Restaurant review: The Drunken Donkey in Keller

The full name of the Drunken Donkey, a four-location Lewisville-based chain that recently opened its first Tarrant outpost in a former T.G.I. Friday’s in Keller, is Drunken Donkey Craft Bar & Scratch Kitchen.

But the phrase that you think of when you walk in is “sports bar.”

Almost everywhere you look in this U.S. 377 location, you’ll see a TV tuned to a sporting event, and craft-beer logos take up much of the non-TV space. But look over at the green-themed bar area — St. Patrick’s Day was big at the Drunken Donkey — and you’ll see a silver tap wall contrasting with the green, gleaming with 101 taps.

That, along with an additional 100-plus bottles and cans, and an inventive cocktail menu, is where the “Craft Bar” comes in.

According to its website, Drunken Donkey was founded in February 2014 with one eye on being a family-friendly restaurant and the other on being a craft-beer bar with a dining menu that includes “upscale selections” as well as bar favorites. It looks like a sports bar, but its menu items include a quail platter and roasted duck.

That’s where the “Scratch Kitchen” comes in.

Not surprisingly, the roasted duck ($17) was among the best things we had here. A half duck, bone-in for primal eating, was cooked with a perfect crispy-skin-to-tender-inside ratio, glazed in a subtle, slightly sweet orange sauce (extra sauce came on the side but seemed unnecessary). The duck was accompanied by mashed potates that were fairly standard — except for the peppery, herbacious gravy that almost stole the show on this plate.

For a quick snapshot of the Drunken Donkey’s wares, order the Fireball Feast ($18), which features grilled chicken breast, a Kansas City pork shank and a pulled-pork slider, all “smothered with our Homemade Fireball Whiskey BBQ sauce.”

“Smothered” is kind of a key word here — the sauce was sweet and a little spicy, but it almost covered how well-cooked and tender the chicken breast was, its white meat almost glowing in contrast to the sauce.

The pork shank was also flavorful (and you’ll need extra napkins for it), the slider a couple of good big bites of barbecue flavor. Accompanying fries passed the don’t-need-the-ketchup test; they were a little on the soft side but so well seasoned we didn’t really mind.

The Fireball Feast was preceded by a small portion of the Donkey Balls starter ($8, $11 for 6), four meatballs made with pineapple and onions and covered with Donkey Sauce. You may have guessed by now that the Drunken Donkey likes its sauces; the meat was well-seasoned, but we had a hard time detecting the pineapple and even the onions, because the sauce made such a bold statement.

On a second visit, we tried a half-order of nachos ($7, $10.50 for a full order — the menu, which is big on the donkey double-entendres, uses a different word than “order”).

This was about as well-presented and -organized as we’ve ever seen a plate of nachos: Not a mound of chips, cheese, etc., but a plate so composed that most of it was eaten with a fork. The chips were sturdy devices for conveying the load of queso, chili, jalapeños (a little on the mild side) and other veg, topped with sour cream.

We missed an absent traditional ingredient, refried beans; the chili almost made up for that but it also could’ve used a little more oomph. Not that we left anything on the plate.

A server warned that the Reuben ($12) was “huge” and might be a challenge after even a half-order of nachos, but we’re always up to a challenge, and we’ve seen bigger Reubens.

This one leaned toward the traditional, with corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese on rye, although the corned beef was cooked in Chainbreaker White IPA from Oregon-based Deschutes Brewery, and instead of Thousand Island, the sandwich came with “Boom Boom” sauce.

The beer is described as citrusy and hoppy, which can mean bitter, but its influence mostly went unnoticed on this satisfying but not dazzling sandwich.

Service was excellent; if the Keller location is any indication, there’s a team-player philosophy at work here, so that any server who walks by your table refills your glasses and clears your plate.

The large menu bears more exploring, especially the always-available “all-day brunch” with such items as a chicken-and-waffle sandwich and a French toast made with Wells Banana Bread Beer.

It’s worth following Drunken Donkey Keller on Facebook for special events; pint nights and food events happen here pretty regularly.

And there’ll be more opportunities to explore Drunken Donkey in Tarrant: A Colleyville location is scheduled to open later this year.

This story was originally published April 13, 2016 at 5:34 PM with the headline "Restaurant review: The Drunken Donkey in Keller."