There is a $7 burger in Waikiki, and it only shows up on Sundays. Buns Gone Wong, a smash-burger pop-up, sets up at Davy’s Evolution Bar on Kanekapolei Street from 11 am to 6 pm, and its posted menu says every patty is a quarter pound of wagyu-blend beef. We have not eaten there yet. But a burger that appears once a week, inside Waikiki, during the exact hours we like to start drinking, is the kind of news we read twice.
What happened
Honolulu Magazine ran a piece by Melissa Chang, a longtime Frolic Hawaiʻi writer, on Brian Wong’s pop-up (published October 22, 2026; we read it on October 23). According to the magazine, Wong has cooked for years, most notably at Hula Grill in Waikiki, and started Buns Gone Wong as a joke after making burgers for friends. Chang calls it “probably the best burger I’ve had in many years.”
The Waikiki stop came about, the magazine says, during football season in January, when the owners of Davy’s Evolution Bar suggested he sell burgers alongside their drinks. It caught on, and he now pops up there every Sunday, football season or not. A second weekly spot, Paradise Ciders in Mapunapuna, started in August, per the same article.
It is an Oklahoma-style burger: shaved yellow onions get smashed into the patty while it cooks, and the special sauce is, in Chang’s words, remoulade-like.
The menu and the schedule
The prices below appear in both the magazine piece and the menu graphic on the pop-up’s own site, which states that all patties are 1/4 pound wagyu blend beef on a brioche bun. Both checked October 23, 2026.
| Item | What’s on it | Price |
|---|---|---|
| The OG | 1 patty, American cheese, grilled onion, special sauce | $7 |
| Deluxe | 1 patty, cheese, grilled and fresh onion, lettuce, tomato, sauce | $10 |
| Double OG | 2 patties, cheese, grilled onion, sauce | $11 |
| Double Deluxe | 2 patties with the Deluxe toppings | $14 |
| Tater tots | with special sauce on the side | $4 |
| Bacon add-on | $2 |
The schedule graphic on the same site matches the magazine:
| Where | Days | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Paradise Ciders, 3057 Koapaka St., Mapunapuna | Thursday, Friday, Saturday | 4–9 pm |
| Davy’s Evolution Bar, 444 Kanekapolei St., Waikiki | Sunday | 11 am–6 pm |
For scale, Chang compares the $7 OG with a Quarter Pounder with cheese at the McDonald’s on Keʻeaumoku Street, which she lists at $6.79. Twenty-one cents apart.
What it changes for a Waikiki stay
Mostly, it changes Sunday, and it changes what a burger costs. For comparison, the discounted wagyu smash burger at Morton’s Power Hour was $19.78 on the menu we checked in September (we wrote that one up in our Morton’s Power Hour guide). That is three patties with fries at a steakhouse bar, so it is not the same meal, but it shows where a $7 or $11 burger sits on the local price ladder.
The other change is that you do not need a car for this one. The Sunday address is inside Waikiki, so for us it is a walk, not a ride. The Thursday-to-Saturday stop is another story. Mapunapuna is, as the magazine puts it, the industrial area, and the magazine notes Paradise Ciders has on-street parking only, though the surrounding workers have mostly left by the time Wong opens at 4.
What we’d do — and what we wouldn’t
We do not rent a car, so the Thursday-to-Saturday cidery stop is not for us this trip. If you have a rental and you are heading that direction anyway, a 4 pm burger out there might be easy to fold into the drive. We would not build a ride around it.
Sunday is a different story. Our day already has the right shape: coffee in the room, no lunch, and the first beer around 2 pm. An 11 am to 6 pm window lands right on top of that. Here is how we would order for the two of us:
- one Double OG ($11), because the meat-heavy order always goes to the same one of us
- one OG ($7) for the other
- one tater tots ($4) to share
That is $11 + $7 + $4 = $22 for two, before tax and tip, plus whatever we drink. We would skip the Double Deluxe. Two quarter-pound patties plus lettuce and tomato sounds like a lot of burger to hold, and Chang’s “three-napkin” description of these burgers makes us think the OG’s simpler build is the cleaner bet. The pop-up’s posted menu lists no drinks, and we have not seen Davy’s drink list, so we would simply look at the taps when we got there.
What we really want to know is whether we can take it to go. Takeout is our default; the hotel room with the windows open is our favorite restaurant. Neither the magazine piece nor the pop-up’s site says anything about to-go orders, so we would not assume either way. If takeout works, the tots go back to the suite and get a second life in the microwave’s air-fry mode next to a cold beer from the fridge.
Before you plan around this
- Pop-ups move. Days and hours are as posted on October 23, 2026. Wong’s site points visitors to Instagram (@bunsgonewong), and that is where we would check on the Sunday itself.
- Prices can change, and the menu graphic does not mention tax.
- It is at a bar. We could not find an age policy for Davy’s Evolution Bar on either source, so families should ask before walking over with kids.
- The review is one writer’s take. “Probably the best burger I’ve had in many years” is Chang’s opinion. We have not tasted it, and we will not pretend we have.
Details
- Buns Gone Wong: bunsgonewong.com, Instagram @bunsgonewong
- Waikiki: Davy’s Evolution Bar, 444 Kanekapolei St., Sundays 11 am–6 pm
- Mapunapuna: Paradise Ciders, 3057 Koapaka St., Thursday–Saturday 4–9 pm
- Source: Honolulu Magazine, “At Buns Gone Wong, Wagyu Burgers Start at $7”
If a Sunday in Waikiki opens up on our next stay, this is the one errand we would happily walk for.
