Cafe Luxembourg
200 W. 70th St., Upper West Side, NY
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Picking a dinner spot on the UWS is a daunting task. One would think we’d be in good hands with a Lynn Wagenknecht establishment, Keith McNally’s ex-wife who also steers ship at Infatuation approved Cafe Cluny & Odeon. Not the case. Besides a couple of quality apps, this menu is beat street. it’s standard, run-of-the-mill French Bistro fare that’s overpriced and under portioned. Sure, if you live on the Upper West Side and have money to burn, you’re probably content using Cafe Lux as a local stop-gap to cover your basic needs. For those of us who actually have standards, we won’t be using Cafe Lux for much of anything.
Food Rundown:
French Onion Soup
The best part of the menu here are the appetizers, and really the only reason Cafe Lux didn’t get slapped with a Wasting Your Time and Money tag. A well executed soup, albeit on the small side. Sweet, warm and tasty.
Country Salad
Aside from the little cup of French onion soup, this was the best thing I ate all night. The combination of poached egg, bacon and frisee with a nice thick bacon vinaigrette dressing will do it for me every time.
Luxemburger
We heard raves about this guy from the Infatuation faithful, but we couldn’t figure out why. A very standard restaurant burger, served on a bun that was a bit too thick, lettuce, tomato and fries. It was so undercooked we had to send it back, and that’s saying a lit considering we like our cows bleeding.
Tuna Burger
Very similar to the stellar one served at Cafe Cluny, this is one sandwich Cafe Lux does right.
Pan Roasted Chicken
Numbingly average is how I’d describe this attempt at roast chicken. It lacks any kind of crispiness and overall was pretty sloppy.
Pan Roasted Halibut
Wow, talk about a huge bust. This thirty dollar entree, which our waitress pitched us as one of their specialties, was a total mess. A stinky piece of fish atop a soggy bed of “thai style pickled vegetables” aka cole slaw doused in a lemon vinaigrette. Avoid.
NY Strip Steak Frites
A small, eight ounce Creekstone Farms dry aged cut of beef that was actually cooked just right, served up with some average shoe string fries. The meat was tasty, but every steak frites I eat pales in comparison to Raoul’s .
try instead
Benoit
Midtown,
NY
