Moo Cluck Moo – Dearborn Heights
8606 N. Telegraph RoadThursday turned in to an interesting day. An early afternoon phone call from work led to me rushing to the Detroit area to meet up with a co-worker on a last minute assignment. We completed said assignment around 6:30 then had to rush back to Grand Rapids for a 9:30 job.
Being rushed out the house, I didn’t have much time to eat. I stopped and grabbed a sandwich from Gina’s Pizza and Deli in Albion on the way, but I was still hungry and it was past dinner time.
When I got sent over there, I didn’t know that I was going to have to rush back, so I was sort of planning on stopping at Miller’s Bar in Dearborn. I have always heard they have great burgers and I was close. The problem became they only take cash (I was going to put it on the company credit card) and I no longer had time to sit down some place to eat.
Before we left our job site, I started looking for other burger places. I was unfamiliar with where we were out near The Henry Ford, so I was relying on Google to find me dinner.
After a little bit of searching, I came upon a burger joint that calls itself a fast food burger place, but uses Waygu beef. Um…yes, please.
Moo Cluck Moo is an interesting little burger joint on Telegraph Road in Dearborn Heights. It’s about two miles south of I-96 and tucked in between a tattoo parlor and an auto repair place right on the corner of Telegraph and Van Buren Street. Parking was kind of an issue as I wasn’t familiar with the area. There’s a very small parking area behind the building which is shared by the three tenants as well as street parking on Van Buren. I ended up parking at the auto repair shop and hoping my car wouldn’t get towed. Not sure how they would feel about this during normal business hours.
Moo Cluck Moo has already had a lot written about them. They are brought up as one of the best burger joints in Detroit on occasion, but what gets them more press is the fact they pay a minimum of $15, keep prices low, and still turn a profit. Seriously….do a search on the name and you’ll find an amazing number of articles from publications all over the country.
Anyway, back to this trip. Once parked, I walked down the street to get back to the business which sits just feet away from a very busy Telegraph Road. There was one person in front of me when I walked in to the small shop and it must have been his first visit as well. He asked a lot of questions before ordering, so by the time it got to be my turn, I knew what I wanted.
My order was for an “Over the Moo” with bacon and cheedar. “Over the Moo” is just a fancy name for a 1/3 lb. burger. The other options are “Moo Burger” (1/4 lb) and “Biggest Moo” (2/3 lb). They also have a Steakburger, which comes with mushroom, onions, Swiss, and a steakhouse aoili, and a Baa Burger… a lamb burger with feta, onions, and a cumin aoili.
For the three regular burger options, there are a list of free toppings. Bacon and cheese are not on that list. Both are a little extra.
In addition to my burger, I wanted an order of fries and even though I had a Pepsi in the car, I was really thirsty, so I just made my meal a combo and added on a drink.
The total cost of the meal was a little over $10. I took a seat at one of two tables in the restaurant that does a majority of it’s business via carry-out. There’s even a sign on the door that said “carry-out only,” but I was asked if I wanted my meal to eat in or carry-out.
While I was waiting, I filled up my Styrofoam cup with a Cola from Northwood’s Soda and Syrup Company. So freaking good. I had never heard of this craft soda company out of Williamsburg, but I had a feeling it would be good or it wouldn’t be in this store.
It really only took five minutes for my order to bagged up and tossed on the counter. I was really shocked at just how quickly it was made. They promised to be a different take on fast-food, so even though I was expecting a gourmet burger, I could get it in less time than I could get the same old thing from McDonalds.
I had to get back on the road, so I grabbed my bag and left. When I got on I-96, I reached in for the fries first. There was a large box of hand cut fries that were covered in sea salt. They had a nice crispiness to them and maybe even a little bit of a batter. It was hard to tell in the dark, but they were delicious and didn’t last long.
Once I got a little farther down the road and out of Detroit traffic, I unwrapped the burger and started in. Everything about this burger is pretty amazing. The buns are all made in house and they actually have four different flavors to choose from. I stuck with original although they also offer garlic, cajun, and honey. The buns are high in protein and fiber and low in carbs and they are gluten free. I didn’t realize all that until after I had eaten it and I would never have believed the buns were gluten free if you had told me before hand.
The burger was cooked absolutely perfectly with just a slightly pink, yet warm center. Try to get that from any other fast food place. A couple of older articles I’ve found say they get their beef from Joseph Decuis Waygu Farm in Columbia City, IN. Not sure if that’s still the case or not. Their website says “from farmers across the midwest.” No matter where it’s from, it’s hormone and antibiotic free and so juicy and delicious that you’ll question why other fast food joints aren’t doing the same thing Moo Cluck Moo is doing.
The burger didn’t last nearly as long as I wanted it to. I couldn’t help myself from scarfing it down instead of enjoying this delicious hunk of meat I held in my hand.
Since their inception a couple of years ago, Moo Cluck Moo has expanded to two stores with a second on Ford Road in Canton. They have franchising info on their website so we can only hope we will see many more of these pop up across Michigan in the next few years.
I drove a little out of my way to get to this small burger joint in a part of Detroit that I’m unfamiliar with. And let’s be honest, I would do it again in a heartbeat. It’s amazing that this restaurant is so health conscious being mostly gluten free and diabetes friendly yet it taste so good. It’s hard to get excited about fast food, but Moo Cluck Moo makes it so, so easy.
Sea Salt Fries
Over The Moo w/Cheddar and Bacon on Original Bun
SW Michigan Dining 