L&L Hawaiian Barbecue — Restaurant in San Marcos

I love the food here! I always get the combination plate with a side of Kailua pork. How well the food is or isn't made appears to be dependent upon who's cooking and what kind of mood they're in. Sometimes the contents of the plate/box are spot on other times, they aren't. Had it not been for that I would have given this 4 stars. Having said that, I absolutely love love love their Macaroni Salad!! I could literally eat that and be completely content! The taste, the texture, the creaminess, the flavors, are my all time favorite comfort food. (Last time I ordered the combo w/no rice just Mac salad and was disappointed when I opened the box and saw a big ball of rice looking back at me. Things like this are why the star rating isn't higher. In that same box, the beef was either old or dehydrated (not sure) but it looked like they tried to reconstitute beef jerky. Really disappointing bc they weren't busy when I placed my order. Thankfully, those experiences are far and few in between). For the most part, the food is good, reasonably priced, and prepared well. My one complaint about this place is that they don't appear to wipe off / clean the tables & counter tops. Really sticky and dirty feeling is quite bad. I've learned to carry my own disinfectant wipes to do it myself but c'mon guys, the food isn't free, should I have to? Highly recommend the Kailua pork and cabbage!! It's well...

Service was good But being an islander myself I know what rice, bbq chicken and Mac salad should taste.

The meats were burnt/dry. Meats could have had been charred and I’d be okay, but whoever is cooking does not even give the decency to ad some marinade to keep it moist. The marination has Zero flavor/bland. The rice was cooked with too much water resulting in mushy rice, and was small in portion size. Macaroni salad tasted like their was not enough salt added and also small in portion.

I kno at bbq or family function we have our meats sitting out for hours depending how long we party, and they are perfectly fine, but I didn’t like how I saw their horrible tasting meants looking like they were already pre cooked sitting out on the burner..... I am starting to wonder if these meats are cooked fully and then reheated on the grill to expedite the orders they are getting....... very low quality.

I know these “l&l” can be owned by franchisees, although I suggest if you want good l&l to make the trip to the Oceanside Location of of college and Oceanside Blvd. where their are at least Chamorro people that own and know how to cook the food the way “L&L” Hawaiian intends its brand to be. The location on Marine Corps Air-station miramar is also very good.

I would avoid this...

We went to L&Ls today. Ordered 1. Seafood Platter and 1. Chicken Katsu Curry. The fried fish looked funky stale and day old looking. I orderd The CKC and the girl rang me up for the Chicken Katsu only. My bf went up to ask for napkins and she handed him someone else's order. We asked her about the fish and she said "that's the way it looks after fried". I guess there was a shift change because after she left the second girl came up to our table apologized and offered to make it right by redoing the order (just the fish). I asked her about the CKC and the sauce or absent of, she looked up my order and came to find out the 1st girl rang me up wrong. She aplogized and offered me curry sauce. When we arrived there the 1st girl was very unprofessional, she acted like a baffon goofing off with the cooks. Noted- when she left L&Ls she stinched of weed. Go figure. The second girl who took over- I have to give props to. She had amazing customer service satifaction- communcation skill- and she kept busy wiping down tables, sweeping the floor ect. I did tell her thank you and that she had great work ethics. Sadly tho the 1st girl left such a sour taste in our mouths we will not be going back. The 2nd girl Letty rocked and is an example of how people...