Wheeltapper Pub - Manhattan

Today we had lunch at the Wheeltapper Pub in the Fitzpatrick Hotel on 44th Street in Manhattan between Lexington and 3rd Avenue.
The pub has a friendly staff of mostly Irish wait staff. The decor is nice and the selection of beer on tap is good for an Irish pub. The restaurant is based on a railroad theme with gauges, dials and faux tracks on the floor. My favorite beers on tap include Bass, Guinness, Smithwicks.
The lunch menu is relatively light, as far as choices go.
Today I had the Irish stew which was good but not for $16.00. The portion size was about 16 fluid ounces. The broth was tasty but the gaminess of the lamb was well evident in the broth. The large pieces of potato and carrot were barely cooked through. The stew was supposed to contain barley and it did... about 10 pieces in the whole bowl. The first bite of lamb was tough. It could have cooked through another half an hour or so. Other pieces of lamb ranged from tough to perfectly cooked. It seemed like they combined two batches of soup, one with undercooked lamb and the other with perfectly cooked lamb.
The wife had corned beef and cabbage for $13. The corned beef was practically tasteless. If you concentrated enough on the meat you could detect the corned beef taste. The cabbage seemed to be cooked in plain water with no salt or flavoring. Overall a pretty tasteless dish.
On previous occasions we've had the Irish breakfast which was very good and the fish & chips which were good.
The pub also deemed fit to charge a 15% gratuity on the check. I usually tip more than that, but if they only want 15%, that is fine with me. (I know that I could add an additional tip, but when a place with poor food adds a tip for a party of two to the bill, I get a bit put off.)
I suggest that if you are in the Grand Central area of Manhattan and you want an Irish pub, you will find a lot of choices so look beyond the Wheeltapper.

NY Chinatown Must

Joe's Shanghai is located in the tourist part of Chinatown at Pell St, New York, NY 10013. You have to go there just to try the xiao long bao listed on the menu as steamed dumplings. For $6.95 you get 8 steamed dumplings filled with pork, crab roe and a fabulous broth. You need to eat these with a spoon, because at the first bite the broth will ooze from the dumplings. They are served with a sauce comprised dark soy with slivers of ginger and a touch of vinegar. Joe's has another branch in mid-town but the dumplings just aren't the same. Compared to the original on Pell Street, the dumplings at the mid-town location are just a pale reminder of what could be. Other restaurants have begun to offer the "soup buns" but again, they just aren't as good.

The seating at Joe's is somewhat typical of the restaurants in Chinatown. They will put you at tables where other guests are already eating (if there is enough available seating for your party at that table). The advantage to this is that you can see what other people are eating and find out if they like what they've ordered.

Now for the rest of the items at Joe's Shanghai. Everything else that we've tried is mediocre. Today we had snow pea shoots (dou miao). Nice and fresh, but way oversalted. Another couple (non-Asian) sat at the table with us and had the won-ton soup. The husband said that he loved the soup so it is probably worth trying. It certainly looked good. We let them try our pea shoots and they loved them in spite of the saltiness.

In the past we've tried other vegetable dishes, duck and various appetizers including spicey pickeled napa cabbage (la bai cai). Nothing was spectacular. We've learned to go to Joe's for the xiao long bao and skip the rest.

The restaurant gets very busy on weekends, so get there early or be prepared to wait in line.

The service is fair, but not special.

Cash only... No checks... No credit cards... No bartering.