Shay's Smash Burgers — Restaurant in Oʻahu

My husband and I love burgers, so when we found Shay's Smashburgers right between our offices to try for lunch, we were pretty optimistic for a delicious lunch and they "smashed" our expectations :)

First, some housekeeping notes :

1. They are the orange food truck tucked into the back of a small used car lot across the street from 7-11/Boston Pizza. Not "behind" or "next to" : IN the car lot.

2. They are accepting cash. Their prices are very reasonable, so your $20 is going to go a long way, but in the age of "contactless payments please!" be prepared.

3. The service is incredibly friendly!!!!! And yes, they were properly masked.

4. The menu is very simple - burgers, wings, steak or pork tacos, fries. Coke (only, no other soda flavors), sweet tea, and bottled water.

And now, on to the FOOD :

We had the classic burgers with bacon, fries, and my husband had the sweet tea. (I had bottled water. It was nice & chilly.) Everything sounded amazing and Shay told us about her homemade buffalo sauce that we will definitely be back to try, but today, burgers were the mission.

And they were ridiculously good.

1. The burgers - Big and thin, cooked perfectly - crispy edges and juicy bites, with just the right amount of grease to soak into the perfect bun. Thes buns fit the patty perfectly (or maybe it's the other way around... ). They were soft but not flimsy and just the right amount of buttery. Her sauce was LEGIT and the cheese was melted beautifully.

The only item that didn't exceed expectation for me was the bacon. It was thick cut and deliciously smoked, but it was of the chewy variety vs crispy which is my personal favorite way to cook bacon. This is definitely not a complaint or criticism - the bacon was delicious and I will get it again and know what to expect and now you do too.

2. French fries - they were freaking great. For style/shape/texture, I guess I would compare them to McDs. They were cooked to perfection - crispy outside, pillow soft inside, and marvelously hot. They also had exactly the right amount of salt IMHO. Get your own order. Trust me.

3. Grandma Ruby's Sweet tea - Ok, this one is tough, because, again, no complaint here. It was a good-sized cup of tea and not too much ice. My husband is from the deep South, though, so, for sweet tea, he said it was good, but pretty lemony. Again, this is not a criticism at all, it just was not what he was expecting.

Unfortunately, we were the only ones there at prime lunch time. We HAVE TO KEEP THEM IN BUSINESS. They are bringing food joy to the world at a time when we need all the joy we can get. With no signage or banners, and a truck tucked into a car lot, they are going to get missed from the street. So we need to spread the word!! Go get yourself a Shay's Smashburger (and fries, and sweet tea, and tacos, and wings, and even the bottled water)...

I don't usually like hamburgers from outside of my home. But when I'm too lazy to go and buy all the ingredients cut all the tomatoes and lettuce etc this lately has been my go-to spot. It's Hawaii so let's be honest everything is expensive here. But they're classic burger which includes cheese and meat is five bucks. Not bad.

Normally I consider the burgers too salty but the last time I ordered I requested no salt and guess what the burgers were perfect. Personally I prefer to mix pork in my burgers, but for straight beef burgers these were good. And more importantly the people are very friendly. When you have very friendly people owners etc you hope they succeed honestly.

They're parked at the end of a used car parking lot in Aiea on Kam highway and if you're driving past you probably wouldn't even notice them unless you seen a line of people waiting to get food.

Overall I have to recommend them and I think they are definitely a good salad shop. They're so popular in fact that they ran out of food the other day. To me that's my dream job in order to run a restaurant and close once you run out of food for the day.

The flavors are very reminiscent of a home-cooked meal and it definitely feels like comfort food.

Please give them a try and let me know what you think. I will upload pictures next time I go. I was too busy eating a burger to take pictures. And by the way you can add an extra Patty on everything which definitely feeds into the pig moods.

Now if only I can find a burger joint that actually had good fries as well. Or actually scratch that that sounds like too much time in the gym...

6/12/2021 Ahh, my fiance views food blogs, videos, and reviews all the time. Good thing for me because all I do is say yes when he asks if I want to try a new place. Sure, I'm in! Shay's Smashburger's orange food truck is behind a used car dealership on Kamehameha Hwy. across from Forty Niner Restaurant. Look for the used car dealership banner and park anywhere by the used cars as there aren't any marked stalls. We got there a little before 12 so we were the first to order but soon after we did, there were 3 people behind us. My fiance ordered the Classic with an extra patty and an egg, and side fries, and I had the Fun Guy with fries. Friendly service and when we got home, heaven! We cut the burgers in half so we could share. The Fun Guy had just what I love on it - mushrooms, havarti cheese, caramelized onions, bacon jam, and some truffle flavor. Sooo good! I'm not a fan of a messy/oily burger and this was not. It had so much flavor and wasn't oily or sloppy at all. I loved the soft, potato bun and the crispy, char bits on the patty edges. Yum! The fries were also good, crispy but not overfried or dark. Nice seasoning on them as well. I also loved the Classic with the extra patty and egg. Delicious and pretty easy to eat for a huge burger. In fact, it was all so filling that after I ate it for lunch, I knew dinner wouldn't be in my future. Since we both loved the burgers, I hope he'll want to go...