L&L Hawaiian Barbecue Charleston, SC — Restaurant in North Charleston

Aloha! I have been missing kalua pork since I had the real deal in Hawaii. This place delivers! One bite and I was transported via tender smoky succulent pork to that luau. It is perfect. No loose fat; tender, juicy hunks of meat falling into perfect shreds. Naturally sweet, perfectly smoky, no need for any additions. This place may make my list of Top 10 BBQ joints for the pork alone!

The cabbage was simple, boiled but not to death, and I put a packet of the Sriracha sauce on one side of a rice scoop and a packet of soy on the other half. I left the other rice scoop plain in case I wanted a palate cleanser. This macaroni salad is wrong. It is a ghost. How can it be so bland? Adding anything would be an improvement. Relish. Kim chi. Mango chutney. Literally ANYTHING. Those are accents; the pork is the reason we are here. 100% smoked perfection.

The Dragon musubi was a fun treat. I think they are using low-sodium Spam, which I prefer, and their preparation was ideally balanced. The special BBQ sauce was a Polynesian style blast from the past, thick and sweet and smoky.

Hubby had the Loco Moco, which is basically Hawaiian huevos rancheros. 2 hamburger patties smothered in beef gravy over rice. The stars, 2 over-medium eggs on top, arrived perfectly runny. He said (between bites) it would be a winning hangover remedy.

I am thrilled to have true Hawaiian BBQ here and will definitely be...

The place is very cutely decorated and the food portions are generous and fair considering the prices! However, the service is a different story. I was ordering for my family and I let the cashier know ahead that it would be a larger order (like 5-6 items). I placed the first order and the second order was where the confusion began. I basically tried to "build a plate" and the lady taking my order demonstrated that it would be considered one of the combination plates. I was slightly confused so I tried to clarify the order just in case, but the second time she explained it to me, she began to raise her voice so I just let her choose whichever option. Finally, she asked me to confirm if everything was correct but it was missing one completely unrelated item and she began to raise her voice again, assuming that I was referring to that confusing second order. She essentially kept yelling at me while I tried to simply explain that I was talking about another item. I work in customer service and I fully understand having rough days but yelling at a customer over some confusion is not okay. The taste of the food is the only thing stopping me from giving this place one star. Although the food would’ve tasted better without...

Having attended college in Hawaii, I was so excited to try this place. This is very reminiscent of going to Zippy's to eat. Bathrooms very clean and place is small. Very friendly staff. The theme is plate lunch. You get a delicious entree with a side of white rice and Mac salad. I hate Mac salad but they let you get more rice. The spam musubi was tasty. We had the pork lau lau (missed that!), loco moco, katsu, and BBQ chicken (not southern style but more Asian like teriyaki). All was ono-licious! Bear in mind that this is very food truck like and everything is served in white Styrofoam takeout containers. This is why I didnt give 5 stars. Noone should use these IMHO. All plastic utensils and cups. 😔 We were given a neat sampling of the Hawaiian canned drinks and they were as sugary as I remember them! I will return when they get Saimin noodle soup (like...