L & L Hawaiian Barbecue

Today I got off work late, I was hungry and didn’t want to come home and make me something to eat. I stopped off at L&L Hawaiian BBQ on San Pablo Ave in Richmond. The one next to the 24hr laundromat. I walked in and there were two people already in there, two ladies one of them was homeless. She was wiping the counters with a towel and then she started wiping down the tables. The guy behind the counter came to the counter and told her to leave. He kept calling out to her «Hey lady!!! Hey!!! Stop doing that!!! You gotta leave!!! Leave now!!!» She kept wiping the tables down and straightening the chairs. I ordered my food and walked to the nearest table to sit down. She walks over and ask me «Can you please buy me something to eat?» I said «Yes, come on!» We walk to the counter and she starts telling me what she wants to eat. The guy who told her to leave earlier walks over to me and tells me «put your money away! I’ll take care of her» I thought he was going to kick her out and started to say no!!! When he gently asks her what she wants? He makes her plate before mines and brings it out her. Tells her to sit down and enjoy her meal. I watched her eat her meal and I start crying. He could’ve kicked her out, instead he treated her like a paying customer and with love. Thank you for treating her with compassion you sir are greatly appreciated!!!

I ordered the Chicken Katsu. Portions were large and the chicken tasted fresh and good. The macaroni salad was great. Service was fast and friendly. The place was clean and there was seating available. The place is a little hidden, so keep a sharp eye out. I would recommend this for lunch time, easy on the wallet and a tasty treat.

Came here once for the first time & its just like any other Hawaiian food. Macaroni salad is
spam mususbi is
also

Service wasnt bad at the restaurant. The guy was nice, but I noticed they didn’t have extra sauce for customers to pour for themselves. The food was eh. I had the curry bowl which didn’t go well with rice. My friends loco moco had too much sauce and the macaroni salad had no flavor. I’m not satisfied with the food. I am not coming back.

I had been to this location once before and it was okay but i wasn’t really impressed. Yesterday i was in the area and decided to stop by. i ordered the bbq chicken, with rice instead of macaroni and extra cabbage.. I was happy they made my plate just how i asked and it was delicious! The chicken was perfectly cooked no burn spots! The portion was good for th price i paid and i will definitely be coming back! Appreciate the improvements! !

I think I may have gotten food poisoning here. I’ve come here a few times and in a pinch if you need something in your gullet, this is… well, it’s food, sorta. This will be the last time I eat here, though. It’s just not worth it. The mayo in the weird macaroni turned into something horrible in my stomach and it ended up in my lap as I was driving home. There are few things worse than having to not only smell, taste, but to wear your own vomit. Never again. Aloha, L&L!

Second visit to L&L in El Cerrito, foods always on point and fresh, best of all you get your moneys worth most places now in days skimp the amount of food. Not only is food delicious but the biggest reason I return is that this is one of the only L&L franchise I know locally that has separate fryer for seafood and shellfish… Big deal for me because I have a sever allergic reaction to shellfish and seafood. Definitely will be returning many times more.

SERVICE is okay. The guy just took my order and did his job. Nothing special. And the guy who gave me my food didn’t let me know I had everything in the bag just said the order and left.
FOOD HANDELING: EWW. Saw them not using gloves while cooking. No hair net. No one was in uniform just wear whatever you want. I saw them cut raw meat on the same cutting board that they bagged my food on… Weird.
Building. Easy to spot. Was going to eat somewhere else but I saw the big sign and the building so I came. Inside is nice and colorful. Clean as well
Drinks: Pepsi, diet Pepsi, Sierra mist, orange crush, and root beer. Plus all the nice Hawaiian drinks
Presentation: very bad. Everything was piled on top of each other and I had to dig for my macaroni
FOOD: short ribs not so good. Chicken is excellent and rice and macaroni are very good as well!
IN ALL: come here to try I doubt you will be back a second time tho.

I was excited to find a Hawaiian place closer to my house so I decided to give it a try.
Probably not the worst place that I’ve tried but I will definitely not go back… ever.
First of all the people working there are careless and slow. There was only one other people before me and I only ordered a burger and 4 Spam musubi and waited for about 45 minutes. Not to mention that when I got my food it was COLD.
If you’re looking for a good Hawaiian bbq go to Wikiwiki/​Waikiki Bbq in El Cerrito.

I was surprised to discover that L&L has expanded to about 200 Hawaiian Barbecue fast food restaurants in several states.
Having lived in Honolulu, I could easily tell almost all my favs were on the plate lunch menu including Loco Moco, Portuguese Sausage & Eggs, Lau Lau, Saimin and of course all kinds of Spam dishes. About the only fav item missing was Chicken Long Rice.
I chose Kalua Pork that came with cabbage. It was a generous portion, tasty but too salty. So salty that I couldn’t finish or bother to take the rest home. The BBQ short ribs were better and had a nice marinade.
My French fries were good but my side of macaroni salad was the best! It took me right back to Hawaii. Definitely select it as one of your sides.
A clean, brightly colored place, there are a few tables but most people seem to order takeout.

I tried this place two times, it’s not bad.
I usually come here for the chicken Katsu, the ball rice, Marconi salad, and Kalua pork that is sweet and savory.
I don’t really care too much for the Heft pork wrapped up in Taro Leaf not so good really bitter.
When you are inside it’s quite small like a box and takes a minute for your food call ahead of time.
Love that it’s convenient to my job if I ever wanted to grab a bite to eat.

