L&L Hawaiian Barbecue

I have been here plenty of times now and I believe this location needs another review sort of in its favor.
Unilocalers have been complaining about how this establishment got their order wrong many a time; or that this establishment did not make the food to the way they ordered it. I don’t want to be a hater, but all I can say is you get what you pay for. There is nothing especially fascinating about an L&L joint. However, if you are a local food junkie or have a sudden craving for local food, then this would be the place to go; especially if you are low on funds.
My favorite which has never gone wrong whenever I have eaten here is their chicken katsu. Always with that nice crisp and the efficiency in which they can make it in would surprise the least of the pickiest gastronomes. Their cutlets have surprised me a few times as well as their takes on Hawaiian plates such as kalua pig; or contemporary Hawaiian favorites like hamburger steak.
I just thought I would come to the defense of this establishment since people are always expecting the workers to shine their shoes and wipe their butts. I say this place is «A-​OK».
All for Unilocal and Unilocal for all!!! :-P

This is your typical L&L Drive Inn. The only complaint with this particular location is the crowd. During lunch time, it is super busy and the wait times are long! The food is good though. If you plan on taking out, remember to bring your own bag. They don’t have bags here!

Ordered a bbq cheeseburger deluxe at the campus L&L. It’s a cheeseburger… how can you screw that up? Well turns out their version on a bbq cheeseburger is an overcooked hamburger patty with bbq sauce smeared on a stale bun. Not sure how using bbq sauce instead of ketchup makes it a bbq burger. Ugh… barely edible.
Sadly, I’d rather eat a $ 1.49 double cheeseburger at McDonalds instead of this $ 4.19 icky burger.

Usually I like L&L first time here at the UH Location and it’s horrible. Asked for the usual garlic ahi that all l&l normally has. The cashier says they don’t sell ahi. I get the garlic «fish» instead. Cashier told me it’s Mahi. Come to find out it’s frozen tilapia fillets that he microwave defrosted. And threw garlic butter all over including on the rice and Mac salad. Also at all other L&L locations on Oahu a BBQ burger means a teriyaki burger. Here it was served with Kraft barbecue sauce on a costco bun. Disappointing. STAY AWAY

Usually L&Ls are decent and most of their lunch plates are solid if unspectacular. However, now that they have pushed the copycat fad of saimin/​ramen burgers on us, I had to try their saimin burger. It took them like 5 minutes and it came out very tiny and unimpressive looking. I’d say even if it was made with the best ramen ever (like that guy in NY who was in downtown HNL a couple of weeks ago), I still wouldn’t get the ramen/​saimin + burger patty fusion. It is not intuitive, but worse, there’s nothing special about this combination. They don’t taste all that great together. Sure the patty was good, and I guess the caked up fried saimin was dry on the edges and softer inside, but what is it that makes people stand in line for them? Well there wasn’t much of a line today, and my guess is that there won’t be any more line because of this in the future. It will go by way of #gangnamstyle or the macarena. Zai-​jian and sayonara respectively saimin/​ramen burger. By the time any fight over this gets into litigation, it will be a moot point.

I just had a delicious carbon burger at the L&L on the UH campus. I mean, I ordered a shrimp burger, but I was pleasantly surprised instead by two carbonized patties in a soft white bun, no fresh lettuce or tomatoes, and a yellowed smear of tartar. If you love carbon, this burger is for you – so dry that it dissolves to ash at first bite. They should rename this «The Nuclear Winter Burger»!
I won’t go into the health code violations I saw as the cashier helped out in the kitchen, deftly switching between handling cash and dropping food into the fryer without the worry of washing his hands…
But the fries were good.

What just happened? I used to order a Loco Moco mini plate sometimes and… wow today’s plate was a huge disappointment.
There was WAY TOO MUCH macaroni salad, TOO little rice, and the egg was not even fully cooked. Sunny Side up means cook the egg, but the yolk is runny. What did I get today? A half-​cooked egg. yuck. If I get sick tomorrow, I’m downgrading this rating from 2 to 1.
UPDATE: It’s November 2^nd, 2012 and my throat hurts. *downgrades rating*

I thought I’d give it some time for L&L to train their employees and work out the kinks before fully reviewing the UH Manoa campus location, but I’ve somewhat lost hope.
The first time I decided to order from L&L, they not only got my order wrong, but they also forgot that I even ordered. I opted for the «healthier» grilled chicken and ended up waiting more than twenty minutes for BBQ Beef. If I wasn’t in so much of a time crunch to get to class, I would have asked L&L to redo my order. The second time was a bit better, although they did forget to substitute the macaroni salad for rice like I asked. Clearly the consistency just isn’t there (yet).
On the plus side, L&L does add variety to the food options available on campus and provides «healthier» options for students. The waiting issue can be a problem, but their numbering system makes the situation a bit more assuring, despite their lack of not going in numerical order.

This is the new L&L location on the UH Manoa campus. It’s located in the Paradise Palms food court. I have to admit that I’m not usually too big of a fan of L&L, but I am a fan of this location because it’s another option for lunch whenever I get tired of the usual campus fare.
PLUS:
+ Adds variety to food selections on campus
+ Consistent quality with other L&Ls
+ Food made to order
+ A few «healthier» options on the menu
MINUS:
— Some cashiers still in training
— It’s still L&L
— Food takes several minutes
When I came here I wanted something on the lighter side, so I went with the «healthier» garlic shrimp, and opted for all tossed, no rice. It was like a garlic shrimp salad. While the shrimps were not nearly as large as the North Shore shrimp trucks, and not anywhere near as delicious, it was A-​OK. The garlic sauce used on the shrimp seemed a little greasy. Maybe too much butter, or butter flavored oil? But it left a weird oily feeling in my mouth.
When I ordered the cashier that was behind the counter wasn’t sure how to take my order, and gave me an unsure confused yet apologetic look, but when the other cashier, who was restocking the soda refrigerator, came to help, she showed the confused on how to punch in the order. I then waited on the side for somewhere between five and ten minutes. Yes, it may not seem too long, but lunch hour is only for a limited time, then it’s back to work, so every minute counts!
Overall the food and service are three stars A-​OK. Just the fact that I don’t have to go all the way down to the pool in lower campus adds a star for the convenience as well as the diversity it adds to my lunch time options. This makes me a fan of this location. Yay!