Sorry, this is an incredibly old post I wish I’d seen earlier. Before COVID, particularly around '17-'19, there were a couple services that delivered food from SGV to both USC and UCLA at campus drop-off points at specific times. They were able to do so at an inexpensive price based on sheer quantity from bulk orders. Chef Town was one of the bigger names/apps. (Just looked at it on my phone for the first time in years, and the app was removed from the store.) You had to be able to speak Mandarin, or fake it, to order. A lot of coordination was done over WeChat.
Qin in Westwood operated (still operates?) a completely separate menu from their usual offerings strictly for drop-off at UCLA. FAR better and varying options (i.e., non-noodle) than what they served at their brick-and-mortar. I talked to a few people behind the counter and, while they were impressed I found out about it, I couldn’t get on that list because I didn’t speak the language. (If I recall correctly, Kato originally started out as that service before Yao took the space over from his parents?)
Only way I found out was seeing long lines of exchange students lined up on campus and working up the nerve to ask strangers what they were waiting for. Fantuan seems like the obvious answer these days, even from SGV to West LA, but I’m sure those semi-underground services still operate if you’re in the community. It is very much a word of mouth thing, and I am 100% disconnected since I’m work-from-home and rarely on campus these days.
Thanks for the update. I know one of the delivery services was called ToGo626, but they operated on an a la carte basis and affiliated with San Gabriel Valley restaurants such as Beijing Pie House to deliver anywhere, including USC, UCLA and UCI, for a delivery fee of about $1 per mile.
What you describe sounds like the same arrangement as developed on Wall Street In Manhattan called Yunbanbao, which started around 2018 and was written up by the Wall Street journal and has since expanded to the entire New York metro area. Even the same puzzling lines of people!
Best laid plans huh? I went down to Santa Ana for work and then had to RACE back to the office because… #broadcastlyfe So I never got to Little Pan. UNTIL… I heard the news that open was opening up right by USC!!
As we have seen on this Post, USC has a fair amount of Chinese Offerings now, the Truck, Northern Cafe, Qin West. It’s super easy to get to from Campus to Pine and Crane in DTLA, I’ve often gone there to pick up lunch to follow a student back on the train… But this one is super close to campus and right across from Exposition Park. For me it’s a short walk from the train as well. Could not wait to hit it up!
It’s a very small restaurant with a menu dedicated to dumplings/buns and snacks. It’s neat and tidy with plenty of condiments to add whether you are getting bao or beef rolls.
For me, I got Bao combo with smashed cucumber salad. I love cucumber salad and the portion was hefty!. I didn’t realize that you had a choice of regular size and mini bao. I assumed they were all Mini, so when I got my order home… I was suprised at how big they were!
I look forward to trying their actual Mini Bao and other items like Congee and Beef bowls. They seemed to be doing a good business the time I was there (despite the school being on break and it being almost 90 that day) so I hope they do well and attract other awesome Chinese spots!
Heytea is opening next to little pan USC. Excited for an afternoon walk/caffeination excuse. Yoboseyo superette opened in the village: its cute and vibey, bit hard to fill up there. Good boba though. Has 626 ice cream though in the freezer. Now if they would just open these gates …
Hey Tea took FOREVER to finally open. I had almost given up, but it did open! YAY!! However, Little Pan closed early last year. In its spot is an onigiri chain, Tenori opened up which is shockingly good! Also very inexpensive, about $4 per. It’s been a pre-game stop for us since it opened.
The other thing I have been noticing is that several of the Ghost kitchen complexes (the ones on Washington and Cordova) near campus have quite the variety of Chinese food now. There is even one on postmates advertising claypot rice!!!
Also still waiting for Mama Lus on Jefferson to open. The whole Neighborhood is excited about that one as a decent choice over Kims for family sized takeout.
In another post about the Rowland Heights night market, I mentioned how last year I started noticing a few street food vendors popping up around campus. Well it’s return to campus week and one of the Vendors also came back. Hand Cut Noodle Gramma!
She’s over by the Lutheran Church on Vermont across from the smart and final. I cut out the students in my pictures, but she does decent business. She speaks okay English, but since the return from Covid the Chinese students in campus have been a bit more outgoing. I frequently chat with them as I am around campus and the students also waiting helped me to make sure I didn’t forget any add ins or toppings as Granny has several chile oils and garnishes available.
She seems to be there mostly during dinner daylight hours. Just her. She has big balls of dough and then cuts the noodles on an outdoor wok stove set up. She is happy to do customizations the students want.
Despite the kind student’s efforts, I went with a standard order which is pure comfort food. Tomato and egg and mince. I opted to use the chili crisp I had at home.
I’m doing an internet search now (b/c, despite having gone to school there, I rarely walked off campus), and it seems like the church is St. Mark’s (in case I’m ever out that way at the right time of day).
She had some kind of shaved meat, maybe lamb. I saw that container of tomato and egg and I just wanted that so when the other students were like…. Do you want any other toppings or chili oil offering to help with my order I was like.. no just regular… tomato and egg. Gram smiled and I think she also threw in some mince because she made sure to get me my specific one while the other students were getting what I supposed something more elaborate based on their conversations in Chinese when they ordered.
