Hawaiian style restaurant chain opens in Towson Uptown

By Zachary Bandler, Staff Writer

Hawaiian-based franchise restaurant L&L Hawaiian Barbecue aims to bring tropical vibes and traditional Hawaiian plate lunches to those in Towson wishing for warmer weather. L&L Hawaiian Barbecue’s grand opening will be Feb. 13 at 11 a.m.

The location is at 3 W. Chesapeake Ave. in Towson’s Uptown. Though the official grand opening will be Feb. 13 and last into the weekend, the restaurant has been open since mid January from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. all days of the week, except for Thursdays and Saturdays where it closes at 11 p.m. 

Established 1952 in O’ahu, Hawaii, L&L Hawaiian Barbeque specializes in plate lunches. The dishes originated from the immigrant workers on plantations sharing their lunches together.

Michael Wu, the franchise owner of the Towson location, talked about how looking at the menu of “Hawaiian comfort food” you can find influences from many cultures. Some that he brought up were the Hawaiians, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese and even Portuguese.

“There’s an influence from these different ethnicities in how the food is served, and what kind of food is served,” Wu said.

Some signature items are the Loco Moco, two sunnyside up eggs on top of two hamburger patties dressed with gravy over rice.

“Then you have the iconic spam musubi, which is spam meat with rice and seaweed, paired with our housemade barbecue sauce,” Wu said.

Some common items are the barbecue teriyaki chicken, teriyaki beef and chicken katsu. The chicken katsu is a fried chicken thigh paired with a sauce made in-house. All of the plates are also served with two scoops of rice and a scoop of macaroni salad.

“It’s like a nice cooling aspect to it when you eat your hot food, you have your cold Mac salad on the side, along with the hot rice,” Wu said.

For Valentine’s Day, there will be a special promotion called the “MusuBAE Giveaway.” People who come in as a couple and buy a spam musubi will get a custom-made sticker with two musubi rolls holding hands.

All of the chicken served is halal and for any vegetarian there are salads. L&L Hawaiian Barbecue also caters birthdays, graduation parties and holiday parties.

Wu said they chose to open in Towson because of the town’s diverse restaurant scene.

“If you look around in Towson, you see a lot of other restaurants there, and I’m not talking about just franchises, I’m talking about mom and pop restaurants that open there as well. So Towson has a very unique community,” Wu said.