Fine Dining - MOOYAH: Eat Here ASAP

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

🍔🥔 MOOYAH Review: They Sure Know Their Way Around a Potato...and Beef 🥔🍔 This week, Sandy Rose and I put MOOYAH Burgers, Fries & Shakes to the Chili's Test. I'm not lying when I say that all of their potato things are top notch. The fries taste fresh, the chips are just as good as the fries, and the BUNS! Potato buns have rented space in my daydreams (did that make sense...?) because they're all I can think about. 🍔 The MDC Shows Why MOOYAH Should Be Huge 🧅 The Well D'Onion Divides Sandy and I (We'll be okay tho...) 🌭 The Hamburdog is as Fun to Say As It Is to Consume 🍟 French Fries That You Can Taste the Skin 🥔 House-Made Potato Chips Somehow Aren't a Downgrade 🥤 Reese's vs. OREO Milkshakes 🗣️ A Sweet Employee Who Sounds Like She Was Trained by the Brand Itself 😬 The Manager Gives Off "Nobody Wants to Work Anymore" Vibes 💬 COMMENT BELOW: Would you order a Hamburdog, or are you higher class than that? 📢 SUPPORT THE SHOW & JOIN THE COMMUNITY: 🎉 Patreon (Bonus episodes, extended Yelp segments & more): patreon.com/finediningpodcast 💬 Discord (Food talk, memes, cursed Yelp): discord.gg/6a2YqrtWV4 🎥 Watch full episodes: youtube.com/channel/UCLbraNhL6KhDPkdSWt2yiuw 🔗 All links: linktree.com/finediningpodcast 🎤 Guest: Sandy Rose Patreon Producers:Sue Ornelas, Joyce Van, & Robert McLaughlin Patreon Subscribers:David Ornelas, Kellie Baldwin, Jeremy Horwitz, Herbert Amaya, Simone Davalos, Scott Bennett, Amy Reinhart, Josef Castaneda-Liles, & Travis Langley Free Patreon Followers:Joe Warszalek, Lauren Cummings, Grace Krainak, Keri Estes, Robert Duran, Patrick Elliott, Michelle Elmer, Dave Plummer, Nicholas Volney, Michael Gerard, Tracy Molino, Phuong Duong, Tyler Robinson, Brandon Gully, Mason Cruz, Michael Milito, Mez, Aaron Hubbard, Steff, Jewell Hermann, Renae Michael, Crystal C., NiZ 👉 NEXT WEEK: The history of fast food Italian chain Fazoli's.

Muya puts sliced hot dogs on hamburgers. Are we flying too close to the sun as a society? Their patties and potato buns put them in the top tier of basic burgers, but the manager called his cashier to the front like a mere peasant. They had lots of creative menu options, but their house sauce made me say, Mu, nah. This brand knows its way around a fried potato,

but the alarm that goes off when someone's order is ready was giving. me panic attacks. As a burger aficionado, I was giddy at the opportunity to try one of the few better burger chains that has eluded me all these years. Does Muya measure up to the likes of Shake Shack and Five Guys? Or am I a big old jerk for thinking a place named after the victory cry of a cow defeating another cow in a supposed game of haystack kicking could be taken seriously? I'm not making this up. That is what their official website says in the FAQs. Let's find out Together, this is the Fine Dining Podcast. I am your host, Michael Ornellis, and this is the podcast that uses Chili's,

the most mediocre restaurant in America, as a point of comparison to see if all other restaurants are good or not good. By the end of this episode, we'll answer the question everyone was wondering when crop circles were first spotted, is Muya better than Chili's? Today, we're going to tell you everything that was good, not good, and just there about our meal at Muya before we give it a score at the end. end of the episode. And joining me today to discuss muya is a dear friend of mine returning to fine dining. She's the last thing you hear in the majority of my episodes as her rendition of

