Hello,
I will be in NY with friends soon, and wanted to eat at USC, but can't get reservations. Can anyone suggest a restaurant has a similar menu?

Thank you.

Johanna,

Try calling the day of...they might have a cancellation. It has worked for us before. Also, you may want to try it for lunch instead.

Great choice.

I was watching "Dateline" a couple of weeks ago where they were running a psychological test to see if your age, attitude, or looks could benefit you in certain situations, such as walking into a restaurant where it was impossible to get a reservation, and getting a table on the spot. The restaurant used was Union Square Cafe, and every one of the test people (there were four different people I believe)got a table just walking in the door and asking. The maitre d' said there are so many cancellations and changes, things change half hour to half hour. Give it a shot.

I believe the USC maintains a waiting list. You might as well get on it.

Also, IMO, Gramercy Tavern (owned by the same person as USC) is a far better restaurant, so you might want to give them a call.

IMHO - the Grammercy tavern is better food, but the service is a bit friendlier, less formal than USC. The nice thing to try is the front room at Grammercy - no reservations and a limited menu, but much less pricy and really lovely, convivial and excellent food. go on an off hour - they serve throughout the afternoon - and you will be able to walk right in - a late lunch (2:00pm) or early dinner (5:30) and you'll be pleased.

Not trying to be a party pooper but I was not all that impressed with the food at USC (IMHO).

Johanna,
I found the staff to be very helpful and accommodating when (as an out-of-towner)I made reservations there last August. They could only give us a 9:30pm reservation which wasn't great since that was our first night in New York after a long traveling day plus we had our kids along and that was later than we wanted to eat. They ended up taking my name and phone number (this was a couple of weeks prior to our trip) and actually phoned me halfway across the country when a 7:30pm time became available. Their salmon is incredible--we had a great dinner and a fun evening. I would get on a waiting list and chances are something will open up.

You might try a reservations service like http://www.opentable.com. The USC is one of the restaurants they have on their list. The USC allows online reservations up to 21 days in advance.

I'm sure there's a fee for this service, but I've never used it so I don't know how expensive it is. I found it by going to a search engine and searching on the terms "restaurant" and "reservations." There are probably other services similar to OpenTable, but this was the one nearest the top of the list of search results.

Paying for reservations is obviously not as good as getting a table there for free, but maybe it'd be useful for you if you can't get a table using one of the other useful suggestions that others have already made.

Hope this helps...

There is absolutely NO FEE at Open Table. In fact, they reward you for using it by giving you points that you can exchange for gift certificates to the participating restaurants.

Anyway, I've used it multiple times, and it's a good suggestion.

gab--Oops! I guess I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions on the fee/no fee question on OpenTable.com. I've seen ads for some fee services like this, so I just assumed. Thanks for clarifying this!

I second the recommendation for Gramercy Tavern. We've eaten at both and Gramercy, in my humble opinion is much better. If you can't get reservations at Gramercy, they have a more casual dining room in the front near the bar, that takes no reservations, and it's often possible to get a table with a short wait.

no lunch on Sunday's at the Union Square Cafe. I remembered this post while out and about yesterday. I ended up eating at the neighboring Steak Fritte. What a disappointment, only a boring brunch menu at 2:30, bottom of the pot coffee for $3.50 a cup,not the cleanest place I have ever visited either. Why didn't we remember Gotham or Blue Water grill, we were a starven.