Best Soups

[TarteTatin]

My favorite soups lately are at Pagoda in Old City.

They have huge take out containers for about $6 of:

Roasted Duck Noodle Soup

Triple Dumpling (yam noodle, shrimp dumpling, chicken dumpling) Soup

Hot and Sour Soup (with taste)

Shrimp Dumpling Noodle Soup

and lots more.

They are huge meals, and tasty.

Where else have you had really good soups?

[philadining]

Many of the folks at Pagoda, including the chef, used to be at Sang Kee, and so, yes, I agree with Tarte Tatin that the soups there rock. As they still do at Sang Kee in Chinatown (and I'd presume out in Wynnewood, although I haven't made it there.) My fave is the Roast Pork egg-noodle soup.

Also in Chinatown, Nan Zhou's hand-pulled noodle soups are just great. The broths are good, if not spectacular, but the fresh noodles transcend anything, I'd probably eat them in a bowl of hot water.

And I'll thank Katie for her recommendation of Lee How Fook for Hot and Sour Soup.

Almost any soup at North Third is great. They change all the time. Skip the French Onion.

Love the escarole soup at Marra's.

Little Saigon in Upper Darby has the expected Pho, which is decent, but the real star is the spicy beef Hue Soup. Even their simple pork wonton soup has an incredibly complex, elegant broth.

The Chicken Lemongrass soup at Nan is the most refined, perfect version of Tom Yum Kai you could ever ask for.

(of course "SoupKitchen" has all my all-time favorite soups, but it's tough to get a table, and you can't order take-out...)

[CherieV]

A few of my fav's

Chicken Raman soup at Morimoto

French Onion Soup at Bar Lyonaise (Le Bec Fin)

Tomato Crab at Vietnam

Standard Tap also makes great soups

[mrbigjas]

Almost any soup at North Third is great. They change all the time. Skip the French Onion. 

i had a lentil and chorizo soup there the other night that was just great. everything you want a winter soup to be.

[mrbigjas]

Many of the folks at Pagoda, including the chef, used to be at Sang Kee, and so, yes, I agree with Tarte Tatin that the soups there rock.

for some reason, i had never been there before a couple of weeks ago. and it does indeed rock the house. one interesting twist you don't get a lot of places around here is to be able to choose your type of noodle from like five or six options, including rice sticks, egg noodles, wide flat noodles, etc etc--including konnyaku noodles, which come tied in little bundles almost looking like little squids or something, and squeak on your teeth when you eat them. man, that stuff'll sit in your stomach like a rock, too.

also they do the general tso's chicken sang kee-style--the whole fried breast, sliced, with sauce on the side. i am a convert to this type of general tso's.

[I_call_the_duck]

Love the soup at Sang Kee, Nan Zhou, and pho at Xe Lua.

For non-Asian soup, I love the split pea at Pumpernick's, a breakfast/lunch place on Arch and 17th. It's made with turkey instead of ham, but I don't miss the ham at all. It's only about $3.50 for a bowl, and they only have it on Mondays.

Edited February 24, 2006 by I_call_the_duck (log)

[rlibkind]

The cream of mushroom at Friday, Saturday, Sunday is still a winner.

[Rich Pawlak]

ANY of the soups at FULL OF SOUP in The Bellevue's Food Court are transcendant, with amazing combinations of flavors and ideas. My all time favorite of theirs was a Mushroom Barley soup that was pure heroin in a bowl.

[kretch]

I second philadining on the Hand Drawn Noodle House.

Also:

1) Poached mozarella in sundried tomato broth at the Happy Rooster

2) Tortilla soup at Tequlia's (at the bar, with a margarita, after a day's shopping)

3) Any/every soup at Shiao Lan Kung

Edited February 24, 2006 by kretch (log)

[Carlson1105]

Some of the best I've had lately are the Tomato Bisque with the tapenade crotini at Pumpkin and the Cream of Broccoli with cheddar and bacon at Salt & Pepper.

[JanMcBaker]

mmmm.....soup....... There's a little restaurant up on Bustleton Ave called Green Papaya. It's in a little strip mall about a block before Rhawn St., going north on Bustleton. It's owned by a Vietnamese family and the wife does all the cooking. Every day they offer two soups at dinner. One is a daily standard-- a fabulous cream of mushroom soup. It's just shy of a really smooth puree-- there's still a hint of texture from the mushrooms. Another one that I really like is their mushroom barley soup. There's a nice balance of mushroom and barley, and the thyme in it complements the main ingredients quite nicely. Yum-- great on a cold day.....or even on a warm day, for that matter!

