L&L Hawaiian Barbecue

Yucky… DO NOT eat the fried shrimp. The only L&L that doesn’t serve veal cutlet or lemon chicken… The best part of my meal was the shredded cabbage that they put under the fried shrimp. Some people have no pride… Sheesh…

I love this place. The food is great and you get mega portions. The price is inexpensive compared to the amount of food you get. They have combo plates and mini combo plates that fit any appetite. Love it!

Food ok. Funny thing is… They dont have BBQ. We thought this was a BBQ joint. Likelyhood of going back is… Probably not… Jason, Hawaii

I thought Hawaii is brimming with spam mitsubi. Clearly I was wrong because I don’t think a lot of restaurants serve those. My friends recommended this place to me. I was initially a bit taken back by the price for mitsubi ($ 5.99 for 3 mitsubi combo?!). Well, the mitsubi is NOT sushi-​sized as I originally thought; one mitsubi was bigger than my hand!
The combo came with katsu (fried breaded chicken), spam, and sausage. I was skeptical of the katsu and sausage mitsubis, but they were yum.
Ate my first spam mitsubi = mission accomplished!

This being our third visit to the Hawaiian islands (but the first time to the Big Island), we had to hit up our favorite Hawaiian local fast food joint again. With huge portions, affordable prices, and delicious local dishes, it’s a must to eat at L & L. I ordered the kahlua pig with cabbage which comes with two scoops of rice and one scoop of macaroni salad. As usual, I ended up taking home the leftovers and splitting it with my husband for dinner. My husband got the healthy garlic mahi mahi with ceasar salad and brown rice. Wow, the garlic mahi mahi is delicious! This would be a favorite for garlic lovers! As always, the spam musubi is great, however, I keep forgetting to ask for less seaweed since it adds on to the saltiness.
The restaurant was clean and the cashier was so-​so, neither friendly or rude. Several booths and a couple of tables to eat indoors, no outdoor seating.
Great location at Parker Ranch Shopping Center. This was the closest location from where we were staying, Waikoloa Village, and probably the closest location for Kohala and Honakaa.

I thought my teriyaki combo was great, but the salmon special made my friend sick.

Great food, prices and location. This is by far the best L&L in Hawaii. It was very flavorful, not to greasy and portions are more than perfect. The atmosphere is a very nice place to eat around. If your a early bird and are looking for a place to eat i would so come here. The omelettes are so yummy, in your tummy. I loved all the omelettes they offer, mushroom, sausage, and spam. They also serve french toast which you should give a try. The cornbeef, eggs and rice is something me and my best friend shared and it sure made our sightseeing day. They offer these rice bowls with you can choose your main entrée. The chicken and rice bowl is so good to take out with you when your traveling throughout the day. Overall this place was more than perfect.
I would come here again.

Super bummed that this was our first meal on the Big Island… my sisters and I were thinking where the Locals Eat… perhaps a spam sando or musubi at a popular gas station or some cart near a beach… not so much.
Surprisingly we had a blast and enjoyed our ridiculous meal here… I went all out and ordered like 7 plates… knowing we’d only tackle 3 or 4 between the 5 of us. That is fine, I love leftovers and I knew I wanted to snack on some Spam Musubi later.
Everything we ate was solid… granted not healthy but definately comforting and we left full with meals for later not snacks. Not delicious but not bad… I love the over easy egg over rice with ketchup and the spam musubi rock but that’s pretty easy to make.
Good to know Locals actually love this place too. The service wasn’t the friendliest but we didn’t care. We had ourselves and L&L feast in house.

This is my worst meal in Hawaii. We went there on Sunday which it seems like a lot of places close on Sun in that small town. We were picking between this Hawaiian fast food and KFC. (which now i still think it was the better decision).
I ordered the lunch special. it was really cheap $ 7 including soda: the lunch plate included bbq pork, chicken, eggs, rice and macaroni salad of course. The food was so tasteless and greasy. Mayo was the only thing i could taste from macaroni salad. It was heart attack on a plate for me. The place is great value for the price. The food portion is huge. That’s the only Pro i could think of for this place

Decent food. More of a fast food joint than anything else. But food tasted ok.

The BBQ was great, and the plates were FULL of food. The kids even loved it, and mine can be picky. Great pit stop on our trip to Kona and Kailua. Yum, yum!

