L&L Hawaiian Barbecue

I honestly don’t know why the ratings are so low here. I come here all the time and their katsu is the best for this area. I also like their spam, egg & rice. I ask for the spam to be extra brown and they don’t have problems with special requests. Their musubi selection is pretty good too. Bbq chicken & katsu are my favs. Their customer service it great. My boyfriend & I have never had any problems ordering here. I highly recommend this place!

I used to go here often when I was younger, but now Im starting to realize the food is mediocre at best. The Mac Salad is never fresh and most or at least half the time the workers are unfriendly or seem to act like they hate their job.
The last time I went here, the guy rolled his eyes at me for asking to substitute brown rice in instead of rice rice.
After discovering Hawaiian Drive Inn On Tully, I am never coming back to this L&L.The only thing good about this place is the location. Hawaiian Drive Inn seemed to have friendlier staff and the food was more (Chicken Katsu), Mac Salad Fresh and the price was cheaper too.
The location on Curtner is better if you want to still go to an L&L

This wanna be hipster with the beard is rude as fuck. I never have a problem with the older workers. But this guy was just being a douche and was talking to be like I was stupid.

I typically order to go. Food is consistently good and satisfying. After placing an order over the phone, they are super fast and efficient with getting your order out. I’m not sure why people are getting butt hurt about their customer service. I mean, just because they don’t kiss the customers ass doesn’t mean that they are rude or mean. They are doing their job and they’re doing a job very well. Simply put.

The food taste great! Cozy place to eat. The food took kinda long but not that much for me to complain. The low carb plate is fucking delicious. Will definitely come after my gym sessions.

Price continues to go up and customer service gets even worse. Today will be my last time ever coming here, employee is rude and they are never fully stocked with what their menu reads. They need to hire new people who actually enjoy their job and are FRIENDLY. And for those employees who are still employed and hate it, do us all a favor including yourself and QUIT! If I was the owner, I would be furious. You guys are dragging down and building a bad reputation for the person who owns this business.

I never thought to eat at L&L until I went to one in Santa Barbara. I tried the healthy chicken meal and it was delicious. I was like wow if I’d only knew they had a meal like this all this time. I’m looking forward to L&L in the future. The Santa Barbara location was 3 times bigger than this place, newer, cleaner. Already I’m not liking the vibe when I got in. Service was poor. The meal was HORRIBLE! It wasn’t the chicken breast I had had in Santa Barbara, it was greasy and stiff, the salad wasn’t good. What killed it was the chicken, just gross, I forced myself to eat half and just dumped everything. The other two meals we dumped with half left. Never going here again. Really sad cause I was hoping I could frequent this location.

Worst l&l on the planet. Worst service. Rude employees. Horrible food. I don’t give reviews, but I have to when a place sucks so bad and makes a chain look horrible. Never coming back to this location. You shouldn’t either. Garbage.

Not the best location to get Hawaiian bbq but it’s so close to the house. Their macaroni salad is bomb.

order
—
loco moco
–had an egg, over easy drenched with gravy. n i mean DRENCHED!!!
spam musubi
–good size cut of spam w an excess of rice

5 stars for the Fried Sai Min I ordered today. It was cooked to perfection. Better than Zippy’s and Shiro’s fried Saimin in Hawaii. I just hope the Next time I order the same dish it’ll taste as good. The food quality at any restaurant is dependent on the staff at that given time.

Please avoid this place even if you’re really hungry go somewhere else. The macaroni salad was awful it was too water. The meat was all black and salty. How is this supposed to be Hawaiian food, lighten up the grease or at least drain it.

The food was okay but service was horrible. I literally heard the new chef say, «teach me how to cook your stupid burger». It looked like just the register and the new guy worked there. When I arrived there were 3 people waiting and a phone order walked in. No orders were ready, was about a 25 – 30 minute wait. Definitely not sure when they clean as the oil and rust have literally stuck to every inch of metal in the place.
Overall the side dishes were great, but they should lighten up on the grease or at least drain the fat once they cook it. I would never try the fish or shrimp as I don’t assume they buy fresh produce every day.
Edited: I am editing part of my review. The food has gotten a little better but the staff is still horrible. Instead of two loud guys who just needed more training, they now have two guys who are quiet and forget that they were helping you. I’d rather have at least 2 people complaining but still working than someone forgetting your order completely.

This is that last time I go to this L&L. They always get the order wrong and now they used old grease for my eggs ! You lost my business.

