L&L Hawaiian BBQ - Tucson — Restaurant in Tucson

L&L Hawaiian Barbecue is an absolute gem for authentic Hawaiian food, and it’s easy to see why this franchise has been loved since it first began in the 1950s. I visited for the first time yesterday, January 22, 2025, and was so impressed that I came back today, January 23. It’s that good!

On my first visit, I ordered the teriyaki beef with rice and macaroni salad, and everything was delicious. The beef was perfectly cooked, tender, and flavorful, while the rice and macaroni salad were the perfect sides to round out the meal. The quality and taste left such a great impression that I knew I had to come back.

Today, I decided to try the BBQ Mix with pork chop, accompanied by an Aloha drink. Wow, just wow! The BBQ Mix was packed with flavor, and the pork chop was cooked to perfection juicy and well-seasoned. The Aloha drink was the cherry on top, refreshing and a perfect pairing for the meal.

What makes L&L even better is the friendly and welcoming atmosphere. The owner is really nice, which adds a personal touch that makes you feel right at home. It’s clear that they take pride in serving delicious, authentic Hawaiian food.

I do think they should advertise more because I stumbled across this place by chance while searching for new food spots on the map. I’m so glad I found it! If you’re craving Hawaiian comfort food, L&L Hawaiian Barbecue is a must-try. I’ll definitely be back to explore more of the menu. Highly...

This is a tough review for me because a lot of it comes down to personal preference. Bottom line what ruined the experience for me: the chicken katsu is made with boneless chicken thighs instead of chicken breast. I'm not an expert on hawaiian food or chicken katsu, but I've only had it with chicken breasts, and preparing it with chicken thighs was a big turn-off.

The problem for me is chicken thighs prepared that way tend to be very greasy, and unless they are thoroughly cleaned, they have a variety of textures and blobs of fat that I find very unpleasant. I was sure at first that it was prepared with a pork cutlet. That's my mistake, but cheaping out with thighs is a bigger mistake in my opinion.

Besides that, lots of little things also soured the experience. They have no free water option, you have to buy a bottle of water or a drink. Even when dining in, the food is served in plastic to-go containers with plastic silverware. Just little things that, when combined with the food prep, show a lack of care that you can find even in most fast food joints.

Again, personal preference based on one dish is my main issue. Maybe others love this particular preparation. Honestly, though, Tucson has an amazing food scene, including other Hawaiian BBQ restaurants. I'd rather go to a place where a little more care was put into...

I had a pretty bad experience today. We went there for lunch. They were open (that has not been a given in the last couple of weeks).

They were out of Saimin at 11:30 in the morning on a Saturday when they first opened up.

They were out of lau lau at 11:30 in the morning on a Saturday when they first opened up.

Kalua pork and cabbage. I got the small. Least amount of pork I've ever seen in a serving. There was maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of meat in the dish. But, that was not the worst.

Cabbage was room temperature to COLD.

Pork was room temperature to warm. The meat was also literally flavorless. How hard could it be to put a little bit of liquid smoke into the mix?

Barbecued short ribs came out warm to room temperature but were tasty at least.

The "hot" food would not have passed a health inspection based on temperature.

Someone in the kitchen was either incompetent or did not care, or both. Ten+ hours later we have not come down with food poisoning from that meal, so that is a plus.

Why did I give 2 stars with comments like the above? The white rice was Ok. Both in taste and temperature. The Macaroni salad was cold and really good.

We've tried so hard to like this place and tried to visit every weekend. But with this last visit,...