L&L Hawaiian Barbecue

Wanted to love this place but it was so ill.
The chicken had slime on it and the skin was like jelly
The vegetables were soggy and frozen like.
The customer service was good but the food was so bad even my dog was questioning eating it.
Save your money don’t eat here.

I decided to give this location another try after 1 – 2 years.
The bbq beef ad chicken was too burnt and too salty. The plate was also missing the mac salad. I should have checked before I left with the take-​out I suppose. The katsu chicken didnt taste fresh, like it was refried.
I don’t know if this will be my last time at this location. Maybe I’ll try 1 – 2 years from now.

I can’t help it, I’m a business guy and the training here isn’t happening, it’s lacking big time. The new staff can’t answer questions and are «practicing» on the customers. Do they work as a team, nope. However — That chicken plate is the bomb and is mostly (unfortunately not always) but mostly consistent. For something like $ 8 it’s two meals and it’s the bomb. I had to go to the website to figure out who these folks are. Ahhh — a franchise. No owner to be found. An ex pro athlete who is Just cashing checks. He should be watching his store. He would raise the ratings, have happier customers and make more money and guarantee his staff have jobs. Let me run it, I could raise revenue here 20% + in four months.

1 star for the chicken katsu. Texture is hard and rough that it scrapes the roof of my mouth. :(

I wouldn’t recommend this location. The service is slow, even if you call your order ahead.
Today I ordered a bbq beef combo and was given Bolgogi fries. Luckily I caught the mistake and asked for it to be corrected. I waited 15 minutes for my new order and drove all the way back home only to realize my order was still wrong.
Definitely won’t be coming back to this location.

On most days their BBQ chicken would be a solid 3 out of 5. It’s a pretty decent dish and the macaroni salad is surprisingly tasty here. However, once you start exploring the menu a bit it’s all downhill from.
I felt bold and tried the Loco Moco, which are two burger patties served on top of macaroni salad and rice while topped with two eggs. The picture on their website has it looking nice and neat and hearty. What I got looked like unflushed slop in a truck stop bathroom. See below image of what I got in contrast to how they advertise it. I realize it was a to-​go order but come on. If your food looks like that in a to-​go box then you’ve got problems.
The next time I felt like swaying from the usual chicken I decided to go a little more conservatively with a cheeseburger. I mean, how can you mess up a cheeseburger? Well, apparently L&L is up to the challenge. Forget the fact that the burger patties and fries taste like they’re microwaved. I can live with that. What’s truly revolting is finding what best can be described as a giant lettuce stalk/​heart thing/​I don’t even know on the burger. Again, see the below pictures. The damn thing was thicker than the entire burger, including the buns. Someone actually put this in a burger. Like, seriously? I’ve seen more appetizing things on Fear Factor than this garbage. This is just gross.
So, yeah, you know, I’m sorry, L&L, but you gotta admit that there’s some quality control that needs addressing here. The chicken is good. I think that’s a fine meal. But after that you’re in trouble, whether it’s a dish drowned in slop or a burger topped with the textural equivalent of a cockroach shell.
Sorry guys. This just wasn’t good. You can do better.

Not a happy customer. First of all, i ordered a side of rice for $ 1.29. I gave this lady 20.29. I got $ 17 and some change. I tried to explain myself but they made me seem dumb at the register. Simple math! Then the lady gave me rice that was all wet! Okay, I cook rice every damn day, I know when a rice is cooked (Asian lol) this place is such a disappointment. No stars if I could. Never coming back here

We had the chicken BBQ bowl nothing Hawaiian about it just plain chicken over rice and vegetables not very good chicken would not recommend to go to this place again

This is not my favorite L&L’s location to eat at but it’s the closest to where I live at. I usually call my order in and when I get there, the food is usually not ready. Service is a bit slower than the other locations I’ve been to.
I usually order the hawaiian bbq chicken plate w/​a side of spam musubi or their spam saimin soup. I love their mac salad!

I come here when I miss being on the Hawaiian Islands. Of course, my go-​to dishes would be Chicken Katsu (all-​time fav) or Loco Moco. Can’t seem to go wrong with either one!

I ordered the chicken katsu per usual while my bf ordered the seafood platter because he wanted to try something different and it sounded good. As a result of this decision, he ended hating the seafood platter, saying the shrimp was bland and the mahi mahi was too salty. He was so disgusted by this that he boycotted every L&L’s in general for over a year. He said «how can a place sell something this gross and charge people for it». I’m sure he’s just overreacting, maybe it was just a bad batch of the Seafood Platter.
I finally convinced him to come back just for the chicken katsu of course. He still hasn’t given the Seafood Platter another chance, it could really just be that one bad time, but I don’t think he’s willing to risk it. I won’t let him. I don’t want to suffer from another L&L’s boycott, I love their chicken katsu!

So bad we left…
We went there today, no one was in the place & we waited for 30 minutes for our food. My husband even went up to the girl to check on our order & she completely ignored him so after starring at her for a few minutes he shrugged his shoulders and returned to our table. Finally the young girl showed up and slapped our food down & walked away. Didn’t even look at us, say thank you or sorry about the wait! I was complelty shocked at how rude that was. It’s not like she was busy, we were still the only ones there! I looked at my hamburger & lifted the bun to see hardly any lettuce, sauce & the tinest thinnest BURNT meat patty I have ever seen in my entire life. I lifted it up the meat & started laughing in shock. I wish i had my phone to take a picture. The meat on the cheap burgers at McDonalds are bigger. I am not exaggerating! And for it to be completely burned? Clearly they do not have standards. My husband ordered the pork sandwich– hardly any pork, looked like it was scooped once with an ice cream scoop & dripped with cold bbq sauce. It was so rediclous that my husband & I didn’t even say anything to each other– we just got up & demanded are money back– even tho we were starving by this point! We left and went to the Habbit– there meat patty is about x3 bigger
Neither one of us have ever asked for our money back & left a restruant before. Hands down the smallest portions we have ever seen. And talk about crappy service. A smile & a thank you goes a long way.

