L & L Drive-inn, Waianae, Oahu HI

L & L Drive-inn in Waianae was my first experience with Hawaiian food - I am certainly glad it wasn't my last!

Before heading to Oahu, my wife bought me a travel book on the region; of course, the first thing I looked for was the section on restaurants and cuisines. One of the must have cuisines when visiting Hawaii was plate lunch. Plate lunch usually consists of two scoops of white rice, pasta salad that is heavy on the mayo and a protein or should I say lots of protein. I don't think plate lunch is mentioned in the travel book for its gastro-delights, but rather because it seems to be a staple in the Hawaiian culture.

Staying on the West (leeward) side of Oahu, doesn't leave you much options for dining out; unless, you enjoy McDonald's, KFC, or other like franchise fast food joints. My wife and I having just arrived and hungry after traveling for so long decided on trying L&L drive-inn. Originally, I thought L&L was stand alone Hawaiian eatery, but to my disappointment it too was another franchise fast food joint; just, one I had never heard off. L&L has locations all throughout the state of Hawaii and many other location on the western side of the continental United States.

Having never had Hawaiian food nor having ever been to Hawaii, I thought it might be wise to ask a local on what to get....I have never been looked so strangely or laughed at when asking someone "what's good". I guess this was a quick lesson in Hawaiian culture; if your not a local, your not welcome. Sorry, for getting side tracked, Hawaii is a beautiful place, the locals can just be a little rude outside of the normal tourist areas. Having received no help from the locals on "what's good" I decided to order the L&L Hawaiian BBQ Mix; a mix of Hawaiian BBQ Beef, Chicken and Short Ribs.

We took our order to go as the local area surrounding L&L seemed a little sketchy and hey where better to experience Hawaiian food for the first time than sitting on a beautiful Hawaiian beach as the sun sets. Well... at least the company and the scenery were great, as for the food - yikes!

I will say that the short ribs (a.k.a Maui Ribs in Canada) were good, some of the best I have eaten. For the rest of my meal I can't say the same. The chicken was dry and poorly flavored and BBQ Beef was way overcooked and altogether unappetizing. The rice was decent, but plain white rice is pretty easy to get right. The macaroni salad was a most Hawaiian macaroni salads - extremely heavy on the may, but still much better than most of the meat served with it.

I have to say that after this meal I was a little scared that Hawaiian cuisine might not be all that I imagined, but it can only get better from here...right?