Review: On Tap Sports Cafe

1845 Montgomery Hwy, Ste 207
205-988-5558
www.ontapsportscafe.com

1/2

By Evan and Deborah Lockridge 

A craving for wings and a long day at work led us to try On Tap Sports Café in Riverchase on a recent weeknight.

Located in the Riverchase strip mall that used to house a Wal-Mart and Office Depot but now is home to Hobby Lobby, On Tap is what we imagine a traditional sports bar to be. There's lots of well-worn dark wood, including the high-backed booths; lots of TV screens (including small flat-panels built into the booths) featuring football and trivia games; and a huge selection of beers, with many on tap. No attempt to be "upscale," no theme-park atmosphere -- just a local place to enjoy a beer with your buddies and watch a game, with a broken-in-jeans type of comfort.

We walked in and seated ourselves and our 3-year-old at one of the booths. She was excited by all the TVs, but couldn't understand why the sound didn't work at the one at our table.

We started out with a couple of beers on tap – a Bass pale ale and a Hoegarden Belgian ale.

The food is, in general, of the high-fat, high-carb variety, with lots of fried foods, appetizers, burgers and sandwiches.

Because of the aforementioned wings craving, and a reader review recommending On Tap's wings, Evan ordered nothing but wings for his meal. Deborah chose a fried crawfish po-boy, house dressing on the side, with a side salad. From the children's menu, we ordered chicken fingers and fries for the little one.

The wings were just as hoped, traditional Buffalo-style. You can order them Mild, Medium or Hot; for 50 cents more, you can get Extra Hot, Scorcher or Beyond Scorcher. We just went with regular "hot." Their spicy heat was of the delayed variety – when you bite into it, you don't think it's that hot, but after a few bites you're grabbing for that cold beer. They accomplished this without being drowned in greasy sauce. And they were fresh – in fact, the menu touts the fact that they're cooked to order. (Wings that tasted like they'd been sitting under a heat lamp were one reason we abandoned another well-known local wings chain.)

In addition to wings, there are more than a dozen other appetizer offerings, such as beer-battered fried mushrooms, chips and salsa, crab claws, onion rings, nachos, fried mozzarella sticks and fried crawfish tails. You can also get fried shrimp, crawfish or crab claws done "Buffalo-style." There are five different quesadilla offerings, which you could enjoy as an appetizer or a meal.

The po-boy was OK. There were plenty of crawfish, but they were a bit tough. And the roll was too soft for our tastes; a crusty French roll would have been better. Some regular mayonnaise might have been better than the bland Ranch dressing. The side salad was small but nice, with a little bit of cheddar cheese. Plain oil and vinegar with some salt and pepper was a good dressing choice.

The french fries were good and fresh, basic shoestrings that were everything McDonald's fries wish they were.

The salad dressings, however, left something to be desired. Both the house dressing, which was a ranch, and the blue cheese were bland and watery.

Other sandwich offerings include a number of wraps, ranging from steak and cheese to veggie to chicken Caesar; 8-ounce burgers (including one Buffalo-style); numerous variations on the grilled chicken sandwich; hoagies such as the Philly cheese steak and chicken parmesan; and classics such as the Reuben, club sandwich, Cuban sandwich and a huge kosher beef hot dog. There's also a handful of entrees, all fried – chicken tenders, fish and chips, fried shrimp.

The kids' chicken fingers were a little heavy on the breading, but otherwise good. While they have a kids' menu, we wouldn't necessarily consider On Tap a particularly family-friendly location. It is, after all, a sports bar, with a bit of a smoky, boozy atmosphere.

The service, once our waitress stopped talking and laughing with the customers at another table, was satisfactory.

There are two other On Tap Locations. We stopped in for a beer and part of a football game at the one in Lakeview, and were impressed by how they transformed a former fast-food chicken joint into a sports bar that looks like it has passed the test of time. There's also one in Inverness. If you want some great beer and great wings, check them out.

Published March 2006