Northern Cafe — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Northern Cafe – Bold Chinese Flavors at USC

Located right near the USC campus, Northern Cafe is a beloved spot among the large Asian student population around the University Park Campus. Known for its authentic Chinese cuisine, it’s a go-to place for both quick solo meals and group dining.

Unlike traditional sit-down restaurants, Northern Cafe follows a fast-casual format: customers order via self-serve kiosks, grab their own drinks, and food is brought to the table. Despite the efficient setup, the interior decor stays true to its roots, with traditional Chinese elements creating a cozy yet cultural vibe.

Seating is a mix of small tables for individuals or pairs, and several spots can be pushed together to accommodate larger groups. It’s flexible and welcoming for both solo diners and friend gatherings.

The menu is loaded with flavorful options: • Beef Pancake Roll: A must-try. Crispy on the outside with juicy slices of beef, cucumber, and cilantro rolled inside. You get six generous pieces, perfect for sharing. • Braised Beef Noodle Soup: A classic. Soy sauce–based broth with tender beef and chewy noodles – comforting and satisfying. • Chongqing Crispy Chicken: Intensely crunchy, deep-fried chicken tossed with dried chilies and Sichuan peppercorns. Fiery and addictive. • Boiled Beef in Chili Sauce: For spice lovers. The beef is tender, swimming in a rich, spicy broth packed with numbing heat. • Boiled Fish Fillet in Chili Sauce: Another spicy favorite with delicate, flaky fish and a punchy chili-oil base. • Sautéed Bok Choy: A solid veggie side – simple, garlicky, and fresh. • Garlic Spare Ribs: Deep-fried pork ribs topped with garlic and scallion – rich and aromatic.

While flavors are authentic and bold, be aware that many dishes are quite oily or heavily spiced, which may not suit those who prefer lighter or milder cuisine. Stick to vegetable dishes or non-spicy options if you’re unsure.

Service is minimal, as expected for a self-service model. Staff mainly bring food to the table and clear used dishes, but don’t expect much additional assistance.

Parking is available in the back, though the entrance can be easy to miss for first-timers. Look for a small back door that leads directly into the dining area.

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Verdict: Northern Cafe delivers hearty, flavorful Chinese dishes in a fast-casual setting perfect for USC students and visitors alike. It’s not fine dining, but if you crave authentic mainland Chinese flavors at reasonable prices, this place hits the spot. Just come hungry—and maybe bring a group to share the spice and...

I enjoyed the food here! It was delicious! I was searching around on grubhub for lunch and encountered this restaurant. I ended up seeing some food that sounded pretty good so I decided to try it out!

Downside of getting it delivered was that it can take from 30-45 mins to get your food, but I had a bunch of things to do anyways so time flew by. I didn’t mind the wait.

I got a beef roll pancakes, potstickers, and milk tea!

The beef roll pancakes is delicious to me. The beef roll pancakes is just beef, green onions, and asian pancakes. A warning for you is that there is a bunch of green onions in the beef roll pancakes so if you don’t like green onions, i would avoid or see if you can request without green onions.

I didn’t get to try the potstickers fresh since I was full from the beef roll pancakes so I saved these for dinner. I feel like it would be good and tasty if I ate it fresh. I’m not going to go in depth for this one since I didnt eat it fresh and during lunch time.

I didn’t have high hopes for the milk tea and thought it would be similar to quickly or tapioca express taste, but the milk tea ended up tasting pretty good! I didn’t expect it to be pretty good! I would get milk tea again if I end up ordering from this place again. Downside is there they didn’t offer boba from the grubhub menu so I was pretty bummed about that. I think you taste some tea flavor in this drink vs some stores where they put too much milk or just powdery taste from the ingredient they use. I tried to adjust the sugar to be less sugar (30%), but i feel like it was still too sweet for my taste. I don’t like my milk teas too sweet, but it was still pretty good. The drink size is probably just a normal regular size cup. I didnt see an option to get a larger cup. If you like milk tea, i would recommend it in my opinion.

Overall, this place seems to do a good job with their food and drinks! I would recommend this place! I want to come back here again in the future to try their...

OK, so I went here on New Year’s after shopping at the Goodwill across the street when I walk in I guess their waiter is staring at me, like through my body. I guess he’s waiting or getting ready to tell me to get out or something. I had just been shopping so I don’t know what his assumption was. I put my bags near the front. I go up to order the dumplings. I said I would like one steam and one fried dumpling. He says we don’t do that so take the menu out and point out the steamed dumplings and fried dumplings. He said oh so you would like one of each order……obviously! I don’t know what he was going through but I felt dismissed and unwelcome for my New Year’s EVE. I did tell him after I pointed it out to him on the menu for him “You sure were quick to tell me no” he does a little chuckle because he knows that he was on some BS so my feeling was that he must’ve thought I was asking for one dumpling or that I couldn’t afford to be there so I continue to buy the scallion pies. I bought two of those and I also bought, the chicken braised chicken was the only thing that was tasty. The dumplings were horrible. There’s a place on Slauson and Western has better dumplings and the onion pies were extremely greasy. I used to go to a place to Chinese Islamic restaurant and purchase a scallion pies and they were nowhere this greasy. So out of the 80 bucks I basically paid for dinner. The only thing that was good was the braze chicken, which is like 22 bucks will not be going back again. Do not like their attitudes. They need to know that all Chinese share one Gene in common and it’s from Africa! In the picture below the prices highlighted in yellow 29.55 were for two orders of dumplings, extreme. The lavender highlighted price of 17.50 was for two orders of onion pies or scallion pies again over priced. The blue highlight is for the Braised chicken. It was the only thing that was worth my money and was worth the...