Have a Fine Day has been categorized as a cultural moment. And she's the human equivalent of finding out you're naturally good at something on your first try. It's Sandy Rose. What an intro. I love all that. Yeah. How you do? Put that on my resume. I'm doing good. You actually can put podcast intros on your resume. But all the words you just said specifically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was I was introduced on a podcast really well. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then break down into three bullet points, what your responsibilities were at that. Yeah. That sounds good. Yeah. Sounds legit. How are you doing? I'm good. We ate this meal that I thought would leave me feeling heavier than it did, which is a testament. Yeah. September Ger episodes are not an easy feat. We go and we split three burgers each. And we don't

just stop at burgers. We get the sides. We get dessert. In this case, shit. I wanted to get more regular food options, but they didn't really have a lot of diversity outside of burgers, which honestly, I was totally fine with. Yeah. They have a lot of burger options. They have a lot of burger options. And especially when they're customizable, it's just like with as many ingredients as they have, there's probably something in the ballpark of like over a thousand technical combinations you could make. It's like a Rubik's Cube having like a quintillion combinations. Is that the math? That's, yeah, something like that. you would know. And that's not a derogatory, you would know. I love that for you. I love that for you. But yeah, I rather enjoyed our time at Muya. So let's break this down. We can jump into it. Let's talk about everything about our visit today that we would categorize as good. This is it good done like it should be. First off, I wrote the vibes were cute.

and clean. But they had like a little illustrated word cloud on one wall where it just kind of had like, you know, Idaho potatoes and like, you know, customer service. Yeah, like all those like corporate buzzword kind of things with just like. Form to table. With like a black and white little illustration that I was just like, you know what? I don't mind it. It feels kind of corporate.

What else are they going to put there? What else are they going to put there? They could make it look like a farm. They could just be like, we're going to make it feel like you're in a farm when you're in muya. You know, and surprisingly, they didn't go farm with it. Yeah. Like they didn't veer that direction. There was a cow in the word cloud.

Like visually, there was an illustration of a cow. But just one. And it wasn't cartooning. A nod to moo culture. To moo culture. Moo culture was respected here. But you're right. It was very corporate inside, which I don't know, not the worst thing.

I like it. Sure. Like I do. Like it was corporate in a way of like it was clear branding, but it wasn't quite like this didn't feel like a bank office. It didn't do you. I felt like I was at a bank. You were doing transactions. Yeah.

No, yeah. It was there was reds and there was grays and yellows. Yeah. It was just kind of what you expect. And it wasn't like, I was actually thinking about this when we were sitting there. I was like, do I like the vibe of this? I do because it didn't feel dirty. Again, clean is maybe a top word I would use.

And then it didn't feel like UV lighting or whatever it is, you know. Fluorescent lighting. Fluorescent lighting. It didn't feel like the tanning bed. It did not feel like a tanning bed. Yeah. Which also could have been a nod to Moogulture if they did that. But they didn't.

It didn't feel like, I don't know, KFC at like 2 a.m. Right. Oh, I would be haunted if it did. I would be truly unhinged. What's a good thing you had? Can we go into like food being good? Okay. The fries for me were very good.

The fries and the kettle potato chips. The chips. They had both. And I want to talk about them together because they felt like the same potato. Oh. Like one half of the potato was a fry. one half was made in touch. Not like literally the same, but like.

They were across the frying pan from each other. No, sister. It's like the same stock of potatoes either becomes fries or chips. It's not like, oh, these are our chip potatoes and these are our, like, there was just a similarity in the way they tasted. That would be so interesting if they had specific potatoes. They were like, these are going to be chips. Yeah. Which everyone listening in the UK is freaking out, very confused right now.

That's a underrated joke. underrated as though people have already talked about it and passed it over and I'm like, no, no, no, no, you go back. Yeah. Give it its flowers. I loved the chips better than the fries. I cannot say that now without even thinking about it. We're in America.

So the chips were better than fries in my opinion, which is crazy. Yeah. Because I was telling you at the restaurant, like I typically don't like when restaurants have just like sliced chips. It feels like a waste of options. It feels like, these could have became fries. It genuinely feels that way most of the time. Yeah.

Or they're just like soggy or not well made. Yeah. And these were really good. We're so good. Mm-hmm. I wanted to keep going back for more. My note for the fries says the type of fry that honors the potato. Oh.

And then I wrote warships at the altar. Wow. So I guess. You were having a religious experience with it. There was also a taste to these where like it tasted potato forward as opposed to fryer forward. Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't greasy.

Yeah. It was substantial with potato. Like it didn't taste just like the oil. Like I even felt like I could taste the presence of potato skin in this in a way where it's like I like potato skins. Yeah, yeah, me too. I think it's a delicious part of the potato. And you're right.

It wasn't like a steak fry situation where there was peel on it. or anything. So normally you wouldn't taste it. But I get what you mean. The essence was there. And the chips I wrote literally just as good. I scored both of these at an 8.5 out of 10. I thought so highly of these.