I was happy to see something different for lunch. However, this L & L is horrible. The clerk was so unfriendly, he was close to being rude and seriously lacked customer service skills. YET he had the nerve to ask for a tip when I paid with my credit card. I ordered the bbq chicken with brown rice, macaroni salad and mixed veggies. The mixed veggies — WERE FROZEN ones from the bag. They were watery and had no taste what so ever. They ran out of brown rice (at noon-​really?) and they just assumed that white rice would be ok and didn’t ask me.
Go somewhere else and enjoy a good friendly lunch — just keep on driving right pass them. You will thank me!

Finally it’s time for a review. We tried the barbaque chicken masubi and chicken katsu rice bowl.
My impression upon entering was «their oil needs, to be changed». I probably should have turned around and left, but wanted to give them an honest chance.
The katsu chicken by itself was pretty good. The rice was just the right amount of sticky, but the sparse vegetables was a bit of a disappointment, until I tasted them. I’m very glad we didn’t get many veggies. They were so over cooked they looked very sad. I’m thinking that this was a bowl, pre-​made, waiting for the cooked meat topper. The dish was very hot and again, no complaints for just the chicken.
Our masubi was a disappointment. It was suppose to be barbeque and it was soooo super sweeeet and the nori was soooo rubber-​ie that we only took one bite and tossed the rest.
The guy who took my order was really nice. The place seemed clean enough, although we did have our order to-​go.
I think I’m going to have to see some better reviews in order to revisit this place, or give it a year before coming back. I hope they start paying attention to what’s being said and fix their shortcomings.

Second time here. 1^st was awesome. This time we ordered 1 bbq mix and 1 bbq chicken. Both our plates was over cooked and burnt. It seems as tho the cook doesn’t know what they are doing. So we showed the cashier the burnt chicken and short rib. He said he would make a new batch for us. So we wait another 10 mins. And once we received the replacement chicken. As we inspect it. It was burnt again. But not as bad. We just basically eat our rice and vegetables and left the chicken. And they forgot the short rib replacement. I’m sorry I’m never coming back again. This is a disappointment.

I don’t know where some of these people went, but I don’t think they are reviewing the right L&L. I went there, like many others, excited that one of these opened near me. I thought, «It’s gotta be good, it’s new and I’m sure they have the best workers to show how awesome they are!» This is the part of the review where the sad trombone comes out.
Pros:
— new
— Smelled clean
Cons:
— Front counter person not very friendly
— Cooking staff was not very professional. Goofing off, using profanity, messing up my order cuz of their lack of attention
— Food was mediocre, bland and not very tasty
— Staff could be more welcoming when customers arrive
— Teriyaki chicken could have used some teriyaki sauce
— The loco moco could have had more gravy
— Feelings of sorrow and disappointment for the food
Aside from that, having someone tell you and direct you where you can leave your tip made me feel a little uncomfortable.
Over all, I really hope they can pull it together. It would be a shame to have another restaurant at this location close down. For now I give it 1 star, I’ll come back next year and see if anything changed.

I was stoked to see that an L&L finally opened up around my area. Got a chance to try the place after coming back from the gym…
The location is kind of hidden in the corner of a sketchy looking lot. It’s located right across the street from the Del Norte Place apartments and adjacent to Honda of El Cerrito.
The place isn’t very big with probably enough room to seat 7 – 8 small groups. I ordered the bbq chicken and my fiancé got the chicken/​kalbi combo.
It wasn’t bad, except the kalbi was full of fatty tendon… For the price, it is what it is. I might go back if I’m in the area but I wasn’t too impressed.

The food is awesome the prices are affordable and the selection is great ive tried the garlic fish which is fried softly and sauteed to perfection over shredded cabbage. The khalua pork is tasty as well. Ive even tried the chicken katsu there was so much i had enough to save for later on that plate. I will be back again and again!

*Important please read*
«Grand Opening»
I love my fair share of Hawaiian food. I came to this location because I have had good experiences of L&L’s in the past until today.
It could not have been any worse. Right when my girlfriend and I walk in we see one of the workers playing on his cell phone, but I thought to myself maybe he’s on break. He wasn’t. Then I ordered. I got the Hawaiian Bbq chicken plate that comes with three sides. There are five options of sides to choose from and the cashier didn’t ask which ones I wanted so I assumed I get them all considering it’s a grand opening. I also got a spam musubi.
After I ordered I realized I wanted the brown rice and they told me they had already added white rice so it was too late. I didn’t mind but I really wanted brown rice. Its was 20 minutes before closing. The man dims the lights and locks the doors while people were still inside eating. It started to get really smokey and I was coughing a bit. Having the doors locked while food is still cooking may be a fire hazard.
Finally I get my food and rush out the restaurant as the man unlocks the doors because the smoke was starting to become unbearable.
I get to my car and the man comes running out with my musubi… They forgot to bag my $ 2.00 musubi. After such a bad experience at the restaurant I finally wanted to get home and eat the macaroni salad. It tasted so watered down it is not worth the consumption of calories. My chicken was not bad but it wasn’t good neither. I have had better.
Overall I will not recommend this place, but I’m going to be fair and try it once more and if it changes my opinion I will change this review. If not, it stands. There are other Hawaiian BBQ’s that can easily beat this place in taste and consumer service. So I think they should step their game up a bit.
Thanks for reading.

My husband and I were so excited to have some Hawaiian food, but walked out extremely disappointed.
The food was «ok», my fish was undercooked, the chicken kastsu had a lot of dark purple meat, couldn’t even eat it. My husband was shocked with the portions, paid $ 10 for a plate and got a small piece of meat, once he complained that it should be 2 pieces (according to the menu) all they could say was sorry we have different portions? Seriously?
Not coming back, if you want some real L&L go to Daly City…

Out of all the l&l barbeque spots this is by far the best one food comes out hot and quick the meat super flavorful portion size is nice plus prices not bad staff super friendly and professional I will defiantly return thank you guys!