The location isn’t bad. Often L&L seem to be in sketch strip malls that offer little parking and are generally difficult (e.g., the one in Mountain View on El Camino). This one’s in a nice little shopping center not far from 101. Downer is the traffic to get in and out is hard because you’re competing with the 101 crowd but once you get into the shopping center it’s pretty nice and parking is plentiful.
To me, this was a solid L&L. The food was normal, which is good but certainly not outstanding. I love their cross-​cut shortribs and their macaroni salad. My guest had the seafood combo which had the shortribs plus three fried shrimp (really good) and even a nice piece of fried fish.
So, to me, if you like the genre, you should like the food here. The downer here was the service. The place was kind of dirty /​sticky on the inside, the guy behind the cash register sometimes disappeared (people would arrive say «hello, hello») and while it was definitely not an aloha spirit, it was barely above-​bar as far as professional goes.
Since they have tables it would be nice if they gave you a plate and a real knife/​fork as opposed to a box and a plastic one — cutting the ribs with a plastic knife isn’t easy. Also, a nit, but I hate that they don’t have napkins out and they ration them by putting them with your food.
While the place is definitely a good value for money quantity wise, it those little things that move it from inexpensive to cheap.

I don’t really give bad reviews but the experience was so terrible it’s kind of necessary now. The food and service has declined over the years and yesterday was the final straw. I ordered a kalua and laulau combo to-​go. After waiting a few minutes, it was ready and I left to a meeting. Upon attempting to eat while driving (I know, bad choice), I realized the food wasn’t hot and cooled down immensely within a few minutes. After I took more bites, I realized the food was still COLD at the center, as if it wasn’t completely thawed or cooked. I thought about turning back but I would’ve late, so instead in Unilocaling it.
I grew up in Hawaii and ate L&L there since I was a kid, so when it first opened several years ago at this location it was pretty exciting. The food was pretty decent and the service wasn’t too bad. My advice to you all now, AVOID THIS LOCATION. There are way better locations around San Jose. Good luck, fam.

Let me start off by saying: if I could, I would give this place ZERO stars. The handful of times I’ve been here, the staff has always been standoff-​ish and they take forever and a day to get your food to you. Yes, even on the slowest of days.
Still, I never even thought about writing a review about this [particular] establishment or their mediocre food. But, today… well, that changed. As I was eating my mac salad, I saw something at the bottom; A FREAKIN BOLT!!! Seriously. While it’s not the dirtiest thing I’ve seen at a restaurant, it’s still disgusting! And it’s a definite safety and sanitation issue that needs to be addressed. And inspected! Needless to say, I am never ever ever going back!!!
How this place has so many ONE star reviews yet still manages to remain open is beyond me.

So this is a story all about how my life got twisted upside down.
Sitting here waiting on this sticky ass chair for food that I phone ordered 3 hours before hand.
I called in a to go menu at around 11am n told them that I would be picking up the food at 2pm. I got here around 1:55pm n told them I had called in my order earlier in the day n the cashier said «oh yeah I totally forgot it was for 2pm» so I paid and now I am waiting for my food.
The whole point in calling in your order is to not wait. ANNOYING MUCH?

I can’t say much for visiting the actual location itself. I normally get take out from here if the roommate is coming back from SJ since it’s by his house there. But he just brings it home to me in SF. I never go with him. Therefore this review is for the food only.
Spam musubi — a block of rice with spam wrapped in flavored, dry seaweed
I love spam! For a Chinese girl, I’m really not much of a rice eater. But if you pair it with spam and seaweed, I’m sold! I normally squeeze some sriracha on it for a spicy kick!
L&L hawaiian bbq mix — a mix of L&L hawaiian bbq beef, chicken & short ribs (asked for all macaroni salad, no rice)
I wanted to try something new, so I went with the bbq plate. The meat itself had a jerky quality to it which I didn’t like. But maybe that’s how hawaiian bbq is? Honestly, I’m not sure. But I do love their macaroni salad! Any time I get L&L, I always ask for all macaroni salad, no rice.
Kalua pork — smoke flavored shredded pork slowly roasted and mixed with cabbage
The roommate’s go to order. He loves L&L’s kalua pork! This last time though, I took a bite and found it a little dry. Ending up squeezing hot sauce on it to give it some moisture and a spicy kick!
I’m not sure why this location gets such bad reviews, but their food seems like the standard L&L offerings. Plus they’re open til 10p, unlike some of the other locations in SJ. Just make sure to call in your order before you go pick it up. It may take a while for your order to be ready if you go straight there and place it.

I remember there used to be a big line for food here. After tasting the food now I know why it is always empty. Our standards seems to have gone down a lot.
As soon as we went, the cashier and a very dirty shirt and athletic shorts. After I ordered the food he then went to the kitchen and started cooking. I wonder if you wash his hands after dealing with the money.
It is very dirty inside. You could see the kitchen from the dining area, the backsplash looks like it has not been cleaned for several weeks. The door to the kitchen has some brown thing on it, the air vents has a lot of dust and mold, The tables are sticky, and the windows looks like it has not been clean for a while.
The food does not taste the same. I will probably not come to this Place again until they have made a lot of changes.