Great on the cusp of excellent. I had a 7.6 for the fries, which I wrote good color because I liked, they were like deeply brown. Yeah. I gave the chips a 9.63. A 9.6. They just shucked me. I wrote light and crispy. parentheses better than the fries, exclamation point.

And I thought, to me, it felt like these are the same thing. It's just do you want it crunchy and round or do you want it fried? Long and thick. Yeah, long and thick. Yeah. Those were both really good in my opinion. I don't like that you made me say that. All right.

I liked it. The, yeah, ambians and the service, both for me were good. The girl was very nice. She was nice. I thought she was like down for our big order. She was unfazed by it. She was going, she was clicking along. I also was really impressed by, so the shakes are sized kind of Starbucksy, like they have their own names for small and large.

It was little and big. You know, so Starbucks would be like, whatever, something in Venty. And so then she, she was like, what size do you want? We were both to like small. And she was like, okay, the little shake. Like she went right into the actual naming of the menu. It felt like I, it felt like at Disney when it's like, I'm friends with Bell. Right, right.

Yeah. I have a specific thing I have to say here. And if I don't, they're going to, they're going to get me in the back. I am branded on my back. They have a branding iron and I'm going to get rebranded. There's like a lot of moos on my back. Yeah, yeah. So that was just very.

I just imagine seeing that like she's at a swimming pool and it's just moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo. Hey, could be a cool tattoo. Is someone shaming you? Oh. Feels like someone's calling you. Cal. Louise. So she was very professional like that. But maybe too professional. Like she came and gave us our stuff and you tried to make a little bit. Are you like, you said something about the hamper dog? Oh, yeah, yeah. You said something about that. And she was like, okay. And she did a quick way. I'm not allowed to joke about this. Exactly. This is not a laughing matter. I'm going to get another move on my back. I can't do that. So she was nice. It was just very professional, which again, not a knock against her. I mean, I'll bring it up in the not good later. But there was a. an element of fear in how she operated.

And I'll talk about it later. Sure, fair enough. Yeah. I think that all of these kind of tie in, I can't call it a small. I have to call it a little. Yes. I can't joke about the hamburger dog. Yeah.

Yeah. Very corporate. The Reese's milkshake for me, I had in the good. Chunky peanut butter cups kind of in it, like not too finely ground to where it's just like the flavor of it, but like I like it when you get the chunks of it. Really thick straw so that you could still get kind of the chunk. Reese's cups. And really, really thick straw.

Like I was like, wow, these are wide. Yeah, it's a thick boy. And it was like, now I'm thinking, is this not weird after all? But I was like, oh, it's specifically branded Reese's. Oh, uh-huh. I don't know if sometimes they're just like peanut butter cup. I think Reese's, when they lend their ingredient to a company, they require that you call it Reese's.

Sure, yeah. And so I just don't know if some places just make their house. Yeah, I feel like some do, but I think it's rare. Like, I know Coldstone has the peanut butter cup perfection, and that one is not branded Reese's. And I have seen them smash up Reese's in it. And I wonder if they get in trouble for that, if they get branded and back with cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold. It's an ice brand.

Exactly. Yeah. Cool, because Palmers makes really good peanut butter cups. I don't know, Palmers. They're so good. They're comparable to Reese's. maybe better. They're more powder sugary, flavory.

But I'm like, yeah, there's other people who make peanut butter cups. But it was very specifically Reese's tasting. Yeah. Rees's likes credit. When they are present, they want you to know that they're there. Yeah. They're very like, acknowledge me. But I gave the Reese's milkshake a seven out of ten.

I gave it an eight. Yeah. Yeah, it was very good. And then the Oreo shake for me. I didn't have it in the good. What? I know. Yeah, you did try it and you like pointed to the Reese.

I was like, I'll take that one back now. That's wild. Yeah. I finished that, that dang thing. Yeah. I wanted to finish it. I put a 9.3. 9.3.

9.3. But I love, I love Oreos and I love vanilla and I have a little shaker. I love Oreos. I don't know. I'll talk about it later. Okay. Yeah, it wasn't. And you're good.

It sounds like you had a different experience. For me, I love the chunks of Oreo. It wasn't too sweet, not too thick, nice and creamy. It was perfect. Okay. Not perfect because you didn't score it a 10. Well, shit, you're right. It wasn't even in 9.5 to 10 territory.

