Some restaurants release their tables on a fixed date months in advance, and the entire period sells within minutes. The mechanics of that release are worth understanding before joining it.
Capacity is fixed and very small
A tasting-menu kitchen typically serves a low number of covers per service, because every plate is finished individually and the pass can only handle so much at once.
Seating cannot be expanded without changing the format, and the format is the product, so the constraint is permanent rather than temporary.
Demand for a restaurant with international recognition is orders of magnitude larger than that capacity, which guarantees a rationing problem of some kind.
Batch release trades fairness for chaos
Releasing a whole month at a fixed time gives everyone the same starting point, which is the fairest available mechanism and also the most chaotic.
Rolling release, where a single day opens each morning, spreads the pressure but rewards people who can attempt a booking every day.
Restaurants choose between these based on how much administrative load they can absorb, since each generates a different volume of enquiries and complaints.
Deposits changed the economics of no-shows
A no-show at a small restaurant cannot be resold on the night, and the ingredients for that cover have already been bought and prepared.
Prepaid tickets and card-held deposits shift that risk to the diner and have become standard at the top of the market for that reason.
They also suppress speculative multiple bookings, which were a large part of why availability disappeared so quickly under free cancellation.
Waiting lists are where the tables actually are
Cancellations happen continuously as travel plans change, and a substantial share of tables are eventually filled from the list rather than at release.
Restaurants generally work the list in order and contact people at short notice, so flexibility about dates and times matters more than speed on release day.
Single diners and pairs are matched far more easily than larger groups, because the gaps that appear are usually small.
What actually improves the odds
Lunch services, early and late sittings and midweek dates are consistently less contested than a Saturday evening, often at the same kitchen and menu.
Hotel concierges hold relationships rather than secret tables, which helps at the margin and helps most when the request is flexible.
Beyond that, the honest position is that the constraint is real, and a trip built around securing one specific table is a trip built on a low probability.