While smash burgers remain, ironically, top dog within the fast food universe, one unsung iteration, the Oklahoma smash burger, is finally getting its due. At Santa Ana’s Lunch Bang, a casual Korean eatery on Grand Avenue, Doug Chung makes one of Orange County’s best versions of this Okie staple.

For the uninitiated, an Oklahoma-style burger, which dates to the 1920s, features a bundle of thinly sliced onions frizzled on a griddle (not caramelized, but instead fried translucent with charred, crispy ends), which then gets pressed into a thin beef patty. Onion vapors scent a pillowy bun steaming atop the patties as they cook, resulting in an allium-rich smash-style burger that Food & Wine christened “a national treasure.“

Homer and Ross Davis are credited with the creation. The father-son duo used onions as a way of bulking up ground beef at the Hamburger Inn in El Reno, Oklahoma, during the Depression era. The Oklahoma burger gained traction in recent years, with chefs like J. Kenji López-Alt and Stephen Cusato, host of the YouTube series “Not Another Cooking Show,” making their own versions.

The one at Lunch Bang adheres to the tried-and-true format that’s impossible to improve upon, highlighted with a slice of American cheese, pickles and its own special sauce — a bargain at $6 for a single patty or $9 for a double patty.

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“A lot of my friends have burger restaurants in L,A. and at first I didn’t want to put a burger on the menu,” said  Chung, owner of Lunch Bang. “And then thought, ‘Let’s throw one on anyway,’ and now that’s what most people get here.”

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Chung took over the space from his parents, who owned the small restaurant, formerly known as Grand Teriyaki, for 17 years. Four years ago, he added Lunch Bang’s more contemporary fare while significantly paring down Grand Teriyaki’s once-epic menu. “There used to be around 80 items on the menu,” he noted.

Other dishes at Lunch Bang include Korean fare like a galbi plate (short ribs), bulgogi bibimap, tuna bibimap and a bulgogi bowl. Spam and eggs, kimchi, spicy pickles and fries can also be found on the menu, as well as two other burgers, a Backyard Burger (cheese, ketchup, mustard, diced onion and pickle) and the California Burger (pickles, tomato, lettuce, special sauce, cheese and diced onion).

Bonus points goes to Chung’s excellent cinematic selection on the TV screen in the dining area. Recent gems include “Drop Dead Gorgeous” and “Robocop,” to name a few. “I come from a film background, I have a film degree and want fun movies that are somewhere in the PG-13 area,” he said.

Lunch Bang is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. (Chung said he hopes to expand hours sometime this spring.)

Find it: 1704 S. Grand Ave., Santa Ana