It wasn't even best ever, but it was excellent for sure. And then all my other goods are the burgers. We got the MDH. Okay, so it was the MDC for everyone listening and watching. But he doesn't like the seward. The Muya double hamburger, not cheeseburger. I'm going to gym to the camera from the office. But I did really.

enjoy this. For a basic level one hamburger, this slapped. Ooh. I think. Dare I say smashed. I think it smashed. Yeah. We fully agree on this. I also really loved this burger.

I gave it a very high score. And so what was on this was tomato lettuce. Would be cheese. Burger muya sauce. Two Angus beef patties. It's a double. Yeah. Yeah. Moodie.

sauce and it was it was simple but 100% Angus certified beef and the potato bun the potato bun. The potato bun is such a standout part of the muya experience. It's baked fresh in a house. All their buns are baked fresh in house. I sound like I'm doing an ad for muya. I'm not. Their buns are so freaking good. Yeah.

And it makes the burger so delicious. I feel like a bun often makes a burger place. It really does. It really does. Because the bun has a lot of thankless work to do in addition to showing up and still being a prominent thing on its own. The bun is the elementary school teacher of the world. The bun of a burger is the elementary school teacher. It has to buy its own supplies.

Oh, man. It's got to make its curriculum. It's grading every single night. Dealing with the parents. There's a lot. The bun of a burger. has to both be tasty on its own merit and hold everything in and soak in any like moisture-inducing ingredients and do all of that while not getting too soggy on its own. So it has a lot

to put on its back. And this bun did it as well as any I've ever seen. I think after eating this burger at Muya, I just believe that a potato bun is the way to go. Oh. Potato bun reigns supreme, honestly. Or that or is that the same as a King's Hawaiian roll? No. It's a different thing. King's Hawaiian rolls are great. Yeah. I don't know if I've had them for burgers. I've had them for like a pulled pork sandwich. Have you had them for like a slider? No. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a homemade thing. Yes. Yes. I feel like that's up there. Okay. Yeah. But as far as what this did for the MDC, this could have gotten unruly because like it was a little saucy. Yes. And I think that the bun wrangled well and it just complimented the flavors of everything so well. Yeah, it was nice. Very good burger. I'll give you the exact score when it faces off against the Habit Burger in September.

So moving on, we then got two burgers from the Hall of Dang, which we talked about alleged secret menu, but so well publicized that they now even have a sign in the. in the restaurant with all of these creations on it. Yeah. I wonder how often that gets overlooked by people. Probably because they're not on the board up above that you would think to order off of. Absolutely. And also not on the menu, like the paper menu that they hand out. Mm-hmm.

And she didn't even, she wasn't like, and did you see our hall of dang? Like she didn't gesture. Because that's a crazy sentence to say. And you good sir. Did you see our hall of dang? I say that to everyone who enters my home. Have you seen my Hall of Dang? Please walk through the Hall of Dang.

To the bathroom of, oh, damn. So the first one we got was the Weld Onion. I had it in good. You had it in not good. Yeah. I had it in, yeah, not good. So at average, middling. Yeah.

You know. But this is very onion-y. It had three different types of onion on it. It had onion. Raw onion. It had grilled onion. And it had fried onion strings. And then it had a.

spicy ranch. This tasted very oniony. And then the spice surprised me because I forgot about the spicy ranch. The ranch ended up not being too ranchy. I don't really care for a ranch. It's a little too zesty for my liking. And this ranch wasn't overpowering. And I do like onions. So I liked this burger. But if the beef patty and the bun are the star of a muya burger, I felt that This added elements that distracted from that strength instead of built on it. So still good for me. But was it as strong? I don't know.

And I'll save mine for the not. You'll shit on it later. And then lastly, the hamburger dog. I've mentioned this so much just conceptually. As you should. It's just a very meaty burger. This also had bacon on it. It had fried onion strings on it.

It had ketchup on it, and then it had the signature potato bun. It just had a lot. But the jalapinos were an element that I was most surprised about how much I enjoyed it. And the way that it complimented, it like offset what would have been an overpowering hot dog. I wish almost that you had mentioned that at the restaurant because I avoided the jalapinos just because I don't. You're not a jalapeno person. Yeah. I didn't think it was too hot.

