Awesome gruyere, and some of the best broth ever. There was nothing negative to say about this soup. Perhaps it’s their use of vidalia onions, or just the quality of the cheese…I don’t know. It was simply spectacular.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
I’ve always said that Daniel’s should serve onion soup. I mean the place just “screams” for it. I had assumed that if they were to add it on the menu, that they would do a great job, and I was right. Added on 9/2/2009, it’s a veal stock soup, with three cheeses: Gruyere, Mozzarella, and Parmesan. The broth has a good amount of sherry, which really works well with the stock. This is a great addition to the already excellent choices at this restaurant, and to my F.O.S. favorites!
Edit (10/02/09): Having had this several times now, I can say with some certainty that the mozzarella tastes very much like it is *smoked* mozarella.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
French Onion Soup, deconstructed! Just when I thought I’d seen everything! The menu is a bit ambiguous, simply saying: “Classic French Onion Soup, Gruyère Grilled Cheese. I was never expecting to see an actual grilled cheese sandwich alongside the soup. I wasn’t positive of the proper procedure, so I asked our server, who confirmed that I was to dip the grilled cheese sandwich into the soup. It was different, but good. Since I’m not one of those who normally likes to eat the bread along with the cheese in F.O.S., it was a bit disappointing that I couldn’t get around it this time. As I’ve said before in this blog, “….the bread is just there to hold up the cheese.” However, I will not take that into account for this soup. The broth was possibly the best I’ve ever had.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
You may be wondering why there are two pictures above. Well, the soup came out, and I immediately noticed that the broth was delicious. I mean really delicious. However, it was cold. So, after sending back the soup, a new one was brought out. Thus, the two different pictures. I hadn’t tasted the cheese in the original soup (I like to drape hot soup over the cheese before tasting), and I was delighted at the quality of it in the second soup. Unfortunately, the second soup’s broth was lacking the sweetness of the onions that the first had! It’s a shame, because this soup could have made the top 10 if you combined the first and the second. I intend to revisit, to give it another shot.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Great, tasty broth with a perfect blend of gruyere and emmenthaler.
Update: Thanks to Bob Peterson for fixing up the picture for me!
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Excellent quality of cheese and broth. Great amount of gruyere and provolone, mixed with nicely caramelized onions with sherry and broth. Very nicely done.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Wonderful broth, and lots of excellent gruyere cheese makes this soup a winner. The only thing I would consider changing is that there were more croutons than were necessary.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
I was not expecting to find F.O.S. at The Davenport Hotel when I checked in, but noticed it immediately as I was walking towards the elevator. Even though I was between lunch and a big dinner party, I had to stop and order a bowl. I hadn’t even read the description when I ordered it, but when I had my first taste, I was flabbergasted! It was one of the best soups I’ve had. The description reads:
Washington sweet onions caramelized with sherry in an herb broth topped with a crouton, melted Gruyère cheese & green onions
It really was delicious. The sherry stood out, and it was really hard to believe it wasn’t a beef-based broth, as it was so incredibly tasty! I hereby reverse my assumption that all vegetable broths don’t stand a chance.
Rating: 9.0 out of 10
Great Internet recommendation. Broth was decent and the cheese was very good. The server claimed it was “just Swiss”, but I think it was gruyere. Seemed like everyone there was having the F.O.S.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
I have a history of giving very, very little leeway to soups which venture into non-traditional presentations or ingredients. But I found this soup to be amazing. It is described on the menu as “French Onion Soup Baked with Puff Pastry”. They have been serving the soup this way for over 20 years, and it’s very popular in the Fremont area. The pastry is delightfully light and flakey. The cheese is cooked under the pastry, resulting in a sort of “upside down” onion soup. It was like “bizarro f.o.s.”. Because the cheese is not exposed when the soup is baked, the cheese cannot become browned and loses some of the flavor potential. It’s a “double broiler” effect. The soup is served in a Crème brûlée bowl, and when it comes to the table it looks like a chicken pot pie (as you can see from the picture). The cheese is a mix of gruyere and standard swiss, and tastes great.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Finally, an Internet-recommended soup that beat all of my expectations. Very nice cheese, and very sweet, tasty onions. We had four of them delivered to the table, and they were very consistently great.
Rating: 9 out of 10
This restaurant seems to be owned and operated by the same people as The Metropolitan Grill (see below). The menu claims gruyere here as opposed to emmentaler, and I believe it to be true. The veal broth adds good flavor, and unlike my last visit to “The Met”, the cheese was fresh.
Rating: 8 out of 10
This restaurant is a Mecca for those of us who love cheese. They use a blend of a few of their hundreds of cheeses on hand to make a fabulous F.O.S. This makes it a bit non-traditional, yet delicious. I would never say that an F.O.S. has too much cheese, but I will say for this one that it has not enough soup! I think a bigger bowl is called for. However, this would make it tough to tell the difference between their soup and their fondue. Oh well, such problems!
Edit (11/18/2007): The three cheeses are emmentaler, beaufort, and hoch ybrig. Picture added.
Edit (09/19/2009): The mystery thickens! Today I visited Artisanal’s newest location in Bellevue, Washington. Everything tasted the same, which is a great thing! However, I asked about the cheeses in the soup, just to make sure. The server checked with the kitchen, and three different cheeses came back: Emmentaler, fontina, and compté. Could the Bellevue location make a different soup than the NYC location? The server said, “non”, and that Chef Brennan makes all of the recipes. It certainly tasted the same. So, I called the NYC location, and they now say that the server there made a mistake, and that the cheeses quoted to me were from the fondue, not the onion soup. That they actually use gruyere and parmesean.
Perhaps they are just trying to hide their recipe? Who knows. In any case, a new picture is attached. The soup/cheese ratio is now perfect! Please comment on this thread if you manage to find out anything more about my top rated soup!
Edit (06/13/2010) - The Bellevue location has closed
Rating 9.5 of 10
I was excited to try this soup out because I read of their use of comté cheese. I have to say it’s a great choice! The onions were caramelized perfectly, and the broth was excellent.
Rating 8 out of 10
The presentation of the F.O.S at this restaurant has something very unique. In my opinion, they’ve done something here that is long overdue, and secretly wished for by all who love this dish. They actually serve the soup with a pair of scissors (click on the picture to see a better view). That’s right…there’s no need for the secret glances to make sure nobody is watching as you separate a particularly long string of cheese with your fingers. This feature alone would warrant a very high rating, but the soup also happens to be excellent. It is a perfect combination of Gruyere and Swiss.
Rating: 9 of 10
Powered by FireStats
