With the waiting lists for tables gradually getting longer, we are often asked how this works in practice. 

The waiting list is done in strict chronological order based on the date and time of when the booking is made. 

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Simple eh? Well, not exactly... 

It becomes complicated when someone cannot make a sale for whatever reason (illness, transport, bird-flu etc) and we roll their booking over to the waiting list for the following sales. When that happens they will also be put in the order of the date the booking was made. This means that sometimes a person will be in a different position on the waiting list for the next sale than they were for the last one, depending on whether the people above them took up their tables or passed on them. 

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As you can see below we have people who have been on the waiting list for a year. This is not because we have never been able to offer them a table in that time, it's because for one reason or another they haven't been able to make the date when a table has become available, and we have rolled their booking over.

When we roll their booking over we cannot and do not put them at the bottom of the list again, they slot into the position dictated by the date they booked.

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This is not something we envisioned when we started the sale, it is something which has evolved in to this system due to a number of factors: demand for tables, us not wanting people to lose their tables if they were forced to cancel, and the big one - bird-flu, meaning a lot of forced cancellations and roll-over bookings. 

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Fortunately we are usually able to fit in some of the waiting list at each sale, and also some people prefer a refund which also helps to reduce the number of people waiting. 

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In summary, just because you are (say) 10th on the waiting list for the next sale, it doesn't necessarily follow that you will be 10th on the waiting list for the one after that, it could be higher and it could be lower, depending on what the nine people above you do. ​Either way, we will get you in at some point, but we are not able to predict accurately when tables will be vacated, or when any of the people on the list below might pass on theirs.