URBNMRKT

very nice area and people. However, I really don’t like they need to share the restrooms with the USC building that need to show the ID to enter or use the front door that you need to explain to the security why you are here. I feel like I’m a thief in their eye… very inconvenient… I know that’s not anyone’s fault, but I will be more happy if the café can have their own restroom.

This spot has saved me more than once while running between the different schools where I work in South LA. With quick, friendly service and healthy breakfast and lunch options, it is much more affordable than nearby places. My usual is the protein burrito in the morning (comes with avocado yum) and a Cobb salad on mixed greens (sub Parmesan for blue cheese), both delicious. The staff is great!

I only come here because it’s right next to my work place. Parking is really difficult in this area but if you’re lucky, you might be able to find street parking.
It’s pretty affordable compared to the other options on campus like Lemonade or Seeds. They have a lot of options including burgers, salads, and even tacos! The food is just okay in my opinion but the service makes up for it! They’re always very friendly and quick, I never have to wait over 5 minutes for my food.

It is what it is. Great service but I mean food is just food, it’s not an experience, it’s not something to brag about, and it’s not something to write home about. It’s just fuel to keep you going and that’s pretty much how everything tastes and feels.

Hidden gem place to go around USC. Minus one star because it’s pretty difficult to find parking.

Went here for lunch yesterday before I had to go for training next door. I ordered a roast beef au jus sandwich – which was actually pretty decent. But there was a faint smell of old meat. do you know that «sour» smell that old deli roast beef gets? I still ate it. and it was actually pretty good, except for that sourish smell. The homemade fried chips were delicious! I was surprised, and I’m not a chips person. I also did get a side of mac salad, which oddly was so salty in some bites that I didn’t finish eating it. I wouldn’t mind coming back and trying the other sandwiches or maybe even their soups, hopefully they’re not about to go bad. But, cheap eats, the sandwich with two sides and a drink was $ 8.24.

#1. it’s walking distance from work!
#2. it’s affordable… and they even have $ 1.50 taco specials… well, they did in April!
#3. they have coffee reward program!
#4. nice and friendly staff!!!
#5. lots of space!
yup, this will become one of my regular breakfast, lunch, and meeting spots!

I love this place! It serves the same types of food as the cafes on (USC’s) campus, but the cool atmosphere and greater variety of food make up for the walk. They have a huge selection of coffee and breakfast foods with hardly a wait. It’s the urban atmosphere that really captures my attention– it’s a nice change and I can see myself going here on a lunch date, study session, or bringing my friends here from out of town.

Stopped by for breakfast after a meeting, and was pleasantly surprised! I had the AM Special of bread pudding french toast, which came with eggs, bacon, and OJ for only 5 $ (USC students, make sure to use your USC id card to avoid paying tax!). The breakfast was great, and I really enjoyed the ambiance of the place! Will be returning to do homework there in the future!

I guarantee you that if I did not work next door, I would not set foot in this place…
However cool the concept and furniture are, will not make the taste of bland Costco lasagna (which I paid $ 5 for!) go away. I usually get either a salad or carne asada burrito, which by the way is not carne asada but rather some roasted sort of stringy meat. I feel cheated everytime I pay $ 7.50 for a tasteless burrito. I can get an entirely way better real carne asada burrito off of a food truck for $ 3.50! Definitely the place I run to when I don’t have time to go anywhere else.
Let’s talk service… The cashiers are great, a little slow at times, but nice none the less. The food service staff is horrible. They drag their feet, take their sweet time and give you so much attitude. I can’t stand it. At times they will all disappear to the back somewhere and leave you waiting until they decide to do something. Sometimes they will see that you’re waiting there after their little trip to the back, and they wont even acknowledge you and go hide again! Once they return they have the audacity to say «Has someone taken your order?»… NO! someone has not taken my order, you’re the only one back here, and you have deliberately ignored me when you walked by, what do you think happened? Do you think an extra cook magically appeared to take my order and then magically disappeared when you came back?!
Please spare yourself the headache, go somewhere else, unless of course we work in the same building… then were just stuck going to the same place!

