Soup Places???

[taura-g.livejournal.com]

So, where's a good place to get soup in the area?   I know Au Bon Pain has soup but anywhere else?

Looking for a couple of flavor options, take-out and in the Powderhouse/Davis/Teele Square area.  

Please let me know. 

Best,

Comments

[mjperson.livejournal.com]

Bah! Davis Square is a soup wasteland. I've been searching for a decent bowl of hot broth soup around there for years.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

"Soup wasteland", lol.

Now if only you could get soup in a burrito...

[unferth.livejournal.com]

I've had a few wraps at Blue Shirt that were pretty close to that.

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

hah!

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

Blue Shirt smoothies: "as always, free grit included!"

How that place stays in business is beyond me....

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

They are a testament to the power of location.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

I don't eat there often, but until they went to brown rice, and whole wheat tortillas, I liked both their wraps AND their smoothies. Last I tried (4-5 months ago) the smoothies were still good.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Last night, I had the five onion and apple soup at Five Horses. It was pretty fab, and I'd bet their other soups are quite tasty, too.

Current menu here: http://fivehorsestavern.com/menu

[ron_newman]

Haven't been there yet. How's the rest of the restaurant?

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

It's great! They have an amazing beer selection (36 selections on tap) and will let you taste a few so you can make an informed choice. Everything I and my dining companions ate was excellent, and they get special warm fuzzies for labeling the menu (so you know what's veg, vegan, and gluten-free).

They haven't been open long and are still evolving so are quite open to feedback, too. The staff have all been very friendly as well.

[enveri.livejournal.com]

We went about a week and a half after they opened and were -seriously- underwhelmed. It was so dark we couldn't read the menu (we had to use a keychain flashlight), the food was overpriced and bland*, and the beers were 25% more expensive than elsewhere in the square. Our other peeve was that since there were no soft surfaces on the wall, it was headache-inducingly loud. To their credit, the service was quick and polite.

Has this changed?

(* I had their fried chicken sandwich, which was honey that had soaked into the bread, a piece of lettuce, and a piece of fried chicken. It was dry and damned near inedible. The jalepeno cheddar mashed potatoes tasted like reconsituted potato flakes and I could taste neither peppers nor cheese. This would have been disappointing but ohwell worthy if they hadn't charged me $14 for the privledge.)

It was disappointing, we really wanted to like the place; it's really close to our apartment. If they've gotten their feet under them and improved, we'd be delighted to go back, but our first experience definitely left us gunshy.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

There were a bunch of complaints about loudness when they first opened and I don't know if they addressed it or if it's just that we haven't gone on the peak nights, but both times I've been, it was with a baby who fell asleep and I was able to converse with my companion across the table without yelling.

They've also revamped the menu and I noticed the item we had some negative comments about had been replaced.

[enveri.livejournal.com]

Hm! Maybe it's time we gave them another shot then!

Thank you!! :D

[trtls.livejournal.com]

Yay, they took off the pad Thai! That was the worst pad thai I ever had. Hopefully they have made their mac 'n cheese LESS like soup. The service and beer has been very good, even when busy. Their menu needed tweaking, so I'm glad they are paying attention to that!

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Victor's Deli in Ball Square has a few hot soups. Also, maybe obvious, but any Chinese/Thai place will have hot & sour soup, wonton, etc. And Indian places have mulligatawny.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

Victor's deli is a great choice at lunchtime - both hot soups and other winter comfort foods.

[lac.livejournal.com]

I just want to say that I just looked at the menu for Five Horses and I want to go to there. Now, pretty much. I hadn't even realized it was there...so thanks for the heads up!

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

Don't go for dinner on a saturday night if you don't like noise. I should have known there was going to be a problem when I got carded by bouncers outside.... for dinner.

[enveri.livejournal.com]

They card every night, near as I can tell. At least, when I pass by, I see the bouncers outside quite often.

They even carded my 62 year old father in law.

[tober.livejournal.com]

Mr. Crepe has a pretty good potato-leek soup. I think they usually have one other type as well but I forget what it is.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

generally if I want soup in Davis, I go to Redbones, and get the Chili Verde (which is not a chili), the potlikkers or the texas chili (which is a chili).

if one wants more standard options, Panera usually has 5 soups on any given day, which change but can always be seen at http://www.panerabread.com/menu/ (you can check for any day of the week by going to http://www.panerabread.com/img/soup-wednesday.gif and changing the day name).

Also, while ABSOLUTELY not in Davis Square (I just cannot resist the chance to mention it), should one have the foresight to stock up on soups, I am madly in love with New England Soups in Brookline. The current menu is always here: http://newenglandsoupfactory.com/brooklinespecials.shtml and they offer 10 soups daily. I do not get out there as often as I would like, but I make a point when I do go out there to buy several quarts. The non-bisques freeze well.