Absolutely the worst!
I wish I could give negative points for this terrible place!
Where do I start…
My wife and I entered about 1:00pm on a Sunday only people in the place. First time customer. I ordered the pork sandwich combo, she ordered a burger combo.
After waiting for at least 20 minutes and trying to get the attention of the rude cashier, our food came. The same cashier came and literally dropped our order on the table.
Finally! I thought… After seeing the customers that came in after my expectations and hunger was pretty thrilled.
As we open our styrofoam containers a sudden disgust/​sadness occurred.
My pork sandwich was a simple Luke warm hamburger bun, with a scoop of Luke warm pork/​mesh. On top was a little thin, what looked like bbq sauce. Burnt fries.
My wife’s was the most disgusting. Her so called burger was about ¹⁄₈ b burnt to all hell, no seasoning, absolutely repulsive
I have seen better burgers at am/​pm for $ 1.99. This piece of literal excrement cost $ 5.99.
I have never done this before. I returned the order. Upon showing the cashier the order of this pepperoni size burger patty I asked for my money back.
Without apology or any kind of acceptance she stated «you want another one?»
No. My money back! Luckily I received my money back and we left.
I highly recommend not wasting your time and money on this restaurant.

We love L&L it’s been a great place to come for last minute dinners and they even handled my daughters beach party b-​day by catering the food and delivering too!

Food is decent. Staff is semi-​friendly, more concerned about doing paperwork & counting money than customer service. I came in yesterday & ordered:
Spam Musubi — Good. I like how they put a layer of sauce in between the rice & spam.
Portuguese Sausage Musubi — Too thinly sliced! It was like eating chips! They need to put more meat considering how much rice they put.
Macaroni Salad — Tasty, with a good amount of mayonnaise.
If you are craving Musubis, I recommend coming here on Mondays for their $ 1 special! (Call ahead for the times, I forgot –_​_​-​). If you dine in, there is a TV & you can watch movies like Lilo & Stitch.

I’m a bit in between about this location. I got the kalua pork bowl, which seemed a bit boring when it came out. The vegetables seemed a bit uni-​colored and all tasted the same and the pork added texture but didn’t do much in term of taste. I had some teriyaki sauce on the side to try and add a bit of flavor, but it was a bit watered down. Good thing I had a side of kimchi! Not as pungent as you may get at Korean joints, but it is a Hawaiian place so it wouldn’t be a fair comparison.
The plus sides, the staff was very nice and patient despite a lunch rush. The place was tidy and clean, including the bathroom despite it being unisex and widely accesable.

This L & L is kinda weird to me. The gravy wasn’t the flavor profile I expected and the rice has a funny twinge, maybe not so fresh? I called ahead for my order — but they only put it in when I got there and paid so I had to wait just as long anyways. Bummed me and my starving giant Bf out for sure. We really just wanted to grab and go.
It’s SUPER busy too, even later in the day (Like 7:30 pm) so be prepared for that. The chicken Cutlet I ordered wasn’t actually even listed on the menu: But they did have it… could be why the gravy was off? It’s a pretty solid normal L & L choice so I’d suggest officially adding it (or adding it back) and a focus on the traditional gravy recipe they serve at the other locations. Fresh rice too, I mean,
E ‘olu’olu, not too much to ask for a Hawaiian (even through it’s a chain) place.
The service was slow but nice, no really complaints there as they were busy. But again, called ahead. I’ll stick with the La Jolla location instead.

Great customer service! Friendly! and accommodating!
Combination plate is enough for 2 people.
When they gave us our order on our seats, they went back and gave us another set of utensils to use.

Nothin’ against spam-​masubi but dude, it’s SPAM and RICE. Sorry I just don’t see the genius in it. Why not go deeper? If there’s 1 thing L&L does like no one else, it’s Teriyaki Beef! When I have ‘that craving’ this is my spot. I always get the mini beef combo: generous savory-​steaming-​tangy-​hearty portions rested atop little glorious mountains of cool creamy mac salad, hot rice, and cool slaw. Always consistently good. I take little bites of everything at once «world war 2 style», with just a lil’ sriracha. Its like The Beatles playing in your mouth! The flavors are so complimentary I want to cry thinking about it.
The vibe here is always upbeat, reggae hummin’ over the PA, and the service is always genuinely friendly and fast. They always ask how my day’s goin. Jesus, what else do u want? They even have that awesome melts-​in-​your-​mouth crushed ice for the sodas! Combo and drink and your out for about $ 9.81. Don’t gimme any grief about the price. This. Is. Good. Eatin.
There’s a curiosity called the ‘Ramen Burger’ which I will most certainly be pursuing on my next visit.
Parking’s rough. Try the street by Greek Corner on a busy day.

My regular spot for Mondays which my friends and i call musubi monday #musubimonday
Mondays: i usually get spam, chicken katsu, and chicken bbq musubi. Usually a combination of the three or just spam.
Love the music they play, very aloha.
There is some seating outside. It’s nice that it is near other places like Trader Joe’s