L&L Drive-Inn has cooked up a new plate lunch special: a three-pound dish with three scoops of rice, two scoops of macaroni salad, BBQ beef and a choice of BBQ chicken or chicken katsu.

The dish, essentially a combination of a regular plate and a mini plate, is being rolled out at L&L restaurants statewide to celebrate the opening of the chain's first restaurant outside the United States last week in Pago Pago, American Samoa.

L&L said the new restaurant attracted 1,000 customers and ran out of food six hours after opening on its first day, May 19.

Hawai'i-based L&L over the last several years has vigorously expanded the chain on the Mainland through franchising under the name L&L Hawaiian Barbecue, and has about 130 Mainland stores in addition to 52 in Hawai'i.

The new three-pound plate lunch, priced between $10.95 and $12.95, is being promoted as "fit for a chief" and is named matai after the Samoan word for chief.

Yesterday, the L&L in Iwilei offered free matai plates to the first 10 customers who ordered the meal if they could eat it within 10 minutes. Eddie Flores Jr., L&L founder and owner, said only two people got a free matai plate.

"It's pretty big," he said. "The rest took (leftovers) home."