la.foodblogging

I tried a new spot for lunch today, L&L Hawaiian Barbecue in El Segundo. I hadn’t tried L&L before, but I do like Ono Hawaiian BBQ and figured that it was worth a shot.

L&L serves standard plate lunches, meat, rice and macaroni salad. I was having a bit of a hard time deciding on what to get, I usually just go for the BBQ chicken plate at Ono, but there were some other appetizing options with the short ribs and even some of the pork dishes looking tasty. Fortunately, a friend walked in while I was still deliberating and let me know that L&L is known for their Chicken Katsu. Chicken Katsu it is then.

The El Segundo L&L doesn’t have much seating, just a bar against the wall and then a waiting area with a large counter. I grabbed a bar stool and waited for my fried chicken goodness while listening to the Hawaiian tunes blaring from the speakers.

It did take a little while for my order, but I was ok with it when I figured out that my chicken had been fried to order. The chicken was cooked really well and sliced into traditional strips, I opted to pick them up and dip them in the Katsu sauce instead of pouring the sauce on top. The sauce was good, but not great, a bit light on flavor. Next time I will give the Katsu Curry a try and see if there is more of zing to it.

The portion size was HUGE. I opted for the regular order instead of the mini order, but next time I’m sure that I will go for the smaller size. I could barely finish half of my plate and I’m not one to save fried chicken. BBQ chicken yes, but not the fried stuff, it gets too soggy after a few hours.

Back to the chicken though, I was really impressed with how well it was cooked. The cutlet was pounded flat and lightly breaded with panko. It was cooked all the way through, but still very juicy. I have had much lower quality fried chicken (picatta, parmesean, etc) for three or even four times the price. L&L’s menu claims that they were awarded Hawaii’s Best Chicken Katsu and I’m inclined to believe them.

One thing I try to evaluate when eating around LAX is if the place would be good for airplane food. With the sorry state of airplane food these days, bringing your own has become essential. I wouldn’t recommend the Katsu to go, but I imagine that the Musubi would be a good snak for the flight. Finger food with some carbs and protein to carry you over.

There are L&L franchises spread out all over Southern California, you can find your local one here:

L&L Locations

It’s not gourmet, but it’s not supposed to be. Hawaiian plate lunches are the working man’s meal and this working man left there stuffed without much of a dent in my wallet.

L&L Hawaiian Barbecue
954 N. Main Street
El Segundo, Ca 90245
(310) 414-9523

By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.