Delicatessen.(Restaurant review)

As soon as the government has finished with the banks, a stress test for restaurants might be in order, and the ones in east SoHo and on the Lower East Side, which have burgeoned roughly in step with bank branches, should be first in line. Some may turn out to be engaged in the productive and viable business of feeding people, but it will emerge that many, based on blind optimism and unacceptable levels of risk, are stuck with assets (and food) that are undoubtedly toxic. Delicatessen isn't the worst of them, but it demonstrates many of the faults of the neighborhood: style over substance, a poorly designed menu, and indifferent execution.

As the name suggests, Delicatessen is a jokey homage to the old Jewish deli--pastrami on wry--though the concept doesn't extend much further than pastrami and Reuben sandwiches. (A matzo-ball soup was dropped some months back.) Instead, the restaurant's guiding principle, proclaimed on its menu, is "international comfort food," which means easy, predictable dishes with little twists here and there. One such twist comes in cheeseburger spring rolls, a dish that sounds so misconceived you feel you have to try it. Without the tangy vegetable component of regular spring rolls, there is nothing to relieve the fatty blandness of wrapper, meat, and cheese. When you bite into one end, ...