[kazbotch.livejournal.com]

Best. Soup. Ever.

[bex77]

It's a little out of the Square, but Lemon Thai on Highland Ave. across from Somerville Hospital has amazing soups and pho. I adore their Tom Kar Guy (coconut chicken or shrimp) soup. And hubby loves their Tom Yum (hot & sour). Their "Lemon Thai Noodle Soup" is pho with lots of noodles and cilantro. They deliver.... http://www.lemonthai.com/

[ksushis.livejournal.com]

Dave's Fresh Pasta has good soups (I think they only have a couple of options each day). Their tomato cream soup the other day was yummy.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

2nd'ing Dave's soup(s) du jour.

[fenicedautun.livejournal.com]

The veal stew is also pretty dang tasty (often in the freezer case)

[gingicat]

The Indian place in Union Square (India Palace?) has pretty awesome soups.

[dcltdw]

This isn't walkable from Davis, but Lady Siam in Arlington (882 Mass Ave, across the street from AHS, and very near Blue Ribbon BBQ) is our go-to place for soup. Their pho ga (chicken soup) is awesome; my sweetie likes their tai (beef) soup. It is far and away much better than the stuff you can get from ABP.

Many colds have been averted by their pho ga soup. That, or re-hydrating.

foodler.com claims they deliver into Somerville.

[bex77]

Seconded. The food is amazing, free parking, and the nicest people!

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I would not normally think to try a random Thai place for pho. (We generally go to that corner for Toraya - Lady Siam is the one on the corner of that block of stores, right?)

[bex77]

Yes, it's on that corner. We first went there when Toraya had a wait time that was too long for us, and ended up loving it.

[unferth.livejournal.com]

Diesel Cafe has one or two options per day, though sometimes they run out. I'm fond of most varieties of their lentil soups, personally.

True Grounds in Ball Square also has soup, and gets extra points for having a full ingredient listing available.

[withinmywill.livejournal.com]

The Indonesian squash soup at Blue Shirt Cafe is amazing!

[lady-ceylonna.livejournal.com]

The avgolemono soup (lemon egg soup with rice) at Greek corner is tasty. I also second potlickers and chili verde from Redbones and the soup du jour at Dave's.

[mimiambic.livejournal.com]

Seconded! Also, don't forget ramen at Porter Exchange (ok, so not quite Davis, but).

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

Up above someone recommended Victor's in Ball Square for some better-than-Campbell's but homestyle soups. I second that, and can't believe I didn't discover how appealing the non-deli non-calzone stuff looked until one rainy day last week.

In Davis proper you can find a few at the Rosebud.

And, I am in love with every single soup at Martsa on Elm. They are not soups you will have encountered anywhere else - thicker than a broth soup, less bulky than a stew, and with things like barley, spinach, homemade pasta, chicken or beef or tofu... all heavenly.

And outside the square but delivers, Wang's (in Magoun Square) has the standard assortment of things like hot and sour soup, wonton soup, etc but also a section on their menu called "soup noodles" that are thick rice noodles in a quart-size container of soup with other Asian seasonings, vegetables, meats, fermented soy beans, and other good stuff. Da Lu Noodle (Come(sic) with pork) and Peking Meat Sauce noodle (which is the only one that comes dry-ish with a separate container of broth) are my favorites.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Also not in Davis Square, but worth a detour: Little Q in East Arlington (a few doors down from Lake Street). They do the big-bowl-of-broth-in-the-table thing, and bring you all kinds of raw ingredients to throw in. They can also pack up a quart of broth to take home, presumably along with all the other ingredients, though I haven't gone that route before. Their broths (my favorite is "black-bone chicken") are delicious -- rich and complex, with all kinds of things (ginger, scallion, goji berries, taro, parsley) floating in them.

Now I'm hungry!

[leighjen.livejournal.com]

2nd. We went there for the first time the other day and I can't wait to go back. We also like the Black-bone chicken but the herbal was delightful as well.

[pukwudgie.livejournal.com]

East Asia, the small pan Asian place on Broadway near the Powederhouse traffic circle, makes a pretty clean, simple wonton soup.

[littlecitynames.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you made this post.

People have mostly said the ones I knew of. I really like the wonton soup at Dragon Garden in Davis. It's the super-Americanized kind with no cabbage or vegetables in it, just clear broth and meat wontons.

Also, Cafe Kiraz has this amazing thick lemon chicken rice soup. They're in Inman, but they deliver all over Somerville and you can order from them off Foodler.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

I've been a big fan of Dragon Garden for super-Americanized Chinese food for a few years running. Again, one of those things I am sad to have not figured out for my first decade or so in the square!