I thought the well-dunion spicy ranch was hotter. Yeah, it was great. The hot dog was delicious. It was a good hot dog. It was a really good hot dog. I do think that, you know, if there was one thing that I regret not getting, it was just a hot dog on its own separately, just to have a bite of. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Yeah, I wonder what brand those hot dogs are. I don't know, but they're all beef. In-house. Yeah, they might be. Actually, no, they did actually put the brand on the menu. But I like this. I like the hamper dog. And I thought that the hot dog would be. Too much. It wasn't. Yeah. And I really like the fried onions. Like, the fried onions on the hamburger dog came through more than they did on the Willed onion. Yeah. I guess if we can segue into the not good. Or do you have other good on your list?

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That's night and day decor.com. This is not so good. I'm not quite sure about. So yeah, the well-done for me did not hit, unfortunately. And I like onions. I love a good caramelized onion. I think I was really taken aback when I saw it.

There was raw onions on the burgers for me. I just don't like raw onions. But that mixed with the tangy sauce. And I don't know. For me, the fried onions just weren't. They were a little soggy on this burger. I don't know if you felt the same. No.

Okay. So, I don't know. For me, it was enough. Like, I'll say I don't think they were. it wasn't crispy. Like I wasn't tasting the friedness. I guess soggy wasn't what my brain went to. That might just by nature being the opposite of crispy be what they were.

But to me, soggy carries a connotation of wetness. Yeah. And it didn't feel that way to me. Okay. Yeah. They just, I know that they were crispy on the hamburger dog and not crispy on the wild onion.

Yeah. So I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. It was just too tangy. And again, as I said in the opening, the house sauce. Which this did not have

Muna. Yes, it did. No, you're right. The Well Donean just had the spicy ranch. That's true. But we did have a side of the Muya sauce. To me, it just tasted similar. I don't know.

I wouldn't be surprised if they had that same spicy ranch in the Muya sauce. You really digging your heels in on like, it was there. No, I hated it. It was there. Yeah. Yeah, the Muya sauce I didn't. It kind of just tasted like everyone's secret sauce. It was not bad.

for me, but it didn't. My metric for this meal was, do I want to keep eating more of this food that I'm eating? Yeah. And for some of the things it was yes, some of the things it was no. Exactly. Yeah.

So for me and not good, I've got the guy in the back. So there was the girl up front who we interacted with multiple times. Again, yeah, very professional, took our order like a champ, did the branding thing of,

you know, she has all the moos on her back. It changed it from small to live. little to like make sure. And then I went up because I wanted to get a plastic knife for us to cut our burgers in half. And she was not at the front counter. There was a guy in red.

So manager, I assume, because he had a different uniform. Oh, the branding color. Yeah. And he was in the back by the grill. And the guy looks annoyed just to be able to make eye contact with me. He chose to stand there. How dare you perceive me? What?

And I just go, can I get a plastic knife? And he, like, takes a step towards me. Like, he's like, oh, I can do that. And then he's like, mm-mm. And he goes, service. And, like, if he could have held his hand up and rang a bell, he would have. But he said it with, like, that fancy, like, wait a, where are you? Oh, my gosh.

Do you know, have you seen the parent trap with Lindsay Lowen? Yeah, of course. Of course. It's like when Meredith Blake is like, Chelsea, and she rings a bell. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That vibe. He was her. He was her.

Yes. The Meredith Blake of Muya. Mujahdeth break, Blake. Mujahideth Blake. Mm-hmm. Crushed it. Moodeth Blade of Gras. I hated that vibe.

I genuinely just like him going to, service. Yeah. Screw off, dude. Like, just be like Miranda. Hey, Mara. Right, right. Whatever her name is. Say them by, yeah, say her name to her.

Yeah. This is why she's like the little, the little shake. That's true. Don't joke about the hamburger dog. Because I think there's like a fear. And then when she walked out, she did have like a pep in her step that was like urgent. And so it just, it bothered me because it felt like I was seeing signs that like beneath the surface, it's not as like. Yeah.

Like they're beaten into submission. Yikes. Yeah. Not literally. Yeah. Energetically. Energetically. Yeah.

Yeah. And so it did rub me the wrong way. She had just like a look of like, I'm going to get in trouble. Yeah, I don't love that. Especially, again, there was like two customers there. And she was very nice. Yeah, no, totally. Just as a human, she didn't deserve it.