I work in the adjacent building, so URBNMRKT is convenient. I won’t say it’s the most efficient place, but when they’re making burgers to order and everything is fresh, the time it takes to prepare it is worth it. Everything is a dollar or so more than it should be, but that’s USC for ya.
I really enjoy the «soul» burger. It’s a veggie burger whose main base is oats. Very fresh, healthy and delicious.
I’m also interested in trying out their soft serve! I sense a Friday treat coming up…

I do not understand why people here are giving this place mediocre reviews? The prices here are great people who are saying it is expensive are CHEAP!!! This place has great prices, variety, quality and portions. If you follow them on Facebook they list all of their great specials including 2 for 1 coffee drinks in the morning! They have a wider variety of drinks than any coffee place I have been too. Plus this place has a very awesome ambiance! It used to be an old loading dock and the décor makes it look like an urban outfitters restaurant. The customer service is a lot better now that they hired new cashiers and I blame the old cashier for the bad service. If you had a bad experience come back again now it is sooo much better!
This place gets extra kudos for having a variety of vegetarian and vegan options! Especially if you want a healthy meal if you are working a desk job this place is the place!
Yes limited parking is kind of a strain but it is well worth it
This place is one of USC’s best hidden Gems!

My budbud and I came here because we’ve wanted to try this place and it’s close to work. There is so little parking it’s kind of sad. we did find street parking right by the door but some SELFISH woman in a MESSED up green corolla (no surprise there eh?) parked right in the center where two cars could easily fit. Three of my cars could’ve too. Anyways, so we had to go around the block and luckily found some street parking right in front of some building that said USC. We walked over and realized it’s just like a cafeteria. They have a coffee bar with pastries and behind that is the cafeteria like setting where you can get food.
This reminded me of the cafeteria at LMU, especially the salad bar. You tell the server what you want and she makes it for you. I thought it was cool that they already had lettuce or mixed greens in plastic bowls and then she dumps it out and adds whatever else you requested. My budbud wanted a mixed green salad and I wanted a cobb salad so when she went to get a soda I ordered a mixed green salad for her. And then when I ordered a cobb salad for me, the exasperated and super grumpy worker goes «SIGHHHHHHHH DIS YO LAST OWRDAR?» and I was like uh yeah. She proceeds to make my salad and it was fine but I have no idea where her attitude came from. We had two people with two different salads (NO WAY you can make mixed green salad and cobb together) and she was so pissed off at us for ordering…
Paying was easy enough, like a cafeteria. Again reminds me of LMU. Beware of those stupid plastic bowl containers, mine slipped out of my hand and the top detached and opened in an elevator where I lost half my salad.
People keep mentioning the décor but to me, no matter how hipster is might be, it’s still a cafeteria. It’s like a tricked out civic, at the end of the day, it’s still a civic dude. Also noticed that the crowd here is much older for some reason, my budbud and I were at least 20 years younger than everyone else here which was strange…
One good thing was that they had this crazy colored licorice!!! My coworker and I didn’t get them but we did take a second to gawk at them.

Food is ok, looking at about $ 7 for anything. Looks like the specials are the best priced things.
Large spacious area.
Very slow service.
All professionals and not very crowded. (no students)
Turkey club is OK, kinda dry.
Does take credit and student /​alumni.

Good, average food selections for a quick lunch. Cafeteria style food with quick service areas. Hot menu items are available but only from 11 am to 1 pm.

I was very excited to finally have a weekday off so I could go try this place out. I went for a late lunch, walk into the place and there was not a soul anywhere. Not one person. I waited and waited and walked around. I could of taken off with the cash registers. I waited some more looked at the prepared foods in the refrigerator, walked by the coffee area and the cashier area… and still no one came out to help me or say hi or NOTHING… I left! I won’t be back.
Truly let down by a place I have been wanting to go to on my one chance day off during the week. I guess customers don’t come first at URBNMRKT
Thanks!

