Donkey Mo's Korean Fried Chicken
The wings are fried right and the sauces are not, so the Chronicle's advice is to order them naked.1
Why go
Chef-owner Youngmin Noh started this in 2018 as a stall in the H-Mart food court, added one at Lakeline Mall, lost both in 2021 to the pandemic and a falling-out with H-Mart's management, and came back in spring 2024 with two brick-and-mortars.1 He has since announced the closure of the South Lamar room to concentrate on this one, which Haupt calls a very smart move.1 The chicken is the part that survived the move intact: wings plump and generously portioned,
fried crispy and crunchy on the outside and moist and juicy on the inside,
and tenders of thick white meat.1 Everything built around it is where the review turns.
Order this / avoid
- Wings, six or ten. Six can be two meals.1
- The tenders.
Thick, juicy, white meat tenders that are crisp and flavorful.
1 - Order the chicken unsauced. All three sauces lean sweet, including the one billed as the hottest, and they arrive pooled under the chicken rather than tossed through it.
Honestly, you could order the wings or tenders naked and enjoy a perfectly fine chicken dinner.
1 - Tteokbokki only with company. Drenched in a sauce the reviewer calls palate-blasting and sure to be divisive; her own table split on the texture.1
- Avoid the churros:
two pale, spindly sticks of cinnamon-coated dough are served drenched in a cloying caramel sauce and wrapped in foil.
1 - Avoid the fries, the onion rings and the dumplings.
Tasteless and uninspiring
for the first two; the dumplingsa little dry and dull.
1
What locals & experts say
- The Austin Chronicle, Melanie Haupt, 8 August 2024, on where it falls short:
While Donkey Mo's is cranking out delicious Korean fried chicken, it ultimately falls short as a complete dining experience.
1 - On the drinks, which she calls out deliberately: about half a dozen taps including Pinthouse Electric Jellyfish at $7, one cider, one hard seltzer, Pepsi in the fountain, and water served in styrofoam. Korean fried chicken is a draft-beer dish, so if you are not drinking beer the list runs out fast.1
- The Austin Chronicle is the only outlet that has reviewed it.
Good to know
- Walk-in counter service. No critic or guide publishes hours, so none are stated here.
- Takeout is the workaround if you want a drink that is not beer. That is the reviewer's own plan for next time.1
- Hygiene: no finding. Austin Public Health scored the kitchen 97 on 4 May 2026, and before that 84, 85, 96, 93 and 87 back to October 2024 (5312 Airport Blvd Ste D). Nothing below 70, and the most recent inspection is the highest of the six.2
Verdict
could-visit — The wings and tenders are good and the reviewer says so plainly; the rest of the menu, the sauces, the sides and the drink list are where the same reviewer stops. Go for the chicken, order it unsauced, and do not build a meal around anything else. Austin Public Health has scored it six times with nothing below 70.