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It's cold in New York. Soup season in the city has begun.
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Robert Sietsema
Published Nov 10, 2026 at 11:01 a.m. ET
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Robert Sietsema for Gothamist
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Robert Sietsema
Published Nov 10, 2026 at 11:01 a.m. ET
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Sure, soup can be eaten all year round. But what can be better for a light lunch in early November than a bowl of Manhattan clam chowder with a handful of oyster crackers? As the days get colder, we search for heartier soups, or a bowl to warm ourselves with soups as a prelude to a main course. Soups are also an easy way to eat vegetarian, and even save some calories.
So, welcome to soup season! Here are 10 of the most diverse, exciting bowls in the city we could find, including some that will be familiar, and others that will make you slurp with surprise. This is an international group, and they are arranged in no particular order.
White and red clam chowder
Robert Sietsema for Gothamist
The perpetual battle rages on between chowder lovers: red or white? The white c was carried by Bretons to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and thence to New England. The red originated here in New York, presumably among those of Italian descent. The white is creamy and soothing, with a jolt of flavor from the shellfish; while the red is more aggressive, and loaded with vegetables. Why not get a bowl of both for slightly over $12 each at Grand Central Oyster Bar, in one of the city’s most dramatic restaurant settings? Grand Central Terminal, 89 East 42nd St.
Pickle soup
Robert Sietsema for Gothamist
Poland is a soup-intensive country, and scanning the menu of any Polish restaurant you’ll find red borscht and white borscht, tomato, tripe, chicken noodle and split pea, but also some with unexpected ingredients like sauerkraut, sorrel, duck blood and cucumber pickles. The latter is a frequent offering at Retro as a daily soup ($8.50). It’s more mellow than you might expect with pickle juice as its base. Sour cream does the trick to neutralize, along with potatoes and fistfuls of dill. 853 Manhattan Ave., Greenpoint
Sancocho
Robert Sietsema for Gothamist
Every culture has its “everything but the kitchen sink” soup, with an infinitely expandable roster of ingredients. Sancocho is a fine example, a soup found in every Dominican restaurant in town, including Don Emilio Diner in Castle Hill, where on the day we tried it, the soup ($8) contained pork ribs, chicken, plantain, and yuca in a broth of disintegrated pumpkin, propelled by the pungent flavors of oregano and garlic. 1315 Castle Hill Ave., Bronx
Assam laksa
Robert Sietsema for Gothamist
Want a soup that bombards you with strong flavors, leaving you reeling from the taste? Such a soup is the Malaysian assam laksa found at the venerable Taste Good. Just look at its partial catalog of ingredients: fermented shrimp paste, funky and fishy mackerel, sweet pineapple, fresh lemongrass, chiles and mint. Fortunately, the bulbous rice noodles are as bland as can be. 82-18 45th Ave., Elmhurst
Matzoh ball soup
Robert Sietsema for Gothamist
After that bowl of assam laksa, what stands at the opposite end of the pungent-bland spectrum? Matzoh ball soup, that’s what! At newly reopened Carnegie Deli, the broth is unimpeachable in its soothing plainness, the matzoh balls more bouncy than usual, with plenty of fortifying veggies minced into the broth. The totality ($16, with noodles added) is wonderful in its savory subtlety. 834 7th Ave., Midtown
Luosifen
Robert Sietsema for Gothamist
Stall #19 at the new 99 Ranch Market basement food court, known as Luo Xiao Du, specializes in luosifen soup in a half-dozen varieties. The pottage hails from Guanxi, an autonomous coastal region between Hong Kong and Hanoi, and employs a broth famously made from snails. This version ($11) has a few snails dropped in for visual effect, along with bamboo shoots, a boiled egg, chili oil, peanuts, and a half dozen other things, for a very rich and fortifying bowl, but one that will leave you fanning your mouth. 37-11 Main Street, Flushing
French onion soup
Robert Sietsema for Gothamist
French onion soup as we know it was supposedly invented in the Les Halles Market in Paris to feed workers using ingredients common in the market: onions, butter, cheese and stale bread. Today, it is found in nearly every French bistro, including Bar Six in the Village, where a powerful caramelized onion broth buoys up a raft of gruyere, and conceals a thick slice of bread in its depths ($15). Your only challenge is how, exactly, to eat it, since the cheese clings mightily to the spoon. 502 6th Ave., Greenwich Village
Cow foot soup
Robert Sietsema for Gothamist
Soups made from the long-boiled feet of cows are common throughout the Caribbean, and evidence of the “everything but the squeal” approach that makes those cuisines more eco-friendly through their use of the entire animal. The swatches of trotter at the Trinidadian Bake & Things in the soup ($8) are pleasantly rubbery and gelatinous, and potatoes are mixed into the mellow yellow broth. Every bite is a sunny delight with lots of chewing involved, and the collagen and gelatin are bound to help your skin. 1489 Flatbush Ave., Flatbush
Lagman
Robert Sietsema for Gothamist
Lagman is the signature soup of Uyghur cuisine, a soup indispensable to the menus of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, as well as the Xinjiang autonomous region of northwestern China. At its heart are irregular handmade wheat noodles in a rich beef broth flavored with dill and cilantro. In the version found at Shashlik Uz N1 in Ditmas Park, the soup ($11.99) also contains colorful bell peppers, fennel, celery, onions, green beans, and giant wads of fresh dill, tasting of the stockyard and the meadows. 115 Ditmas Ave., Kensington
Scandinavian fish and shellfish bisque
Robert Sietsema for Gothamist
Located on the ground floor of the Scandinavia House, Bjork Café & Bistro offers a full range of Scandinavian specialties, from Swedish meatballs to preserved fish platters to the open face sandwiches known as smorrebrod. Several soups are offered, including a fish and shellfish bisque ($19) featuring cod, gray shrimp and mussels bobbing in a yellow broth of surpassing mellowness, with shredded leeks and carrots waving like seaweed in tidal pools along the shoreline. 58 Park Ave., Murray Hill
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