Very decent. Too bad it took me this long to give them a try.
I heard mixed reviews so I knew I had to try it out.
Love the free valet parking, fresh ingredients, cool interior and the prices.
Hate how the hot food is closed around 1:30pm when I take lunch.
But that’s ok, b/​c I got to try their delicious CHICKEN SALAD WRAP!
I never ever order any sort of premade fillings like this or tuna salad, etc.
Usually it’s heavy on the mayo, little tiny pcs of fish or chicken, and just disgusting.
But not the Chicken salad mix here!
It’s light on the mayo, with huge chunks of fresh chicken, cranberries and whatnot. Has a nice kick to it too.
Must be either a squeeze of orange or some mustard, or maybe both!
It was one of the best chicken salad mixes I had in a very long time.
And the best part of it all is the price, only $ 5.
Or $ 5.99 combo with drink and chips.
It would be nice if they were to tell me about the combo special at checkout since it was nowhere advertised.
True the food service is sloOooow~~
They all seemed very «out of it» and dazed.
This place needs a clear menu board, or the line cooks need to sell better. I think the board will work better here.

Ok, so it is true, the menus is unisnpired, and has limited offerings, but this place is my favorite out of all the USC Hospitality venues.
For starters, the quality of the food is good, though it tastes very institutional… as expected from an über clean, shiny stainless steel cladded modern ‘assembly-​line’ of a kitchen. My fav is the lunch special, a turkey sandwich with bacon & avocado, a bag of chips and a fountain drink for 5.99, not bad, considering you can pay the same for a meal at most fast food joins in the vicinity. Though the sandwich is good, what keeps me coming back, is the friendly service, the comfortable ambience with free wifi, the comfy couches, the plush ‘urban’ feel and décor, and the complimentary valet service (though i usually ride my bike there, it’s nice to know the valet is there) as well as a safe haven from the lunch mobs raiding all of the campus eateries during lunch time.
Give this place a try, if not for the food, at least for the experience; after all the name does the place justice, for URBNMRKT could comfortably fit into a real «urban» setting of New York, Chicago, and even downtown LA! Don’t dismiss this place off just yet, for they ARE working on their menu, and are currently working on extending their hours to accommodate a diner menu, and even a spirits, and beer bar… or so I hear.

This off-​off-​campus USC-​managed spot is a total change of pace from other university eateries. The food is probably healthier and of better quality than most USC places, and the prices aren’t bad. You can tell they don’t get much business because everyone is super-​helpful and probably bored. But the décor and «theme» are fun, and I think reflect some of the changes going on at USC Hospitality. They have mostly sandwiches and salads and changing specials displayed on a chalkboard. The roast beef sandwich with onions and dijon was great and I think I’ll go for the pulled pork next time. Other than that, the sides and drinks are pretty standard.
Probably not worth the walk… but check it out if you’re already over there.

URBNMRKT opened this past September + is the newest eatery to come out of USC Hospitality this year. Specializing as a grab-​n-​go type of place, they offer all kinds of fairly healthy + homemade sandwiches, soups, + salads at the back counter plus coffees + teas in the front bar. Their location was renovated over from a truck loading dock, but they kept some elements it to contribute to the theme of the eatery such as using the actual docks as booths to eat in.
Definitely a very industrial, cement look + feel. The décor still seems to be a work in progress as they were pulling new stools out of boxes when I was there, but it looks pretty cool. On the far wall they have a projected tv on the wall on a sports channel.
When I stopped by last week, I got their Pacific Rim Chicken Salad ($ 6)
while my friend got a Turkey Sandwich (plus bacon) w/​chips + a soda ($ 5.99)
. Mine was alright… I really like how they asked about what I did + didn’t want in my salad so that it really was custom-​made in front of me, but even then, it came out kind of flavorless. I didn’t get any mandarin oranges slices, which they’d said were in my selected salad. Neh. Oh well. My friend’s sandwich was part of their $ 5.99 lunch special including a deli sandwich, bag of chips + a medium drink. She said hers was okay, too, but I believe it was probably at least a better value than mine was.
Their location is a couple blocks east of campus to serve the USC administration + services buildings that are out in that area. While beneficial to those employees, it’s kind of a far trek for students considering the food isn’t über unique or amazing. There’s similar options on campus already that would be more convenient but also likely to be pre-​packaged rather than customizable. They take either cash, card or USC discretionary funds. One cool thing about URBNMRKT is FREE valet parking! Sure I realize that they kind of have to offer valet since there literally is NO parking on that stretch of S. Grand, but it’s always nice to have someone open your door for you. =)