L&L Hawaiian BBQ

Walking in transports you to another place. Unfortunately, it’s not so much Hawaii as it is like being in the food court of a giant mall in OC.

The fluorescent glow, the orange walls, the plastic tables, and endless Peter Cetera piped through the speakers…I knew we were in for a treat. We kept calling it LOL Hawaiian BBQ.

But what to order? My dining companion and I were absolutely clueless, plus we’d left our brains at work, so it was like Dumb and Dumber at the front counter, mouths gaping, staring over the cashier’s head at the menu options. I went with what I knew: bbq meat and spam.

Wow, sugared meat! For $8 I got a styrofoam box with two perfectly rounded scoops of rice, a scoop of macaroni salad, a layer of crunchy lettuce and cabbage and a pile of assorted bbq meat – I think it was chicken, beef and pork. The cashier said it was the most popular item ordered. I can see why – it can feed me today, tomorrow, and the next.
But that was not all. I really wanted some spam, so I got the spam, rice and eggs plate, too. Two fat slices of fried spam, two fried eggs, two snowy white scoops of rice. That could make a good breakfast and it was only $5.

The eatery was sparsely filled with your assorted Goletans. Slightly higher ratio of people sporting really big shorts and really big sideburns than I’d normally see in this town. Must be the IV influence.
Cactus Cooler seemed to be the beverage of choice, because sugar juice goes really well with sugar meat.

Now I’m sitting back here at the office, the food is sunken in my gut like that treasure chest people put in their fish aquariums. You know, the ones that slowly fill with air until the lid bursts open and the bubbles frantically gurgle up to the top. My dining companion ordered something with fried cabbage, so I’m thinking his cube neighbors are suffering more than he is.

Shout out to the cashier who brought our styrofoam boxes out to our table because we ordered in.  Mahalo!

L&L Hawaiian BBQ
7127 Hollister Ave, Suite 21
Goleta, CA 93117