The first thing I wanted, after landing at KOA, was a plate lunch. We were staying on the Kohala coast so headed right for Waimea/​Kamuela and there was the L and L! What a perfect way to start of a Hawaiian vacation. I had a «chicken lover’s» and B had the Kalua pork and we were bothj really impressed. This place has all the usual plate lunch faves and who can rist rice and pot/​mac salad… or just plain mac salad, as the case may be. Great value! Always lots of local folks here.

The «plate lunch» is the state food of Hawaii, if you are a «local». You can get plate lunches at many different places throughout the Big Island, but L & L is the closest you can get to a «chain» store (on Oahu there is also Zippy’s). This isn’t necessarily bad, because L & L’s consistently serve a variety of local favorites that won’t disappoint.
All stores carry the general menu, but individual stores often have a variety of specials. The portions are huge (what is «enough» for a local can sometimes feed 2 — newcomers might go for the «mini» plates). L&L is also unique in offering «healthier fare» (brown rice and veggies instead of the ubiquitous macaroni salad).
If you are headed to the beach on the Big Island (try Hapuna or the nearby Wailea for families with young children), stop at the L&L in Waimea and order some musubi to take along as the perfect beach food. Think of it like a «local Hawaiian sandwich». It is the Hawaiian version of the Japanese riceball (onigiri). In its basic form (the kind prepared by Japanese families in Hawaii), the musubi is a triangular ‘ball” of rice that is sometimes covered with seaweed (nori). Some years ago, a variation appeared that had a rectangular block of rice with slice of fried spam on it (or between layers). Since then there has been an explosion of different varieties of musubi — at L&L, try the portuguese sausage, chicken katsu, or BBQ chicken musubi.

Call me crazy but after reading about the Hawaiian delicacy, Spam Musubi, I had to try it and now we were actually in Hawaii. Though my wife had visions of five star restaurants every night of the trip, I had other ideas. I figured this way my big chance to try a bit of the local culinary wonders.
I put out the SOS to all my fellow Unilocalers in San Diego and got responses like «Try the local gas station.» or «Try McDonald’s» or «Find a convenience store.» Hey, thanks a lot guys. Someone (Jay) suggested I try L & L. A glimmer of hope? First, I asked a waitress at the hotel restaurant, «do you have any Spam Musubi?» She said, «No, but my kid lives the stuff. I make it for him all the time. Ya, L & L has it-​that place is real good.» My wife wasn’t convinced so we checked with the cabana boy my the pool an he said, Yeah, L&L. Their food is the best.
So I hopped on my computer and found their website. They have a ton of franchises mostly in HI and CA. In fact they have one about 2 miles from my house in San Diego. I found the one closest to my hotel and presented my work to my wife. It took a so so meal at the coffee shop that night to convince her to let me take the family.
It was a 30 minute drive up the mountain to Waimea where the weather is significantly cooler. Thankfully, there was a McDonald’s across the street so I could order a chicken nugget happy meal for my 7 y/​o son who will eat nothing else.
We finally walked into L & L. I was here at last. The place was clean. The inside sort of looked like the inside of a Subway Restaurant. I really didn’t know what to expect. I pulled up at the counter and checke out the menu. It was quite extensive. I found the Spam Musubi I had been looking for along with a sampler of chicken katsu, teriyaki beef and chicken and mahi mahi.
The service was prompt, the portions were enormous and the price was very reasonable. The Spam Musubi was interesting. I’m not sure I’d want to eat it every day but I’d definitely try it again. It’s an acquired taste-​like gefilte fish. The rest of the meal was good-​so much food I couldn’t eat it. My wife wasn’t impressed but she was a good sport. My two daughters really liked the chicken katsu and my oldest wants me to take her to L & L sometime when we get home.
Next challenge-​moco loco. But I think I’ll have to take some Lipitor first!
Don’t expect fine dining but the food is cheap, plentiful and tasty. The locations are franchises so the basics are the same but each adds it’s individual flavor. The place in Waimea had lau lau and ox tail soup but I don’t think all the stores carry it. Give it a try. If they put one in La Jolla, it can’t be all that bad!
Addendum– In reviewing my original talk thread I find that I erroneously gave credit for the L & L suggestion to Jay D who provided a thoughtful though less helpful reply. The suggestion to try L & L was actually given by Nathan C. This author regrets any confusion the error may have caused and thanks all thread respondants heartily especially Nathan and Jay D.