Le Crocodile Reservations: How to Book in Williamsburg
George Yates · Founder, SeatSwiper · Updated August 29, 2026
Le Crocodile is the all day French brasserie on the ground floor of the Wythe Hotel at 80 Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg, from chef partners Jake Leiber and Aidan O’Neal of the Greenpoint favorite Chez Ma Tante. It opened in December 2019, took a three star review from The New York Times, and has since settled into a specific role in Brooklyn dining: it is the answer people give when someone asks where to eat and does not want to think very hard. That reliability is exactly what makes the book difficult. It is also, structurally, a friendlier booking problem than most hard tables, because the same room serves breakfast at 7am, lunch, an afternoon menu, weekend brunch, and dinner until 11pm. The reservation you want and the reservation you can actually get are often only a few hours apart.
How booking Le Crocodile actually works
Le Crocodile takes reservations on Resy, and only Resy. The house rule is stated plainly on the restaurant’s own About page: reservations are available starting 28 days in advance for parties of up to 12 guests. That is a rolling window rather than a monthly batch, so a single new date enters range every day. You never plan a month of Le Crocodile at once. You pick one exact date, count back 28 days, and be there when it appears.
Two details matter and are worth being honest about. First, the restaurant does not publish the hour of day a new date opens, so treat any specific release time you read elsewhere as unverified and simply check first thing on the morning your date rolls in. The general mechanics of how these Resy openings behave are covered in when Resy reservations open. Second, this is not a prepaid ticket restaurant. You are reserving a standard table, and whatever terms apply are the ones Resy shows you at the moment you confirm, so read that screen rather than assuming a policy. The wider picture is in our guide to restaurant cancellation policies.
Why the table is so hard to get
Three demand streams land on the same dining room. Williamsburg locals treat it as a neighborhood restaurant, Wythe Hotel guests can walk downstairs to it, and a steady flow of Manhattan diners cross the river specifically for it. None of those groups are seasonal, so the pressure never really lets up.
The 28 day window then concentrates that demand into a single daily moment. Prime dinner, roughly Thursday through Saturday between 7pm and 9pm, is what almost everyone is aiming at, and there is only one calendar date competing at a time. A party of two moves faster than a party of six, and because the online cap is 12 guests, anything larger cannot use the standard book at all.
The genuinely underrated difficulty is the holidays. Le Crocodile runs dedicated prix fixe services for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve, each priced at $163 per person before tax, beverages and gratuity. Those dates enter the 28 day window in late October through early December and get hit by the entire borough on one morning. If you want the restaurant for a holiday, that single date is the whole game, and it is far more competitive than an ordinary Saturday. For where this sits among the city’s other brutal books, see the hardest restaurants to book in NYC.
The off-peak and back-door angles
Because this is a true all day brasserie rather than a dinner only room, Le Crocodile hands you more genuine alternatives than almost any comparable table in Brooklyn:
- Breakfast. The restaurant is open daily from 7am, with breakfast served 7am to 11am Monday through Friday and 7am to 10am on weekends. Same room, same kitchen, a fraction of the competition.
- Weekday lunch. Monday through Friday, 11am to 3pm. This is the single most reliable way to get into the room on short notice.
- Après-Midi, 3pm to 5pm daily. The afternoon service is not a token snack menu. It carries oysters and shrimp cocktail, the country pâté, onion soup, steak tartare, the burger au poivre with frites, the pastry list and the full cocktail program. If what you want is the Le Crocodile experience rather than an 8pm Saturday specifically, this is the shortcut almost nobody uses.
- Weekend brunch. Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 3pm, which absorbs a lot of the weekend demand that would otherwise be fighting over dinner.
- Early week dinner. Dinner runs 5pm to 10pm Sunday through Wednesday and 5pm to 11pm Thursday through Saturday. A Sunday or Tuesday at 6pm is a different restaurant, availability wise, than a Friday at 8pm, and the last hour of a Thursday to Saturday service is the softest slot on a prime night.
