Just Wondering about the L&L Drive Inn

**Expat Kamaaina** · February 9th, 2012, 05:55 AM

Is the old, original L & L Drive Inn on Liliha Street still pretty good? If so, I will go eat there soon when I come back to Honolulu.

**Menehune Man** · February 9th, 2012, 08:32 AM

Ate there about a month ago...
Don had the Chicken Katsu. It was a great big amount and he enjoyed.
I had the Mahimahi plate and it was delicious too.

The establishment looks pretty funky though.

**Frankie's Market** · February 9th, 2012, 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by Menehune Man

Ate there about a month ago...
Don had the Chicken Katsu. It was a great big amount and he enjoyed.
I had the Mahimahi plate and it was delicious too.

The establishment looks pretty funky though.

Ah, but even in one of the "nicer" locations, who really goes to L&L for the dining atmosphere?

The big hassle with going to the Liliha St. L&L has always been the limited parking.

**Menehune Man** · February 9th, 2012, 04:41 PM

Originally Posted by Frankie's Market

Ah, but even in one of the "nicer" locations, who really goes to L&L for the dining atmosphere?

Ah, but it's more than that.
The place was kinda dirty inside the kitchen and out.

**Frankie's Market** · February 9th, 2012, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by Menehune Man

Ah, but it's more than that.
The place was kinda dirty inside the kitchen and out.

It was "dirty inside the kitchen," and you still bought something to eat from there? Ewwww.

Haven't eaten there in something like 15 to 20 years. The place already looked a little run down even then, but I didn't notice anything that appeared unsanitary. Otherwise, it would have been off to somewhere else I go.

**cezanne** · February 9th, 2012, 11:51 PM

I don't go to the original anymore because of what's already been posted. They should close for a couple days and pressure wash or something. I mean that's THE original L&L... kinda sad.

**Mike_Lowery** · February 10th, 2012, 12:09 AM

I miss the L&L II that was in the back of Magoo's in the Puck Alley's parking lot.

**Frankie's Market** · February 10th, 2012, 07:12 PM

Originally Posted by cezanne

I don't go to the original anymore because of what's already been posted. They should close for a couple days and pressure wash or something. I mean that's THE original L&L... kinda sad.

I don't know if the L&L's chain has reached the point where the original location amounts to anything that is significant. But if it does, maybe they should turn that old relic into a museum, a la the very first McDonald's restaurant over in San Bernardino.

**D'Alani** · February 11th, 2012, 05:53 AM

I may be wrong but I think the L & L location on Liliha St. used to be a bus depot way back when there were "trolley buses".

**Creative-1** · February 11th, 2012, 11:16 PM

Originally Posted by D'Alani

I may be wrong but I think the L & L location on Liliha St. used to be a bus depot way back when there were "trolley buses".

A bus depot is not on the map in Mac Simpson's book "Streetcar Days in Honolulu." But it may date to 1908 or so. Could have been a bus depot there between that and the mid-1950s.

But, in the late 1950s, L&L Dairy opened a MILK depot on the site. They had 4 others around town. The Hirayama brothers bought L&L and turned the milk depot on Liliha into a soda fountain. L&L Dairy Liliha Fountain.

They also opened a L&L Drive In next to the Palama Theatre on N. King street in 1959 I believe, but it only lasted a year.

They sold it to a woman who evolved it into a restaurant. Eddie Flores, the 4th owner, bought it in 1976, for his mom, who was bored and needed something to do.

I don't know what was there before 1950, but those are some of the pieces of the puzzle.