L&L Hawaiian BBQ
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: No
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Lunch
- Alcohol: None
7 Reviews for L&L Hawaiian BBQ
Hawaiian Barbecue, replete with delicious BBQ shortribs, macaroni/mayo salad, white rice, and so on. My favorite is the Kalua pork. Also the short ribs. I also like the Seafood combo - 3 breaded shrimp, a 4 oz. slab of Mahi Mahi, PLUS a serving of the aforementioned pork, ribs, or chicken. This place can be busy, but is usually pretty quick to have my order ready to rumble. Beware the intense garlic of the macaroni salad. This place should be much busier
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
Cool (1)
This place, to me, is just like Aloha Eats in Chicago. The menu offers pretty much the same options as Aloha Eats and is also about the same price. My brother recommended this place because my mom was craving some Hawaiian BBQ, and L &L hit the spot. L & L is located in a row of fast food places - think mall food court within a shopping center. What -- you can't decide what to eat and are in the area? Uh, no problem.
My mom and I shared the BBQ mix plate. I wasn't too crazy about the chicken, the beef was pretty tender and tasty. I was a little disappointed to see that the mix plate only offers one slice (?) of the short rib, which my mom loved. My dad enjoyed his Atkins version of the BBQ beef, but he loved the mahi mahi mini plate he had on our second visit to L & L. Yeah, I said second visit .... second visit in 4 days. It's pretty much on our "to-eat" places the next time we are Phoenix.
Hellooooooooooo Spam Musubi!
My favorite Hawaiian concoction - grilled marinated Spam on a bed of rice, wrapped in seaweed - spam sushi! Ingenius. For the Spam-shy, they also have a Chicken Musubi.
L&L was my first venture into Hawaiian BBQ back in college. Cheap, large portions, deeeeeeeeeelish BBQ Chicken - MMM! Even the mini plates (in the $5 range) are good portions (probably what would be closer to a healthy serving...).
As far as authenticity.... now, while some L&L locations really suck, L&L originated IN Hawaii, and having just been to HI a year ago, I'd say that this location does a smashing job of getting it right. YUM!
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
Cool (1)
Located in a monstrosity of a shopping complex on Happy Valley, you have to drive around in circles a bit in order to find L&L if you're as dense as me when it comes to navigating these giant driving malls. This may be due to my own incompetence and sense of direction, but I'll pretend it's a universal issue.
I've never been to Hawaii and will not pretend that I can vouch for authenticity. I have a good friend who grew up in Maui and when I would fly out to visit her when they moved out to the southwest, her Mom would occasionally cook up a dish, but that was the extent of my experience with the cuisine outside of a few places in town. This easily the best fast food Hawaiian food I've eaten in the valley, even if I order it sans macaroni salad and receive looks of horror.
This is one of those reviews that deserve a "useless" button: All I have to say is that it's inexpensive, fantastically delicious, and a completely adorable fast food counter joint.
People thought this was:
Useful (4)
Funny (1)
Whenever i get a craving for some distant memory of a food, and that craving won't go away.... i start whining. So it was yesterday. I had been sitting all day with my cravings for real Hawaiian food for what seemed like weeks. I decided to commiserate with a friend who had grown up in Hawaii. I thought it might make it better. It was worse. I started off telling her how i sure could use a big bowl of Saiman for lunch, and didn't laulau and kalua pig sound good? Pretty soon we were both drooling for lomi lomi salmon and manapua. I was ready to run all the way across town to Mesa.
"Oh, my friend exclaimed, Why don't you go to L & L?"
I thought she was kidding. Sure, I'll grab a flight to Hawaii this afternoon....
"No, There is one at Happy Valley and I-17, across from the Lowes."
Needles to say, I spent the rest of the day planning my route home. I would have to go about 10 miles out of my way, but there wouldn't be traffic.....
L & L doesn't have haoli Hawaiian food, they have REAL Hawaiian food. I walked in to hear the woman ahead of me order a loco moco plate lunch. There was a big poster advertising that laulau has only 1 carb, and a paper plate hanging on the service pass through proclaiming "Linguica special" in blue magic marker.
This place has it all. They have Saiman (a Hawaiian version of ramen but the noodles and garnishes are more fun), Musubi (even with spam), manapua (steamed or fried pork roll), haupia (thick coconut cream desert), Poi (pounded taro root), poke (raw tuna seaweed salad), lomi lomi salmon (chopped raw salmon rubbed with chili and onion served with chopped tomatoes), BBQ short ribs, and all other sorts of Hawaiian favorites.
I had a plate lunch. A traditional plate lunch has a scoop or 2 of rice made with an ice cream scoop, a scoop of macaroni salad made with lots of mayo and Maui onion, and one or 2 main dish items. Mine were laulau and kalua pig. Laulau is pork, butterfish and ti leaves with Hawaiian salt, wrapped up in taro leaves and steamed til it can almost melt in your mouth. Kalua pig has to be simulated because the traditional cooking method used to achieve the smokey flavor cannot be approved by the USDA. Traditional method is a rock lined pit. The pit is then lined with leaves and the meat (a whole pig) is lowered in then covered with more leaves. It is then covered to keep the heat in. I have no idea how they do it, but there is probably smoke flavoring, Hawaiian salt, and a large amount of ti leaves involved. The Kalua Pig is delicious.
I loved every morsel, and today I have a little leftover vacation to the islands waiting for me at lunch time.
People thought this was:
Useful (2)
Cool (2)
I love this place...my wife and I discovered it after returning from a trip to Hawaii. We ate at one of the L&Ls in Oahu several times and were pleased to find one down the street from us at home
The mixed plate is the best way to eat at L&L for the first time - you get Korean style BBQ Ribs, beef and chicken with rice and the ever present macaroni salad (every Hawaiian I have ever met has their own recipe for macaroni salad).
Also, try the Masubi (sp?)...it is a kind of Spam sushi...I know - SPAM! But it is actually very good.
Finish off the meal with a Guava juice - and you are in the islands.
People thought this was:
Useful (2)
Cool (1)
Ono! This is the real thing - fast food Hawaiian Style.
When we were in Kona last December we had lunch at an L&L --- because we wanted local food and they were the busiest place we saw. Well, the menu is exactly the same at the north Phoenix location (they also have one in Mesa). It may not be the healthiest food, but it sure is good!
L&L is in the Happy Valley Town Center shopping center (at Happy Valley Rd and I-17), across the parking lot from Lowe's.
Note that the Aloha Kitchen in Mesa, Arizona is more of a Hawaiian style mom and pop corner restaurant than is L&L - if you prefer that.
People Who Viewed This Also Viewed...
Hot and New
- Asi Es La Vida
11 reviews
Phoenix, AZ
- Acacia Cafe
17 reviews
Phoenix, AZ
- Delux
95 reviews
Phoenix, AZ
- FEZ
86 reviews
Phoenix, AZ
- Copenhagen Imports Warehouses…
2 reviews
Phoenix, AZ
