L & L Hawaiian Barbecue

Tried this place for the first time today after a friend had recommended it. After eating my meal I started feeling extremely sick. It’s the only think I’ve eaten today so there’s no doubt it’s from the food. Thanks for the food poisoning L&L… Won’t be going back anytime soon.

Been coming here for years and surprised I haven’t reviewed L&L yet. Being from Honolulu, this is as close to local Hawaii ‘cuisine’ as I’ve found, including the requisite Macaroni salad. My standard order is the laulau and kalua pig combo plate or maybe a musubi or 2! While not the ‘real deal’ Hawaiian food from Young’s Fish Market in Honolulu or even any of the Zippy’s there, I’m grateful for it being here in LA and also being in so many places in LA. I even go to the L&L in Reno NV when we’re there! The laulau’s are haole-​fied, that is, just good standard pork laulaus with no fish or fatty pork. Their menu has a lot of popular selections, like the chicken katsu, loco moco, and saimin, which I’ll get as the mood has it. And if they have pork buns, like they have in the Simi Valley location, I always get extra to take home.

I’ll make this one simple. This place has never been the same since the original Hawaiian/​Asian owners left years ago. Ever since the new management thought they knew how to run a business, this place has sadly gone down hill. The food is still pretty good at a reasonable price, however the service has tanked dramatically. The people they hire at the register are young, naïve and usually pretty rude. Playing on their phone and not taking care of the restaurant. So if you like the food and can tolerate the crap service then this is the place for you!

I was in the area for a business meeting and needed something quick to eat so I decided to finally cave in and try L&L that I had been seeing and hearing about for a while. I am a picky eater and not being familiar with the menu it was really nice to have the staff be familiar with the menu. I was recommended the Hawaiian BBQ Chicken plate to try which was amazing.
Facility:
The store is very clean and well maintained.
Staff/​Service:
The staff is well trained, professional and very friendly.
Food:
The food is amazing, well prepared, the order is made upon order which is nice for a «fast food» restaurant you know that the order hasn’t been sitting around…
I ordered the Hawaiian BBQ Chicken plate which had good quality of white meat, great rice, and salad that kept me full till late dinner.

Worst experience!
Many months ago I went to L&L to pick up dinner for my family. Hawaiian bbq is our favorite. It was about 7:30 p.m. And I ordered 2 plate dinners and 3 spam musubi. After paying with my credit card and sitting down to wait, the girl informed me that they were out of rice. She seemed frazzled as to what to do. It seems a Hawaiian bbq restaurant should NEVER run out of rice, but ok. She offered to refund my credit card for the musubi’s. She swiped my credit card for the refund and when I went to look at the slip, I realized that she didn’t refund the amount, but charged my credit card again! She called the manager and did something on the computer and told me that it was fixed. I never saw a slip or receipt. So I kept checking with my bank and after a month my credit card was never credited. I called to speak with the owner and after three weeks of back and forth I finally got through to him. He assured me that it would be taking care of. Still to this day my credit card has not been credited back. Needless to say I will never, ever, be going back to L&L barbecue in Thousand Oaks again.

Pathetic! Waited almost 29 mins for their taco Tuesday special!!! Not worth it, or the wait!

Food is good, but… placed a catering order a day before I needed. Went to pick up half an hour later than I told them. My order wasn’t ready and had to wait for it. They told me that they were really busy today however they had only 8 seated customers and no one was cooking in the kitchen, sooooo. Anyway, they were very pleasant and apologetic, so all is well.

I hadn’t been to L&L in years because my first experience with them was so disappointing but I decided to give them another try today for lunch.
The young woman behind the counter was friendly and greeted me quickly. She answered my numerous menu questions accurately and politely and when I said I wanted to try two things but didn’t see that on the menu, she was quick to let me know I could make a combo with my two options. I ordered and got a drink from the soda fountain. The floor was unbelievably sticky and my shoes made a loud «squak squak» when I walked near the soda fountain, or near the restaurant entrance/​exit. It was awkward and embarrassing and made me wonder why they couldn’t just mop the floor. My food took a while to prepare, but was brought out to my table when ready. All orders, whether dine-​in or to-​go are served in to-​go containers. I ate my BBQ chicken (pounded flat and with a BBQ/​Soy Sauce flavor) and coconut shrimp. The shrimp were a good size and the breading/​coconut wasn’t too sweet. The meat was juicy and flavorful and the chicken was pretty lean, beyond one big piece of skin I got. White rice under my meat was a little overcooked and stuck together, but fresh and moist. Macaroni salad was all right if you like that side.
Soda tasted fine and atmosphere was pleasant and upbeat. Food was nothing amazing but nothing wrong with it either. My opinion has greatly improved in regards to this restaurant and while I may not choose to eat here on my own, if a friend wanted to go I wouldn’t warn them away.

The young woman at the counter seemed to hate the world; was not friendly at all! Then it got worse,.The first iced tea I tried didn’t work. The 2^nd wouldn’t shut off! I yelled to her and she waves her hand as if to say ‘it’s fine’ while tea spilled everywhere and no one came over to help. It finally ran out of tea as I stood there helpless and wondering how old the tea I there was as it was DISGUSTING!!! I poured it out and got lemonade instead. Then went to get some ketchup to go and the container exploded all over me.
I got the VW chicken sandwich which was not okay but literally had 4 tiny strips of shredded lettuce which is more suitable for salads, not burgers and the chicken is also tiny strips, makes it difficult to eat as a burger and barley enough to cover the bun! The only good thing I ha dead the sweet chili sauce and I grabbed a 4 pack of Hawaiian rolls for later.
They should just make sliders on the rolls with the chili sauce; I’d come back for that if they hired someone who smiled and cared!!!

