L&L Hawaiian BBQ Mixed BBQ Combo Plate

Restaurant Review: L&L Hawaiian BBQ

L&L Hawaiian BBQ Mixed BBQ Combo Plate
L&L Hawaiian BBQ Mixed BBQ Combo Plate

When I moved to Battery Park City, one place that was recommended for cheap eats was L&L Hawaiian BBQ.  I’ve passed by the restaurant a few times, and to be honest, it looked a little run down and dirty, even by New York standards.  However, I checked out the prices on seamlessweb.com one night, and everything was super cheap!  I figured there was no harm in checking it out.

I ordered the Mixed BBQ Combo Plate ($9.99) which came with a combination of beef, short ribs, and chicken, rice, salad, and macaroni salad.  All of the meet was super soft and tender and were flavored with a sauce that could only be described as “Asian”-it wasn’t quite teriyaki, and not quite Korean BBQ, but it had similar sweet garlicky soy flavors.

The macaroni salad was the best I’ve ever had (I normally don’t even like macaroni salad!) and the rice was cooked to perfection!  What I really want to know is how they get everything from the rice to the meat so incredibly soft without getting mushy.  Every bite was delicious, and the plate was enough for just over three whole meals- definitely the best 10 bucks I’ve ever spent!

Masubi Combo from L&L Hawaiian BBQ
Masubi Combo from L&L Hawaiian BBQ

I also got to try the Musubi Combo ($4.49) which included one Spam Musubi, one BBQ Chicken Musubi, and one Chicken Katsu Musubi.  They were all covered in the same sweet BBQ sauce, and despite the fact that the seaweed had become soggy, it was still really soft!  Usually, warm and soggy seaweed is really hard to chew and bite, but somehow, even though it wasn’t crisp, it was super easy to chew through.

The Chicken Katsu somehow managed to stay crispy- crispier than any Katsu I’ve ever had!  My favorite, however, would have to be the Spam Musubi, mostly because I like strange unidentifiable salt ridden processed meats.  The Spam and sweet BBQ sauce was a match made in heaven, and I would happily eat this for lunch everyday, blood pressure be damned- just don’t tell my doctor!

About Jenn

Jenn was raised in Battery Park City and as a child one of her favorite places was Picasso Pizza. Being older and wiser, she now is a connoisseur of all the fantastic restaurants and bars in the area as the food/culture writer for BatteryParkCity.com.