cents! Ah, but they're sneaky: they don't tell you what the conversion factor is until AFTER you make a reservation where you want to redeem. Worse, they're dishonest: redeeming 5,000 points worth "up to $50" was actually converted to just $25. That means my entire 20,000-point reward allotment for all those years is worth just $100. Pffftt!! They make it extraordinarily difficult to redeem, and instructions are confusing and contradictory. You can book on mobile, but you can't redeem. The mobile app directs you to the website -- which inaccurately says you can do everything on your phone! NOT. When you do figure it out, you get an email with a link BACK to the website, which generates an image that you must print and bring to the restaurant, where it's processed like a debit/reward card. Complete hassle; not worth the time and effort. I'm DONE. I'll search on Google -- which finds ALL cuisine, not just participating restaurants -- and click "call" to make my reservations the old-fashioned way: by speaking to a real, live, in-the-flesh human being.

by Aliwalsh

We made a 6:15 reservation at Kasai for my daughter’s 18th birthday with 4 of her friends. We were told when we arrived that the teppanyaki table we were waiting for had their check and was about to leave. 40 minutes later we were finally seated. The manager was very apologetic and even had appetizers on the house waiting when we arrived at our table. Everything else was great until the waiter delivering our soups looked like he purposely poured the soup all over my daughter. I actually watched him like it was in slow motion tilting the soup bowl onto her lap. She was soaked the rest of the night. The other waiter filled several of the soda glasses with water all night. The food was very good and the teppanyaki chef may have been the best we have had! The waiter at the end handed us the check and did not warn us that an 18% gratuity was already added. The final straw was when the waiter delivered bite sized cakes and my 11 year old daughter asked if there were any cashews or pistachios in them and the waiter said there are no nuts. She is allergic to both cashews and pistachios. She picked a chocolate one and bit into it only to find a trio of pistachios, strawberry and vanilla flavored cake. She immediately spit it into my napkin. The food was really good but there were too many other things that went wrong for us to visit again!

by Fygar

Great app, use it all the time. But, one thing that has to be fixed is the restaurant search feature, which doesn't seem to care how far a restaurant is from your location if there is no restaurant with that name locally.

Example: Searched for a restaurant and selected my city. The results give me first a restaurant that’s 400 miles away in another country followed by restaurants in my country that I guess were more farther away by distance. Okay, so no restaurant with that name locally, so just tell me!

How about saying there are no restaurants with that name locally, followed by similar cuisine restaurant suggestions? Or even better, be able to select criteria that most closely fit that restaurant profile? That would be a lot more useful than accidentally reserving a restaurant 400 miles away in another country!

by CCRSoCal

UPDATE:
I just realized an old review was up from years ago. I just erased it. Apparently, I was in a cranky mood - probably during a major app upgrade. Here’s the thing. It’s now 2019. I’ve been a loyal this app user since 2005. The problems I had with OpenTable , in the review I erased, were fixed years ago by this app. And I have continued to be a happy user of the service. I just realized I owed it to the company to improve my review to match my satisfaction with this service.

Following is an older, glowing review from who knows when. Everything I said in this original review goes double for the latest iteration of OpenTable . Thank you this app for years of great service.

"I have been an this app user for years. I depend on and use the service constantly. This latest iteration of the iPad app is terrific. Location service, reservation, and calendar coordination are working seamlessly for me and I love it." I don't remember when the first app appeared. It wasn't THAT long ago.

In fact I have used the this app platform on a laptop almost since its original launch, and was an this app enthusiast as much as I am a restaurant and wine enthusiast.

by FabricioWerner

My husband and I had the pleasure of celebrating our first year anniversary at this fabulous restaurant! We dined with CHRISTINE ( and her assistant Alex) let me tell you, had it not been for her our experience would not have been the same! Although we briefly met her, it was like she knew us!!! She was incredibly knowledgeable. Christine knew what we were going to order next it was absolutely one of our favorite dining experiences EVER! Every suggestion was personally customized for us and paired with what we were drinking! Trust me we are tough critics and she made exceptional suggestions ,which we followed, and she was dead on! Christine thank you so much for making our first year anniversary beyond memorable! Gordon Ramsey has a great reputation and it’s because of YOU that he’s able to keep this reputation! I will make this a yearly tradition and I will expose all my friends to this incredible dining experience! Thanks again Christine we will never forget this! Our food was fantastic but it tasted that much better because of the service we were given!

by Sam Ovila

We are regulars at a local restaurant (1-2 times a week) and we always made reservations through the this app app to avoid waiting in line. Sometimes they get too busy or have new host staff and apparently forget to check us in, so OT sends an email a few days later to ask if you attended your reservation. In the past, they’d check with the restaurant but when this recently happened to us, Khadejah asked for a scanned copy of our receipt. I explained that, for security reasons, I don’t feel comfortable sending copies of my credit card receipts (not to mention we shred anything with CC info) but I offered the names of staff we spoke to that evening with whom she could verify, and that we ALWAYS sit at table 10. Nope, she insisted on a receipt to give us credit for the visit. Why the change? Why demand personal financial information in a time when ID theft and credit card theft are rampant? I can tell you who saw me, who spoke to me, where I sat, heck- even what I wore, but that’s not sufficient? Unless there’s a change in this policy, we will likely begin using one of the many other reservation services available.