Our 10 Best Soups in NYC
Polonia's borscht with meat dumplings is so good, you'll want to swim in it.
Like the primordial ooze our ancestors crawled out of, soup is a nourishing, regenerative fluid. And when the weather turns cold, there's nothing more revivifying than a great potage -- even coming out of a can, it tastes great. We've combed the five boroughs for the best examples, and rummaged around in our notes to find soups overlooked or under-touted, and come up with this list of 10. Please enjoy them vicariously, and let us know your own favorites.
10. Borscht With Meat Dumplings at Polonia (above) -- Soups are a very big deal in Polish restaurants, and the range is impressive, from potato soup to pickle soup. Top of the heap is borscht, the ruddy and earthy beet soup that often exists in several permutations on a single menu. So it is at the East Village's Polonia, where you can get one with a clear and bracing broth, freighted with wonderfully doughy, meat-stuffed dumplings. 110 First Avenue, 212-254-9699
9. Pozole at Cholulita -- Made with slaked corn kernels, the hominy soup called pozole is the weekend pride of Mexican cooks. The version at Cholulita -- under the J and M tracks on the border of Bed-Stuy and Bushwick -- is crammed with pork, hominy, and herbs, and generously served with a pair of tostadas. 888 Broadway, Brooklyn, 347-435-0813
8. Tomato Soup at Earl's Beer and Cheese -- Located where the Metro-North Railroad flings itself out of the ground near 97th Street and Park Avenue, Earl's is a playful spot with two obvious obsessions, beer and cheese. But their resuscitation of tomato soup is brilliant -- served in a bowl with a smear of quark around the rim, and spicy with Sriracha. It puts the Campbell's standard to shame. 1259 Park Avenue, 212-289-1581
It's "Bottoms up!" at tiny Earl's Beer and Cheese.
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