If she was like a jerk. Then she still wouldn't have deserved it. And then he's like, you get out there. I'd be like, yeah, you tell her. Yeah. Oh, I was just thinking when I said, oh, there was like two people there. It wasn't a rush. That was another thing on my list of bad.

It was funny because the way that we were facing, we were in a booth, facing each other facing the table. And then to my left, you're right, there was like two other customers just like staring at. I think there was a TV on the right side of us. They were looking at the TV and I just felt like looked up the whole time. Yeah, because they were both on the same side of the booth like staring directly in our direction. I was just like they were looking at us the whole time. They weren't. Of course. I had like spotlight effect on myself. Yeah. But that was like I was a little bit relieved when they left. That was the only thing. I didn't notice that their eye line was even in our direction. I noticed that they were facing each other. Right at us.

But to me they were looking. No, they weren't facing each other. They were facing the same direction. I meant facing us. I noticed that they were facing us. But because their eye line was up enough, my brain was just like, yeah, they're not looking at me. They're fine. There was an alarm that would go off in back. It was just like, beep, beep, beep, beep. Oh, like a friar alarm. When an order is ready to be taken out. Oh. So like when she brought that couple that, was watching TV facing us, alarming you. Yes. I was alarmed by the actual alarm going off.

And then I heard the alarm stop and then immediately she brought their food out. And then I didn't hear that alarm again until our food was about to come in. So I think it's like the same manager puts up an order, hits a button and it beeps. And it's like, get on this. Which again, I can see being very helpful in a very busy establishment. genuinely a good thing to be like, oh, this is quick. We are going to get our food really quick from the time that it's ready. I appreciate that.

I don't need to hear an alarm that makes me anxious. Well, I didn't hear the alarm. Gaslighting. I don't know what you're talking about. And also, I am grasping at straws for negative elements because overall, I did really enjoy this meal. Yeah, it's a great place. So what's a not good for you? Okay, so the bathroom, yes, does have a code, which we can talk about as a bad, whatever.

But once you go in there, there's a code to get out. There's a code lock. Like you can tell it that's what you're unlocking when you do the code. And then there's a door lock below it and it has a sign that's handwritten that says lock this one. Oh, yeah. So like so that you know what to lock, which has is helpful. And I imagine comes from a mishap. Someone having been walked in on.

No sign. exists because it hasn't been needed been needed before yeah exactly and they like made that and taped it up and put it up there with Sharpie yeah yeah so it was nice it was just felt like a thing where they like well we actually care about our customers yeah yeah yeah want them to not be walked in on yeah everyone's gonna see someone pooping at some point in their life may as well be today deal with it you know I don't even know if that's factual have you seen someone pooping in your life no I've seen an animal today might be the Today.

Uh-oh. Never know. We're all animals. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. I mentioned this a little bit in the Yelp from Strangers last week, but that was on Patreon. I think bathroom codes kind of suck.

Oh, right. I don't like them. I think that they're just cruel. They're usually targeting kind of the unhoused typically. Yeah. Yeah. So it's just like people deserve the dignity of being able to go to the restroom. That's true.

I think. Yeah. Maybe they don't either want to buy something. Can't afford. something or it's just an emergency and maybe they even are going to buy something but they just can't yet let me let me deal with this first yeah and then i'll come get a milkshake and i'll spend all my money here all of it i promise you actually owe me all of your money because of a card trick earlier we made a bet earlier yeah and you're not going to pay well you have to have the code to my bank to get it i do

so it's another i'm gatekeeping six five six five unlock yeah that was the bathroom code at this muya if you go to valencia six five six five unlock button yeah other than that i don't have anything and I had no food and not good. No food and not good. Yeah. You had the well done in, which we talked about. Oh, and the sauce. The muya sauce, yeah.

Mm-hmm. So, all right. Well, that's everything for the good and not good. Everything left is just the notable things that were, in fact, just there. This is a weird one. I sure what to say about it. The stuff that is just. Wicker basket light fixtures.

Oh. Oh, I didn't have noticed. Wait, that's on brand with Moot Culture. Yeah, it felt farmy. Yeah. Actually, don't even know why I have it in just there. I enjoyed it. Move it to good.

It's a good. You're promoted, wicker basket. Yeah, I'm realizing my sauce was ranked in just, just there. Because, again, it was just sauce. It was like, fine. It was too tangy for me. Lady dancing outside. Oh, right.

