Restaurant review: She-crab bisque at the Soup Shop in Melbourne among best in the area
Years ago, the great chef Jacques Pépin started and oversaw La Potagerie, a lovely restaurant on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in which a variety of homemade soups comprised the menu.
You picked a soup, a piece of fruit, some bread and a beverage, and that was lunch. If you were a devotee, you miss it. But we do have a restaurant here that operates with a similar concept, and that is the Soup Shop, in the Post Commons shopping plaza.
Physically, the Soup Shop does not have much in common with Pépin’s restaurant, which the New York Times called “the first seriously designed fast-food restaurant,” but then, when some of us dined there (often), we concentrated on the food, which is what happens at the Soup Shop.
It is as no-frills as it gets: You go to the counter and pick one of many soups or beef stew, chili, pot pies, shepherd’s pie, macaroni and cheese, or quiches, possibly with a sandwich, pick a beverage and either find a table in the expanded and immaculate dining area, sit outside or take it home or back to the office. It works. It is good soup.
Samples are happily offered, and the chicken enchilada was a delight, but the creamy curry chicken excelled. We’d had the chicken noodle and beef barley varieties too, and they’re also just fine.
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This day, we went with a couple of “meal deals,” one of which is a half sandwich plus a bowl of soup ($10.75), and in this case, the soups were roasted red pepper and she-crab, one with a half brisket sandwich, the other with an “Ooey Gooey Cheese Sandwich.”
Sandwiches are not colossal, piled-high things, but come on relatively small, French-style rolls, so if you’re hungry, go with the whole thing. The brisket was nicely smoky and served with a container of non-sticky sauce, and hooray for the Soup Shop there. Some people like plain brisket.
The she-crab bisque was magnificent: thick and creamy, with chunks of crab, which suited the Marylander. In this case, that little half-a-cheese sandwich worked fine because you really can’t devour a lot of the stuff, so rich is it. It is one of the better soups you will eat in Brevard County.
The roasted red pepper soup was perfect in color and texture but far too bland. It was not that we expected heat; in fact, that’s the last thing you want in what promises to be a rather delicate soup, but it could have used something. A little blue cheese, perhaps? Croutons? A dollop of sour cream? Sherry was available and was tried, and so was parmesan cheese, to no avail.
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Desserts were pineapple-coconut and double chocolate bread puddings ($6 each), and they were warmed upon request and served with sauces. If you prefer lighter, custardy bread puddings, these are not what you order, because they are tremendously dense, and though the tropical version didn’t have much pineapple or coconut, the chocolate one was, well, chipper.
Vanilla sauce was poured over the former, and the sauce on the latter was not off-putting ganache (which, for some reason, frightens certain diners) but was closer to chocolate pudding in flavor.
All that having been said, this is a fine concept that makes you go home thinking. “What if they were to do vichyssoise?” and “Oh, what these people could do with cold fruit or chocolate soups!” And you think of the things you may add once you get home: crème fraîche, mint, cheese, yogurt, cinnamon, whatever.
None of those are required in the she-crab soup that went home, though. See you at the Soup Shop for more.
The Soup Shop
Three stars
Address: 4100 N. Wickham Road, Melbourne
Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays
Call: 321-622-6914
Online: thesoupshop.com
WiFi: Yes
Other: Chilled and frozen soups available for take-out by the quart or pint (prices range from $5 per pint to $16 per quart); a variety of different soups are offered each day, grouped by category, including spicy, vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free; ready-to-eat foods, including salads with homemade dressings, available.
About our reviews
Restaurants are rated on a five-star system by FLORIDA TODAY’s reviewer. The reviews are the opinion of the reviewer and take into account quality of the restaurant’s food, ambiance and service. Ratings reflect the quality of what a diner can reasonably expect to find. To receive a rating of less than three stars, a restaurant must be tried twice and prove unimpressive on each visit. Each reviewer visit is unannounced and paid for by FLORIDA TODAY.
Five stars: Excellent. A rare establishment to which you’d be proud to take the most discerning diner.
Four stars: Very good. Worth going out of your way for. Food, atmosphere and service are routinely top notch.
Three stars: Good. A reasonably good place with food and service that satisfy.
Two stars: Fair. While there’s nothing special about this establishment, it will do in a pinch.
One star: Not recommended. Don’t bother.
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