- The large party loophole. If you are 13 or more, you are locked out of the online book, but you get a better window instead. The Cellar seats 13 to 40 and the covered Terrace extends that to 70 between May 5 and September 30, on a family style prix fixe starting at $125 per person, and Friday and Saturday evening private dining reservations open eight weeks in advance. That is a full four weeks earlier than the regular book.
When cancelled tables come back
The second entrance is cancellations, and it is the one most people give up on too early. Resy returns a released seat to inventory the moment a guest cancels, so a Friday that showed nothing at the 28 day mark is very often bookable later. The richest stretch is the 24 to 48 hours before service, when weekend plans firm up and people let go of what they no longer need, with a second flurry on the day itself.
Le Crocodile adds a wrinkle here. Because dinner alone spans five or six hours and the restaurant is also turning breakfast, lunch, afternoon and brunch covers, returned seats trickle back across a much wider span of the day than they would at a room with two fixed seatings. That is good news and bad news. There are more openings, but they are scattered, and a returned two top on a Saturday can sit visible for well under a minute before someone refreshing the venue page takes it. Nobody can watch that by hand for a month.
Automating the watch
That last mile is what SeatSwiper exists for. You tell it the Le Crocodile table you actually want, your date range and party size, and it watches around the clock and books the moment a seat opens, whether that is new availability rolling into the 28 day window or someone cancelling three hours before service. It books on your own Resy account, in your name, an ordinary reservation you walk in and use. Nothing is resold or transferred. Pricing is simple: your first booking is free, then a flat $5 only when it actually gets you the table, with no subscription, and starting a cancellation watch costs $1 to begin. The honest limits, stated up front: it works on Resy, SevenRooms and OpenTable only, it needs your reservation account connected so it can book as you, and it can lose a race when a single seat draws a crowd. It is a far better watcher than a human with a browser tab open, but it is never a guarantee. If you are planning a Williamsburg run, line up the same approach for Lilia a few blocks away.
FAQ
What reservation platform does Le Crocodile use, and how far in advance can you book?
Le Crocodile books on Resy, and only Resy. The restaurant states the rule on its own About page: reservations are available starting 28 days in advance for parties of up to 12 guests. It is a rolling window, so one new date becomes bookable every day rather than a whole month appearing at once. Parties of 13 or more cannot use the online book at all and go through private dining instead.
What time do Le Crocodile reservations open?
Le Crocodile does not publish a release hour anywhere on its website or its Resy listing. It publishes only the 28 day window, so treat any specific time you see quoted elsewhere as unverified. The practical move is to know your exact target date, count back 28 days, and check first thing that morning. Prime Thursday to Saturday evenings between 7pm and 9pm are what most people are aiming at, so those go first.
Does Le Crocodile take walk-ins?
Le Crocodile does not publish a walk-in or bar seating policy on its website, so it is not something to count on or plan a night around. If you want to try without a reservation, call the restaurant at 718-460-8004 and ask what they are holding that day. The far more reliable no-fight option is one of the off-peak services, since breakfast from 7am, weekday lunch from 11am, and the 3pm to 5pm Apres-Midi menu all take normal Resy bookings and face a fraction of the dinner competition.
Do you need a deposit or a prepaid ticket for Le Crocodile?
No. Le Crocodile is not a prepaid ticket restaurant. You reserve a standard table on Resy, and whatever cancellation terms apply are the ones Resy displays on the confirmation screen when you book, so read that screen rather than assuming a policy. The one place a fixed price applies is the holiday services and private dining: the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve menus are prix fixe at $163 per person before tax, beverages and gratuity, and private dining starts at $125 per person.
When do cancelled Le Crocodile tables come back?
Resy puts a released seat back into inventory the instant a guest cancels, so a date that showed nothing at the 28 day mark is often bookable later. The richest stretch is the 24 to 48 hours before service, when weekend plans firm up, with a second wave on the day itself. Le Crocodile spreads these out more than most rooms because dinner runs five to six hours and the kitchen also turns breakfast, lunch, afternoon and brunch covers, so returned seats appear across a much wider span of the day. The catch is that a two top on a Saturday can be visible for under a minute.