Steve Cuozzo Not Happy With $151 Lunch for Two at the Baccarat Hotel's Grand Salon

Steve Cuozzo visits the super swanky Baccarat Hotel for his review this week, but instead of filing on Shea Gallante's plush fine dining restaurant, Chevalier, he takes aim at the hotel's Grand Salon, where the "Eurotrash, oligarch wannabes, and hedge-funders" dine. Gallante is also responsible for the food at this upstairs lounge area, which is bedecked with coyote furs and chandeliers, but there's a lot left to be desired:

Cheddar cheese covered barely half of an otherwise fine burger 'royale,' while 'millefeuille de fromage' turned out to be an eensy grilled-cheese sandwich drowned in truffle oil. A waiter who touted a ­sorbet selection had no idea what the flavors were.

To add insult to injury, the prices are (unsurprisingly for a Midtown hotel) outrageous, so that lunch costs $151.30, while dinner is $278.08. How (if at all) this reflects on Chevalier, Cuozzo doesn't say, but he makes it clear that it's probably not worth the trip up to the salon unless you have fantasies of drinking $26 cocktails on a coyote fur throne. He gives the place one star.