Café Select

Description
Serge Becker could draw a crowd if he served nothing more interesting than baked beans on toast. At Café Select, the nightlife-impresario-turned-restaurateur (La Esquina, the Box) does virtually that—offering Swiss comfort food. The restaurant’s scuffed retro decor features classic creaky bistro tables and a clock that might’ve been swiped from a train station in Basel. Despite its hip clientele, the place is a snooze. A wan mini–cheese tart tastes like it emerged from the microwave. A more promising entrée of walleye meunière shows up as three underseasoned fish fingers with (beware) bones. Desserts, including a soggy-crusted apple-almond tart, don’t offer much reason to stay. If this is what passes for real Swiss cuisine, there’s a very good reason there are so few spots in New York where you’ll find it.