Reserve is trying to change the face of restaurant reservations in the same way that Uber disrupted the taxi market.  Created by startup group Expa, led by the co-founders of Uber and Foursquare, Reserve acts as a digital concierge for high end restaurants.

At first glance, the app is nearly identical to OpenTable and other online booking reservation systems: punch in a time slot (for example, 7:00 to 8:30), date, and number of diners and Reserve will pull up a list of restaurants.


 Customers click on one of the restaurants.  Reserve will contact the restaurant, sending updates to the customer as they try to secure the reservation, and contact the customer once the reservation has been booked.  The restaurants promise to treat customers like "regulars even if it is your first time there" by offering special tasting menus for Reserve guests or helping them secure a better table.  At the end of the meal, payment is made directly through the app which adds on a $5 concierge fee that goes to Reserve, regardless of the size of the party.

Reserve's goal is to put restaurants in "control of the dining room."  Unlike OpenTable which requires restaurants to allocate certain tables to OpenTable diners, restaurants can decide how and when to seat diners who book through Reserve.  Reserve also does not charge restaurants anything to be listed on the site; the $5 concierge payment is made by the customers .  One of the interesting features in the app is that customers can offer to pay more than the restaurant's stated menu price, which is something like the digital equivalent of slipping a $100 bill to the maitre'd in order to secure a seat.

 Reserve also helps battle the issue of no-shows by charging customer who don't show up to the restaurant between $10 to $25 and passing those fees directly on to the restaurant.

One of Reserve's selling points is its "curated list" of top end restaurants.  In total, Reserve has partnered with 111 restaurants in New York, Los Angeles, and Boston.  In New York, diners can make reservations at the Michelin starred and very popular Carbone, Aldea, and ZZ's Clam Bar.  In Los Angeles, Bestia, Lucques, Republique, and Rustic Canyon are Reserve partners.  In Boston, diners can choose Craigie on Main, Alden & Harlow, Oleana, and L'Espalier.  The team is working on building relationships with restaurants in San Francisco, Chicago, and London.

Because tables are not guaranteed as they are in last-minute booking apps such as Table8 or traditional booking site OpenTable, Reserve will be focusing on consumers who want topnotch service at high end restaurants.  It's hard to tell whether it will be able to compete with OpenTable's longstanding dominance in the reservation industry but it's definitely a new and exciting choice for discriminating diners.  

Click over here to download the app.