L&L Hawaiian Barbecue

V and I stopped by L&L Hawaiian Barbecue in downtown San Mateo on Tuesday, December 12, 2023, for a quick snack. We arrived at about 4:45 PM.Located on 3rd Avenue, this spot does not have a private lot. There is metered parking in the streets as well as nearby lots in walking distance. The venue is tiny and provides only two tables with seats for dining in. On the day of our visit, the floor was very dirty and in need of a good sweeping and mopping.We ordered only three items; two Chicken Katsu MUSUBIs for V and a single SPAM MUSUBI for me. The food was ready in a few minutes.As I mentioned, the dining room has only two tables. During our visit, one table was occupied by customers who were eating their food, the other was used by a staff member who was just sitting with her computer like a loiterer. The team member did not care that we had to ask the other table if we could use two of their table's chairs to pull them up against the wall and eat with no table. When we asked for a tray or bigger food vessel to use as a table, the counter girl wanted to charge us $0.25 instead of telling her coworker to vacate the table she was using for paying customers who wanted to dine in. Shortly before we finished our food, the staff member sitting at one of the tables finally got up to go work in the kitchen. HORRIBLE customer care. In fact, I would call their behaviour a major lack of customer care. As for the quality of the food, the MUSUBIs were not generously filled like they usually are at other places and my son did not like the chewy seaweed.L&L is Hawaiian fast food, so can't expect stellar service, but I have been to many other locations to know that this one probably turns people off more than the others. The other locales demonstrate more concern for their customers or at least pretend to do so. Skip this place - the staff here does not care about client experience at all.

The chicken katsu was raw. Maybe I'm uneducated but I got the chicken katsu and currently feel ill, I got it delivered so I have no opinions on the environment. However, they delivered my food with no utensils.

This is seriously the worst L&L I've ever been to. The chicken katsu was almost burnt and also scraggly small little pieces. All the previous L&L I've been to give huge portions with thick nice golden brown katsu. What we got almost looked like leftovers that were out to dry and shrivel. Pretty gross

First of all, my daughter ordered Kalbi short ribs and the girl behind the counter didn't know what it was. The girl said we only have beef with the bone or no bone. So my daughter ordered beef with the bone. When the order came out, she got beef without the bone. Except she didn't find out until we had already gotten the food home. She was NOT happy. Not only was the meat the wrong order, but it was way too sweet. I ordered loco moco. It was MEH. Need more gravy and more flavor. My son ordered chicken katsu and it tasted like it had been fried in old oil. The spam Musubi was okay. Needless to say, we won't be returning.

They're always closed or on break at the most random hours of the day. The one time I caught them open the food was mediocre and overpriced. I usually just go to Kaz teriyaki around the corner.Is this some kind of money laundering front? I don't understand how they make money when they're always empty.

6/22/2024Ordered a plate of food which was extremely messy inside, ordered katsu and was given no sauce. Still decided to eat it nevertheless, after taking a few bites in I noticed a piece of dark reddish/brown hair in the steamed rice which instantly made me gag and throw up the food I had in my mouth. This may not be a big deal to some but I find it extremely unsanitary to have had to experience this.

Says open but apparently they can't even staff their restaurant during lunch time!!! Either that or the worker was too busy getting stoned.

The chicken taste like it's been marinated in old teriyaki sauce and like the grill has not been cleaned good. I was very disappointed and would not try this again. The macaroni had no flavor and seemed like it had more carrot chopped up in it then the macaroni.

These people customers service sucks. They are rude here, and their food matches their customers' service . You should fire the cook. Every time I've bass by there, the lady is eating the food herself. This is the worst of all the L&L's I've been through. Please save yourself a trip and avoid this place at all costs. If I were the owner, I'd fire them lovers in there

I usually eat brown rice and kalua pork cabbage at the nearby takahashi but takahashi is closed on mondays and tuesdays so I tried L&L Hawaiian Barbecue. I ordered takeout kalua pork cabbage bowl that comes with white rice and steamed broccoli. The takahashi kalua pork cabbage does not come with steamed vegetables like steamed broccoli so I like L&L Hawaiian Barbecue more. I asked for change to brown rice. I also ordered extra side of brown rice. Restroom is for customers only and has a code to open the restroom door. My order tasted ok to me. The place does break for about 2x per day for the meal breaks of the workers. My suggestion is to post the break times on the door so new customers are not surprised by the break sign that comes out about 2x per day.