Food Delivery around USC
by Ayman Siraj ‘18
The other day a friend and I broke into conversation regarding how our eating habits had changed suddenly in junior year. I personally used to cook most of my meals my sophomore year but that all changed this year.
I had no clue how to cook, I used to watch YouTube videos and cook my favorite dishes. In the beginning they were bland and probably only palatable to my taste buds because my conscious would beg me to do justice to the hard work I had put into cooking my meal. I steadily improved my cooking to a point where I have friends come over for meals sometimes. Let me define sometimes at the rare weekend where I wake up on a Saturday morning and don’t have a panic attack on all the work I have to get done.
I am probably not the best at time management and that is something crucial in doing well when you are an engineering major. That being said, I made the (unrecommended) decision of taking six upper division classes this semester and let’s just say I have had to reallocate my cooking time to study time and instead been living the delivery life mostly to deal with my food and grocery needs. Mostly does not mean every day of the week, but I have been ordering food delivery much more than I had my sophomore year. Thus I present to you my review of the best food delivery services out there.
Crunchbutton prides itself in fast delivery around the USC campus area. The options are limited to the restaurants around the USC campus but when you are in need of food faster, they are the best option around campus. They have a neat rewards program going on where you get a free delivery after a certain number of orders.
Restaurant to try: Pasta Roma. Pasta Roma is probably the best place that lets you get great food without breaking the wallet. My personal go to meal is Chicken Parmiginia.
Image Source: The Food Network
Grubhub easily the largest of the food delivery services in the United States. As for the Los Angeles market, it has the most restaurants that they deliver from to the USC area.
Delivery fees range from free to $4.99 depending on the restaurants location from the USC area.
What is great about Grubhub is the depth of search filters one can use to search for their food. Some great filters you can use:
Coupons available – this displays restaurants that have discount and buy-get-free specials. It is a great way to save on orders when you are ordering as a large group.
Free delivery – many of us scorn at food delivery services because of the delivery fees. Grubhub alleviates that by letting you order from restaurants with no delivery fees.
Order Tracking – this is a text based order update method where the app notifies you when the order is out for delivery.
Grubhub also has restaurants sorted out by Kosher and Halal, so it makes those of us folk who are particular about our food also get in on the ordering act.
Restaurant to try: India’s Restaurant. As someone who loves Indian food it is always hard to strike a balance with great taste and cost. Any Indian food restaurant in LA is likely to cost more than the average meal but India’s restaurant gives one of the best worlds.
Image Source: Local Food Eater
Postmates is transforming the way goods move around cities by enabling anyone to have anything delivered on-demand.
Food Delivery from most restaurants cost $2.99 and you can track your order through the app, step by step. I think this is where Postmates shines, they let you track your order in a more intuitive way than most apps and lets you contact your “postmate” if you need to make any changes or ask questions.
What differentiates Postmates from the pack is that they have a pricing tier known as Plus Unlimited. Plus Unlimited gives users unlimited delivery for all orders above $25 for $9.99 a month. This is a great deal if you order more than five times a month and stick to this app only. I tend to drift with different apps just because I like to try out new restaurants and not every restaurant is on every app.
Restaurant to try: Souk Shawarma. Shawarma and Hummus quality is a big deal to many of us who love Middle Eastern food. Souk does a great job at catering to many tasters. They have seven types of Shawarmas including duck meat and Vegan options.
Image Source: LA Times
From the same company that brought you Uber, comes UberEats. UberEats is on the more expensive side with their restaurants curated to meet their standards and delivery fees at a steep $4.99. That being said most restaurants on their platform are unique and offer high quality food.
UberEats also has an Instant Delivery menu with usually 6-10 min delivery times. They partner up with different restaurants for ultra-fast deliveries!
Restaurant to try: The Halal Guys. Arguably one of New York’s most famous food trucks has now hit Los Angeles. Halala Guys beef gyro is supposed to be legendary so give that a shot!
Image Source: Locale Magazine
Other Food Delivery Apps You Can Try: Caviar, Door Dash, Eat24 by Yelp, Seamless.
The Pizza Places
The three major pizza chains all have outlets around USC and do late night delivery. They all deliver late night. There is no clear winner in terms of which one to get but I will point where each one shines! Also secret hack, if you are ordering after 7PM, spare yourself the delivery fee and tip by ordering carryout and using free USC Uber/Campus Cruiser to go pick the order up as all the branches list below are within drop-off boundaries!
Dominos shines when it comes to ease of delivery. They have a nifty order tracker which lets you know where your order currently is in the queue to when it is out for delivery.
Dominos
Address: 2803 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90007
Dominos
Hours: 10AM–3AM
(2AM on Sundays)
Pizza Hut comes through for larger orders. They have pizza bundle deals, big dinner boxes and party wing meals!
Pizza
Hut Address: 2405 S Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90007
Pizza
Hut Hours: 10AM–1AM
(12AM on Weekdays)
Papa John’s shines when it comes to taste and special deals. Frequently they will have 50% of coupons available. Check the Papa John’s Southern California Facebook page for offers.
Papa
John’s Address: 2222 S Hoover St, Los Angeles, CA 90007
Papa
John’s Hours: 9.30AM–1AM
LA Café is the only recommendation on today’s list that delivers 24 HOURS. Hungry at 3am because you are studying for a midterm? 6pm and you just got back from class and can’t muster the energy to cook? LA Café has got your back.
The best Thai Food in town for the best price. T.G. Express is known for their generous portions, great tasting food and 9am – 4am delivery! My personal goto when I am really, really, really hungry and need a good helping of food. Everything on their menu is great. Trust me, I have ordered from this place at least five times this semester and never get bored of the food.
Want more from Trojans 360?
Visit Trojans 360 on Facebook & Twitter to stay up to date with more student content!
You can also Ask A Trojan an anonymous question, and we’ll try to answer it in a future post!
And don’t forget to follow us on Instagram!
Trojans 360 is USC’s official student-run blog. Content created by students, for students.
