Aloha Colorado

I am naive when it comes to the Hawaiian culture; therefore I need to interject the views of my friends who frequently visit Hawaii and my family members who are Hawaiian. L&L Hawaiian BBQ is a staple for my friends who visit Hawaii and they never forget to stop by and eat there when vacationing. Another viewpoint of my close family member is L&L is yuck (equivalent to McDonald’s of Hawaiian BBQ).Now after hearing these opinions you can imagine I was a little more hesitant to go there with my husband for dinner. Finally after much persuasion; I caved in.  

L&L is an extremely bright lit restaurant (I am guessing it is so dang bright in there to simulate the Hawaiian sun) which did have an incredibly fast food feel to it, due to the excess of plastic and gimmicky memorabilia. Yet I did appreciate Hawaii’s beloved export that was represented with a hanging SPAM beach ball. 

The food is served to you in to go Styrofoam boxes which needless to say gave me Goosebumps every time my fork and knife hit the container while cutting my meat. I could have been happy with a paper plate. I had chosen a safe selection… chicken; you really can’t go wrong with chicken right?

The chicken Katsu it is a crispy breaded chicken served with a Katsu sauce. What is Katsu sauce you say? I had no clue. It tasted like kethup, soy sauce and was incredibly salty but it had the consistency of a honey based BBQ sauce. The chicken and sauce were just okay; nothing that would make me want to come back. But, I can be a bit picky. The chicken was served with two snowball size servings of sticky rice (one of my favs) and macaroni salad. I loved the macaroni salad!!! It was extraordinarily basic… and I mean basic. It consisted of elbow noodles, mayo, and finely shredded carrots. But hey sometimes less is more.

My husband ordered the Hawaiian teriyaki beef … which was you guessed it beef sirloin strips marinated in a teriyaki sauce. This dish was delightfully delicious because the beef was tender and juicy. This dish reminded me a lot of Korean short ribs for some reason which again I love (can you tell I am secretly in love with food?). I ended up eating the rest or my husband’s macaroni salad and tasty teriyaki beef.

So if you are in the mood to try something different then give the L&L Hawaiian BBQ an Ahola (ßthat was cheesy). Just don’t get the chicken opt for the beef ribs. Or be a little bit more daring then I was and try one of their many other Hawaiian dishes.