She definitely was. Which, again, we were questioning, is that the same music inside as outside, because it didn't seem to match her vibe. And then once we stepped outside, we realized it's different music out here. She was like two-step in. She was line dancing. Yeah. For sure.

And didn't seem to be with anybody. And there's no. She was waiting for her family to get out of the car. Yeah. And but she was not facing inside the restaurant. She was facing them, which I think now in hindsight, she was maybe putting on a show for them just like, I'm going to dance until you get here. I think she was just vibing.

Maybe. I respect. She was just like, you know what? I have to wait for these low folks. Let me. I was trying to look for like, does she have a phone set up? Is this like a. Right.

I was like, is she filming a little TikTok? No, she was just dancing. Is this like for Mujah employee training? Welcome to Muya. And it's just somebody dancing outside the restaurant. Like the Six Flags guy, the old man. Exactly. Keep going.

That's it. That's the whole song. But yeah, she was just dancing. No phone or anything. No people around. Just like it was the 90s. All over again. People danced in the 90s.

Yeah. No one dancing. No one dances anymore. I had the Oreo milkshake all the way down and just there. Wow. The milk part of the milkshake tasted less fresh to me. It tasted like sour. What?

It tasted like it had gone mildly bad. Oh my God. Well, I don't have a stomach. I don't have a stomach egg, so I don't think it was bad. I'm not saying it was. I drank that whole bitch. I'm just saying what I experienced. All right.

Just a little bit funky. But here's the thing. It had Oreos in it. So the Oreos. were good. This was still not bad. Even if this thing gave me just crazy diarrhea later, it was still not bad enough to be in the lowest category. This was a five out of ten for me, which for an Oreo milkshake is pretty low. It's pretty low. It's ice cream and Oreos. It's ice cream and Oreos. It got a five out of ten. Something's wrong. Wow. And I think it's because the milk tasted

off. Okay. Well, to be fair, I give it a 9.3. So, geez. I also don't know why it didn't taste off for me on the other one, on the Reese's one. Because I think it's because it's because I imagine it's the same batch of milk. For sure. It's the same dairy product. But something about this one. I don't know. I don't know what it is.

That's weird. But it just, it was off. That's weird. For me. Maybe because, I don't know. Maybe because I stirred it and I got like thinner. Yeah. Who knows?

No one will ever know. But that'll do it for the good, the not good, and the just there for me. Was there anything else? Any other aspect of this dining experience that you did not talk about that you would like to bring up? I think the only other thing is just that. it was supposed to, it was like smash burgers, but it was just like thick. Like the burgers were kind of thick. Yeah, that might have just been me misreading something online. Oh, okay. Like genuinely, these were, these were not by definition smash burgers. No. I feel like somewhere in my reading,

but it might be the fact that subliminally I saw that smash burger is a chain that is in the same category as muya. Okay. And my brain might have like created a synapse that was not, you know. Gotcha. A false connection. Yeah. No, but I think otherwise I wasn't going in super hungry today. I'd eaten like an hour and a half before we went or maybe two hours max. And I like, I shoved all that down. So. Yeah. I think that speaks highly to the restaurant. I was able to do it. And I was like, this is still good. Yeah. No, I liked it. I like this place a lot. Well, we need to put a score on muya. Normally I have my guests calibrate their zero and their 10, but you did that last. time when you were here for Joe's Crabbshack. So we are going to put Muya to the Chili's Test. It's not to set scale. The worst is the best. Let's put it to the Chili's test.

All right. This place was great. Like, I would go back. It was delicious even without the cheese on it, which I would have preferred. So, like, that said, the burgers were great. I think they could have been, sorry, but improved with that. Um, they had cool options. Um, really nothing to complain about. But also at the same time, you know, it's kind of a typical just like burger place. Like I'm on a road trip. I see this. I'm like, sure, burgers can't go wrong. I would say this is a typical high end burger place. All right. Because like when I think typical burger place, I think like, Wendy's. And I do think this is like elevated above that kind of experience. Well, I think my narrative in my head would be like, that's difficult burger place. If I saw like a Wendy's, like, that's a fast food place. Let's go there. And I do. And I do think this is like, like, that's a fast food place. Let's go there. And I do. I don't know. Slight nuance in my head.

This is a, yeah, this is a fast casual versus a fast food. And yeah, that's the thing too is there was like the, you know, fresh and over frozen, real potatoes. Like, I would be like, oh, let's go and get some like real nutrition in our bodies from this. I would actually look at this as like, I don't know, this is probably a hot take that I could do for my hot take segment. This is so healthy. It's nutritious to some extent. I think meat is good for you. That might actually be my hot take.

