If you thought that the credit crunch would make it easier to get a table at some of the country's best-known restaurants, you'd be wrong. A ring-round of top restaurants shows that reserving a table for two at the weekend is still a challenge.

The most difficult place to secure a table was Heston Blumenthal's restaurant, The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, where tables have to be reserved two months in advance. I was told that the lines opened at 10am; tables for a Friday or Saturday usually sold out within half an hour, but for midweek tables it “may be a little easier”. The next available table was on February 6. Almost as difficult to get into was Midsummer House in Cambridge. Here I was advised to book four to six weeks in advance for a Friday or a Saturday night, slightly less for midweek.

Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire, isn't open to non-residents on Friday and Saturday nights, but if I wanted a table midweek I needed to plan at least three weeks in advance.

In London, both Nobu and the River Café had nothing left for December and advised that I call three weeks in advance for a table on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night in January. The Ivy and The Wolseley were fully booked every night, unless you wanted to eat at 11pm - I didn't.

It was no easier to get a table north of the border. The next available table, on a Friday or Saturday evening, at The Kitchin in Edinburgh was on January 16. At Edinburgh's Atrium restaurant it was a similar tale - there was nothing left in December and if I wanted a table in January I would need to book a week-and-a-half to two weeks in advance.

However, all is not lost, if you are feeling spontaneous, grab your partner and head to Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant in Padstow or Jamie Oliver's Fifteen Cornwall in Watergate Bay - both have tables.

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