When you’ve hit as many West Hollywood happy hours as I have, it becomes hard to find new happy hours in my WeHo neighborhood. Luckily, my loyal happy hour wing woman suggested a “newer” spot on the Sunset Strip. I called them up, and sure enough, they had just launched a new happy hour! The destination? Pono Burger.
Finding parking on the Sunset Strip is usually a drag, and the valet prices are brutal, but Pono Burger actually offers up to an hour and a half of free parking at the Southeast corner of Larrabee and Sunset (right behind the Chase bank).
Pono Burger happy hour, or PAU HANA, goes Monday – Friday, 4pm to 7pm, and you can sit anywhere you want, not just the bar area. We chose to sit on the patio, but then were politely asked to move because a party of 12 was coming in to sit at the exact same table. Our server was super nice about it and even sent us a side of the sweet potato fries to make up for it. All good.
The patio was quiet and the lighting was perfect outside, which was a perfect time to snap all of our foodie pictures, while inquiring about the drink specials. Our server mentioned that any of the wines served by the glass were offered during happy hour $6 a glass…all of them (even the normally $15 glass of Cotes de Provence Rose that I ordered was $6). Money.
The happy hour food options are minimal, but each of the dishes we ordered came out with its own attractive presentation, especially the Avocado Ponzu dip decorated with edible flower petals. The green “guacamole” dip came out paired with deep-fried Okinawan purple potato chips. Our Beef Slider Duo was stacked with a crispy potato chip crunch and secret spicy punch of sauce. When at Pono Burger, order a burger.
We also ordered the Prairie Farms Corn Dog and the Tempura Blue Lake Green Beans. We skipped on trying the Chicken Nuggets because, can anyone notice a pattern here...lots of fried food! Each dish was deep fried perfection, including the delicious corn dog, but I just couldn’t eat one more bits of glistening, crispy naughtiness – even if it was covering a vegetable.
8830 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069
(424) 666-0845