Um, so all that said, I gave this a pretty good score. Um, it fell in the kind of almost great territory for me. But at the end of the day, it was still just like, this is good. It's a very good place. Yeah, very good. I gave it a 7.46. Okay. Um, I'm right there with you. I think this place is good approaching great. I thought that the potato bun was such a wise. thing to be like, we're going all in on like, this is how we're doing their burgers. Baking their buns fresh in-house, I think made a difference that I could tell that really elevated this to be like, oh, when I think of good burgers that have like a thing about them, I'm going to start thinking muya.

It's going to be like in my echelon of like, oh, if you haven't tried this place, I'm recommending it. And the beef patties, I thought were good. And at the end of the day, a burger is defined by the burger patty on bun. That is what makes a burger. Everything else is literal extras on it. And if you do that well, which they did, you are a strong burger place. Add to that the fact that their fries and chips were so good.

They were so good. I was shocked by how good they were. I still think I prefer Islands fries, but it's like, Like, it's very close. Like, this is a place where I'm like, oh, yeah, if I go, I'm getting the fries. I'm also getting the chips, even though they scratch a similar itch, I suppose. Similar itch. What does that even mean?

Who knows? We had similar itches. Yeah, Muya is a place that if you have not tried it, I think look up where your closest one is, it is probably worth a half hour to 45 minute drive. Wow. I think. even if it's just to try it once. If it's not for you, I don't think you'll like dislike it so much.

Like I can't believe I drove that far for it. And then just be warned that like from a value standpoint, it is a little bit more expensive. This is in line with like a five guys or a shake shack. This is not in line with like a McDonald's or a Wendy's in terms of affordability. So when I took all of the considerations from today's meal, a very polite server who maybe operates out of fear, a milkshake that maybe tasted a little bit less fresh,

but another milkshake that did, and I really liked it. Burgers I liked, fries and sides I liked, a vibe that while corporate was enjoyable, I arrived also at a 7.46. No. Which means. Wait, you did not tell me that before. That's why y'all.

So Muya will go up on the Chotchke of Mediocrity at a unanimous 7.46. What are the odds of that? Have you ever had a same score? I have, but it's been a very long time. Don't tell me that. So you're the first one.

Well, that means that Muya is officially Better Than Chili. Amazing. Well, I got to go somewhere next week and figure out where I'm going to go. I'm going to reach into the You Must Bowl.

I'm going to pick out a piece of paper that's totally not blank. And next week on the Fine Dining Podcast, I will be going to... Fizzolese. Stay tuned for that. Sandy, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you. No. No. Thank you.

You know what? I'm cutting your mic. You're done. I was like, we're going to go with this right now. Thank moo. Thank me very much. Or thank you. Thank me.

Thank me. Muna. Is there anything you want to plug? Is there anything? It's mental health awareness month, so treat it seriously. Will it still be when this comes out? It will still be. It is right now.

It's May. It either is or it was or it will be again. But mental health is still important even on other months. You know? Yeah. Talk to a friend if you're feeling down. Yeah. amazing. And you can follow this show on Instagram and TikTok at Fine Dining Podcast. You can join the Discord if you want to talk to me. You can go to Patreon to support the show directly. I appreciate every dollar that comes in through there. It gets an exclusive episode every single month. There's merch if you want like a if you subscribe at the $20 tier, you get a free shirt. That's cool. And if you don't know, I do have merch on my website. I just never plug it.

Oh, plug that merch. There's T-shirts and stuff. There's several. And one of them, very topical to this episode. What is it? Does they say Muna? Cheese, but it's bleeped. Oh.

Which is like the tagline for meth, I think. Oh. Yeah. I didn't know meth had a particular marketing tagline. Yeah. That had a commercial. Wow. Meth, not even once.

Jeez. Available at Walgreens. Not even once. All right. Dang. All right, well, I will see everyone next week. That is another one in the books. Thank you so much for listening.

Have a fine day. Well, there's another one in the folks. We judge the service up to the cooks. And while we may have gotten a couple of dirty looks, though the journey can never stop that from the bottom down to the top things are lot. And that's because chillies too not for what we use when we put things up on the charge. Yeah.

Be you next a week and next week, baby.