Food was cold, the iced tea machine wouldnt shut off. I’m soaking wet and when I asked for a towel or napkin the girl at the register told me not to worry shed clean up the counter.
When our food was ready she let it sit because she was too busy on the phone. Then she put it in a bag and left it on the counter.
She never told us it was ours or thank you.

YIKES! I drove from Simi Valley to Thousand Oaks just to come to L & L because I remember loving it when the one in Simi was still around. I was so excited because it’s been so long since I’ve had it, and all I got to say is the beef plate I usually order was awful, it was soooo dry and tasted so gross that I had to stop eating my food :(which really bums me out because I loved this place and I was hoping to start coming back. I mean the macaroni salad was good but that was it :(

I went to L & L last night with a friend. We were trying to catch an 8:30 movie next door at Regency and figured we’d get a quick bite beforehand. There was nobody inside. We got there at 8:20; I ordered a Hamburger and he got a BBQ Chicken. If we missed the previews at the theater, it would be no big deal… and our food shouldn’t take long to make anyway, right? Wrong.
It took them 22 minutes for them just to make a simple hamburger. By this time a few more people had come in and ordered (and they were starting to wonder where their food was too). They ended up giving my friends order to someone else. No apology for the mix-​up or for it taking such a long time. By the time we got out of there, it was a few minutes after 9:00; too late to make the movie by then.
We should have just quickly went to Jack in the Box. A better hamburger for much less than what I paid at L & L.
I won’t be back.

I love L&L and this is one of my other favorite locations. The staff is always pleasant and the food is great. Never been disappointed. Definitely going back when in the area :)

I got the chicken Katsu and it was not crispy and it was $ 7.00 for a «mini» size which came with a small scoop of rice and mac salad. I was in Thousand Oaks I wanted chicken Katsu, so if your in this area I don’t recommend this item here. oh I also tried the spamusubi few weeks ago, and I don’t recommend that item there either because the slice of spam was very thin with a lot of rice and the sauce inside was eh.
Not sure if I would go back to try other things on the menu

this place is, sadly, «hit or miss» — sometimes you get great service and the place is clean. Sometimes its dirty and the service sucks. We’ve never had … BAD food here… but its no-​where near as good as the L&L’s in Hawaii. The portions are smaller here… and there really is no Aloha spirit. Sad, really… especially since the one in Simi Valley is now gone. (they had a slightly different menu and had some great things there you can’t get here… like manapua… and curry beef stew)
So… good luck… and I hope your experience here is a good one. But there are no guarantees.

I’m just gonna bullet this one.
1. I was the only one there and it took 12 minutes for my barbecue chicken to be ready.
2. The service was horrible. The heavyset girl at the register with tattoos and piercings (none of this bothers me, I just do not know her name) just didn’t care at all. I’ve frequented other locations (the one near Oxnard) and she denied that the location even existed… I’m crazy, but not that crazy. At that other location, there was also a chicken combo option which wasn’t presented at this location. When I asked about it, she just kept denying that being on their menu (which didn’t bug me as much as when she kept denying that other location even existing!)
3. The sauces that were offered near the soda fountains were crusty and looked like they’ve been there for years unattended and barely cleaned.
4. My chicken wasn’t cooked all the way through. It was red in the middle and gross… but I paid for that meal so you better believe I ate it anyway, because that’s just how I roll.
I’ve been there on two different occasions and both times the cashier didn’t attempt to converse or help me choose. I kept asking for that chicken combo and they both just gave me this blank expression which frustrated the hell out of me!
I’M NOT CRAZY, I SWEAR

Decent food
It’s not top notch but it’s good
I was really curious about the protein smoothies that they offered so I thought I’d get one with some almond milk… Worst choice ever made in my life!
They have good protein to choose from however I don’t even think she put ice in it and it came out all watery and liquidy, nasty pretty gross I could not finish all of it and had to throw it out!
Yuk

They offer an awesome BBQ and Chicken Katsu plate! A++++ food. As an Asian-​American I have to proudly vocalize that they are ON POINT with their recipes! It may be difficult to remember but authentic unfamiliar cuisines are not meant to cater to «American» tastebuds. If that’s what you’re going for then I’d recommend TGI Fridays or Chilis! There is a reason why L&L BBQ is the number 1 Hawaiian BBQ in Ventura County!

L&L’s has the best Katsu Chicken! This location does it well. I go here every now and then and was pleasantly surprised that they serve boba now, yay!
But a lot of the times I’ve tried to order boba (at least 3 separate occasions), they’ve been out of more than one flavor which is pretty disappointing. Service is okay, people are nice but sometimes the food takes awhile.

I’m kind of obsessed with L&L. Maybe it’s my self-​destructive love of everything high-​sodium and hypertension-​inducing, but I always find myself drooling over the menu.
Frankly, I’m shocked this place is still in business — it’s tucked away in the back of Janss Marketplace and every single time I’ve been here it’s been totally empty, even during lunch break. The staff always look pretty bored, and the cook definitely seems to take his sweet time cooking. But it’s the only place I can get loco moco and pulled pork within a convenient drive and price. And honestly, the fact that it’s always empty means more service for me.
I hope L&L stays open forever.