[KatieLoeb]

And I'll thank Katie for her recommendation of Lee How Fook for Hot and Sour Soup.

You're welcome. Lee How's Hot and Sour is the benchmark for all others for me.

Noodle soups at David's Mai Lai Wah are pretty good. House special wonton is good too.

The Seafood Tom Yum soup at International Smokeless BBQ is great. Big chunks of pineapple, tomatoes and other weird veggies. Lots of mussels, clams, squid and shrimp too.

The Beef Satay soup at Pho Xe Lua is awe inspiring. Big thick chow fun type noodles, lots of big chunks of beef and chunks of pineapple (I never realized how much I love pineapple in my soup until eleborating my favorites here... ) Their Pho is awesome too.

The cream of mushroom soup at Friday, Saturday, Sunday hasn't changed in a million years and it never will. And it shouldn't. It's just perfect the way it is.

French Onion soup at Le Bar Lyonnaise is great, as Cherie mentioned. The French Onion soup at Rouge is pretty good too.

Chicken Matzo ball soup at Kibitz in the City at 7th & Chestnut is delish. Any of the soups I've tried there have been excellent.

The Snapper Soup at Sansom Street Oyster House is the best. Need to have the little shaker of sherry on the side to jazz it up "to taste".

[CherieV]

The Snapper Soup at Sansom Street Oyster House is the best. Need to have the little shaker of sherry on the side to jazz it up "to taste".

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OMG how could I forget one of my absolute fav's?? SSOH Snapper soup is a must! Although it did taste better when Katie worked there.

[SaxChik]

i'll add my 2 cents for the chester county area ...

the drafting room in exton makes consistantly good cream of wild mushroom soup. thick, lots of wild mushrooms and enough madiera to warm you up. they also have a good crab and corn chowder. these are mainstays on the menu.

another place is a little known place in malvern called bunha faun. this place is a little french-asian cuisine restaurant on rt 30 that you'd miss if you blinked. they're food is good, french with a few asian twists, but their soup of the day is typically outstanding. my favorite thus far has been the curried pumpkin corn chowder. i had wished the bowl would never end.

my favorite place for snapper soup was a small restuarnt between west chester and chadds ford called the brass ladle. they also had a fine wine selection, but they were driven out by a mean landlord.

if anyone knows a good snapper soup place in chester county, please let me know!

[KatieLoeb]

The Snapper Soup at Sansom Street Oyster House is the best. Need to have the little shaker of sherry on the side to jazz it up "to taste".

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OMG how could I forget one of my absolute fav's?? SSOH Snapper soup is a must! Although it did taste better when Katie worked there.

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Thanks Cherie! I think that's 'cuz the wine on the side was better...

[serpentine]

Maria's Dream Soup at Cucina Forte. Light chicken broth, mushrooms, chicken, a bit of spinach and other veggies, cubes of bread sauteed w/egg wash. Simple, comforting, and yes, I do dream of it.

[etalanian]

I have to add my vote for Pagoda. We've been going there ever since itopened in Old City. It's a perfect place to go before a movie at one of the Ritz theaters.

My fave - the house special with pork, chicken and shrimp. So succulent and satisfying.

Eileen

edited because I can't type worth a darn.

Edited February 27, 2006 by etalanian (log)

[Andrew Fenton]

Also in Chinatown, Nan Zhou's hand-pulled noodle soups are just great. The broths are good, if not spectacular, but the fresh noodles transcend anything, I'd probably eat them in a bowl of hot water.

I finally made it to NZ (because when it's ninety degrees out, who WOULDN'T want a bowl of hot soup?) and those noodles are indeed transcendent. I weep for all the years I've spent not eating it. (And needless to say, it's cheap! 5 bones for a nice bowl of roasted duck noodle soup.)

[cdh]

Best soup I've had lately was the snapper soup at the Piper Tavern up in Pipersville, Bucks County. Spiced right, lots of chunks of turtle in there, nice sherry to add... yummy!

[KatieLoeb]

The Chicken Ginger Lime soup at Jose's Grocery on North 10th (just below Spring Garden) is rockin'! And owner Jose was nice enough to make it for us to order last week. What an awesome little bodega serving amazing Mexican food!

Andrew, where are those photos anyway?? Jose's deserves it's own thread!