New Restaurant: Mooyah!

Today I decided (after a relatively unsuccessful bike ride) to check out Knoxville newest burger place - Mooyah.  My initial impression from the signs and online menu is that they were pretty much like a Five Guys with the addition of shakes.  Sounded good to me!

On entering, you're greeted by someone offering to help you figure out how to order.  What??  Turns out, you fill out a little form before you ever get to the register.  It's pretty simple:

Fill it out, hand it to the person at the register, they confirm that you're not a complete idiot and filled it out correctly, then go find a table.

I opted for a burger, fries, and chocolate shake.  I mean, I had to try it all so I could make a valid comparison, right?

Here's what it all looked like after it arrived:

Burger

The burger was very similar to a Five Guys burger.  2 patties, cooked when you order.  You do have a choice between white or whole wheat bun.  I didn't think my whole wheat was very... whole wheaty?  Still it was tasty.  Speaking of which, they seem to make all their buns in-house, which is a win over Five Guys.

You can't see in that picture, but they have one of those little bagel slicer machines that they run the buns through, right before running them through a little belt-fed toaster.  I prefer this to buns toasted on a griddle, which usually leaves them a bit greasy.

The bacon was extremely good - pretty thick with a good flavor.

The weak point of this burger were the jalapenos.  I couldn't really tell if they were pickled, or cooked, or something else, but I prefer the fresh jalapenos from Five Guys.

Fries

I was really pleased when I looked at the menu and saw an option for a small order of fries, advertised as enough to feed one person.  Don't get me wrong, I like getting a poopton of fries at Five Guys when I'm there with someone else, but I feel bad wasting them if I'm there alone (which is usually).  The small size at Mooyah was really just the right size for me. 

The fries are obviously handcut,, and quite tasty.  Comparable to Five Guys, and maybe even a tad crisper.  They could have used a little more salt, perhaps.

Shake

To my disappointment, the shake was really the weak point of the meal.  This is unfortunate, because it's what should set Mooyah apart from Five Guys.  I was desperately hoping for a great shake like I get from Chik-Fil-A, complete with whipped cream and a cherry on top.  

So, there was no whipped cream, and no cherry.  The shake was a bit thick and collapse my straw a couple of times as I tried to drink it.  It also didn't have a very strong chocolate flavor, and had some sort of weird gummy texture.  However, I'm willing to chalk these up to shaking out the issues during the first couple of weeks of being open, and will give the shakes another try later.  For now though, it's definitely inferior to Chik-Fil-A for my particular tastes.

Verdict

You should definitely give Mooyah a try.  It seemed to me to be a little quieter than Five Guys, and appears to be a lot safer for peeps with peanut allergies.  The staff was very courteous (we'll see if this continues as the newness wears off...), and the manager or owner stopped by my table a couple of times to make sure everything was ok.

Other photos: