L&L Drive-Inn

L&L Pearl City delivers consistently good food. I’ve always preferred a plate lunch to other types of meals like burgers and such. It’s kind of like a comfort food for me. I can’t say I eat at L&L weekly or even monthly, but every time I come for a plate, I’m satisfied. The restaurant is usually neat and clean despite heavy customer traffic. Cashiers are quick to take orders and complete transactions, so even if there’s a line you won’t wait too long. On to the plates! Pretty much all local-​style favorites are available here. Select your choice from chicken, beef, pork, or fish entrees. Plates come with rice and Mac salad for the most part, but brown rice and tossed salad is also available. There are also smaller items like burgers, fries, Saimin, and spam musubi for a snack. Plates are available in two sizes; mini and regular. For a normal person, a mini plate is plenty of food. If you have a bigger appetite, go for the regular. I usually get a regular plate and it will last me two meals. The price of this place is just ok. It used to be an excellent value, but the last couple times I have been here the prices have increased. Plan on spending about $ 10 per person here and you’ll be fine. Other than that, good food that is consistent sums this place up nicely.

Mini lemon chicken, why oh why am I addicted to this? It’s only ok to pretty good but I always like eating it? Yeah addicts are us.

A decent fast food place. Our Saimin Burger was fantastic! Nothing too special or too extraordinary about this place.

Yuck, blah and taste less. Don’t waste your money.

I should have stuck with what I usually order, which is chicken katsu… Instead I ordered spam musubi and fried noodles… Spam musubi was too peppery n the noodles had ZERO TASTE… My aunt ordered the Saimin burger n it did not look so good… She liked the Saimin burger at another restaurant… Aweful experience today… Don’t think I will go back… Yuck!!! Yuck!!! Yuck!!! I wasted my money…

«L&L plate lunch, oohhh what a Winnah. Call the braddahs up, „Cuz! We go buy dinnah!“»
If you know that old school local jam, you know L&L was the local plate lunch spot ever since ever since!
It’s been YEARS since I’ve had L&L, but lately I’ve tried 2 different L&L joints, & I’m slightly disappointed with the food. It’s still GOOD! But somehow it lost some of that L&L
goodness that made it the winnah every time!
Today I ‘mopped’ a hamburger steak & mochiko chicken mixed plate with 2 scoop rice & scoop mac salad. Hamburger was slightly overcooked, but the gravy, mac, & mochiko made me overlook the whole thing!
I’ve also had their famous chicken katsu lately, & until this day L&L has never let me down with their katsu! On point!
*mopped — adv. the act of eating every bite of food in front of you as if you had not eaten anything for DAYS!
^ locals know!
If you’re ever around an L&L and craving a local style plate lunch; Hit them up!

Love how fast the food is ready and I’m always full. Only downside is that sometimes the place is crowded but that’s a good thing right.

The young woman who works behind the counter here wins the award for the rudest employee in all of Hawaii. Just check out some of the other reviews on this page to see what I mean.
Someone should do a movie. No one would believe it unless they saw her in action for themselves.
Fortunately, there are many other restaurants in the immediate vicinity. Any of them will offer better service than this L&L. No aloha here!

My favorite is the lemon chicken plate with brown rice. I have also had the BBQ mix plate and also love the BBQ chicken healthy plate. Price is very reasonable. I don’t eat seafood but I hear from my coworkers that seafood mix plate is also very tasty. Ample of parking there or next door at Walmart. Usually no long lines. Very good to also phone order if your in a rush and want good cheap local grinds.

This is our families #1 place to come to when dinner time is fast approaching and there’s nothing to cook at home! We just love the fact that there’s no MSG in their food! The people here are always so polite even at times they are super busy!

I always seem to forget to check in whenever I am there, but since the family is ordering for dinner tonight at probably the BEST L&L Drive-​Inn on the island, might as well Unilocal it right?
Personally from ALL the L&L’s out there, the Pearl City location is the best, they never run out of brown rice & have it available to make that as a choice instead of regular rice (unlike Waipahu or Ewa) & you are allowed to make any choice of meat into a combo (for example I always get garlic shrimp with BBQ chicken, & it seems that Pearl City is the ONLY place that is able to do this request for me) so hence the reason why it is one of the main reasons for my 5 star rating, not including that the food actually TASTES BETTER (b/​c they make it known on the sign hung on the door that they do not put MSG in they’re food, which is AWESOME in my words)
It’s pretty spacious inside & they do have a bathroom (which is another great thing b/​c a lot of L&L places do not have one like Halaiwa, Ewa, Waipahu just to name a few)
Also, phone orders you place always are ready when they tell you 10 – 15 min of the time you ordered! The crew is friendly, helpful & just all together a pretty great place to eat at.
My favorite L&L on the island! So check them out!!!
Happy eating Unilocalers!!!

went to this LL for lunch and was surprised to see that the cashier was also the same girl that was cashier at the aiea LL location, I guess they own these two franchises. She is not a nice person and always looks mean so whatever I was still hungry.
Well I was hungry and hadnt had eaten breakfast so I decided to stop by here for some food. I usually get the bbq mix plate but was feeling a little broke in my wallet so I saw that they had the steak plate special for $ 6.95, ordered it and it was crap.
the meat was chewy like rubber, so many fatty stringy parts that no wonder it was only $ 6. you get what you pay for. I still love LL’s bbq mix plate and their mac salad is the standard.

Some rave about quantity here, but no matter how much food there is on my plate, I can’t eat it if it taste bad. With that being said, L&L’s ruined my taste for Hawaiian food. I might be coming off as a little bit of a snob here, but I get a queasy feeling every time I ride by this place. I ordered the chicken katsu for the first time and I did like how crispy it was, but the rice was very mushy. I am very big on Hawaiian food, and I have to say that I’ve tasted a lot better!

Good place to eat. I work right across the street. Usually (if I decide to get food there) all I have to do is call in my order and walk over. By the time I get there, the most I’d have to wait is a few minutes.
Their food is so good! And filling! I guarantee I’ll get full from there. Even with just half of their roast pork/​chicken katsu plate… with gravy? Forget about it.
Good place to get food and go someplace or eat there. Kind of a small place, tight knit quarters.
All around good place.
B-​)

Even though the L&L in Waipio is closer, this location is much cleaner. I’d rather take the extra 10 minute drive to Pearl City.
The only thing that’s a little difficult is the parking to get here. There are other food places like Kozo Sushi, Panda Express, Daiichi Ramen, and Starbucks that can cause the heavy traffic during lunch and dinner so the parking is hit or miss.
Customer service is always good when I go. They have never made a mistake on my order and the portions are rather large. If you want local food that’s fresh, quick, and big in portion I would visit this L&L.

Haven’t had a chicken katsu plate from L&L in forever! Hit it up a few weeks ago… and it was still delicious! They give plenty of chicken katsu! Katsu sauce is the weak local/L&L style sweet, almost ketchup-​ish sauce. It’s not bull-​dog, but it’ll do.

Opted for the new Loco Moco Curry. The green curry made me remember why I like Japanese style brown curry because it has a bolder flavor but on the plus side they give large portions, even for their mini plates. I also sampled the chicken katsu which was very good (no chewy fat, no bones, very crispy).
3 stars. If I’m ever seeking local-​style take-​out with the biggest bang for my buck., I’d come here.

Parking: Depending on what time of the day you come it can be hit or miss. You either find a lot of parking or no parking at all. Instead of waiting you can park in the Walmart parking lot.
Service: I haven’t had any problems every time I’ve come here. They are friendly. They are fast and accurate. They give a lot of food no matter what size you order either mini or regular. I can never eat all of the food.

It was our first time at an L&L, and I had mixed expectations, considering it’s a fast food chain yet so many people rave about it. But we were seriously shocked at the amount of food we couldn’t finish. It was really yummy & plentiful, and I think good quality for «fast food.»
We didn’t get the Loco Moco, which I hear is a must, but were planning on having it later that week at Roy’s. I went with the Seafood Mix, and he got the Hawaiian BBQ Mix. I loved the fried shrimp (with ketchup, of course!), Mahi Mahi was fresh, and I opted for the Barbecue Chicken (you have a choice of either the chicken, beef, or short ribs). Honestly, we could’ve just split one meal. It was so much food. We each pretty much just had half of what we ordered.
I’ll be sure to visit an L&L anytime I’m in Hawaii.

Typical L&L. Large portions.
We came on a weekend for take out. The girl working at the front was in the WORST mood. She didn’t say one word, not even how much we owed. I was not in the mood to deal with that BS so I said «How much???», even though I saw how much on the register. She mumbled something. We cashed out and waited on our food. I then saw her proceed to stare down everyone in the restaurant. Look lady, I know we all have our bad days, but give me a break!!!
Got our food. We got 2 regulars of pork and cabbage, 2 scoop rice, and scoop of mac. Rice and mac are hard to mess up… but the pork and cabbage were very soggy, like almost unbearable soggy. I’ve had plenty L&L, and it wasn’t this bad before.
The whole situation left a sour taste in my mouth. Won’t be back.