La Kabbr

Taken by another Times piece, we ventured down to Hell's Kitchen -- the neighborhood, not the Gordon Ramsay restaurant from his annoying TV show of the same name (which, let's face it, is Top Chef for dipshits) -- to the only Iraqi restaurant in NYC. There's little to report. We started with La Kabbr Maza ($19.95), a sampler of hummus, baba ghannouj, tabouleh, etc. It was all good, with warm pita, but nothing memorable. We then ordered the spankopita ($12.95), which came with soup. The choices were chicken noodle or lentil. We chose lentil and tucked in, only to pull out short starchy noodles. "What does this taste like?" I asked. Alisa pondered the saltiness until it struck us. It was Lipton instant chicken noodle soup, the staple of any Gen X middle-class suburban childhood, apparently disguised by a top layer of lentil soup. Down went our spoons. Still went the soup. The spinach and feta under a layer of golden brown filo dough that arrived next was fine, but again unremarkable. So we can check visiting the only Iraqi joint in the city off our list. Once was enough.