French Onion Soup Page

Good provolone, and one of the better non-beef broths make this soup a good lunch indulgence.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

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Founded by Bob “Bru” Brudzinski (one of the “Killer Bees” from the Miami Dolphins of the 1970s), this place is famous for their chicken wings.  They also have a F.O.S. which I’ve enjoyed over the years.  Filled with lots of provolone, it’s not quite the traditional type of soup I’ve grown to love, but it is great in its class.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

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Located in the Mirage hotel, Cafe Caribe is the main restaurant/coffee shop.  The onion soup seemed to contain provolone, with perhaps some swiss mixed in.  The broth was pretty good.

Rating 6.5 out of 10

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Having f.o.s. on the menu of an Italian restaurant brings me back to my old days in suburban New York.  As you can see from the photo, the gruyere is not melted very well.  The soup tasted reasonably good, but the cheese was bleh, and was all stuck to the bread.

Rating: 5.0 out of 10

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Heh, I thought this place went out of business…apparently, someone bought the name and the locations, and opened them up as franchises.  It’s pretty much as I remember it growing up, with cheap provolone and bland soup.  A couple of extra points for nostalgia, though.

Rating 5.0 out of 10

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Nothing special about this soup, topped with provolone.  It came out a bit on the cold side, so I sent it back.  They were nice enough to create an entirely new one, though I thought that unnecessary.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10

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I have been avoiding trying the French Onion Soup at Applebee’s for years.  I had heard that their version is a “diet” version, using fat free cheese, among other things.  I figured it would be horrible.  So, my mission here was to balance out my blog a bit, and bring the average down.  The time had come to sample this monstrosity.  What would the rating be, 2.0?  1.0?  I laughed maniacally, as I walked in.  I was shocked to learn that they actually have two versions of the soup: regular, and diet.  That was a surprise.  So, I ordered both.  See below for my review of the diet version.  The regular version was at least as good as other chain restaurant versions.  The cheese was a decent swiss, and the broth was tasty.  It could have used more cheese, however.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10

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This is the “diet” version of the French Onion Soup that I had heard about.  You can see that the cheese looks different, but I couldn’t get any info out of the server as to what it was exactly.  I’ve heard from people that it’s “fat free”, and from others that it’s “low fat”.  In any case, it wasn’t as horrible as I was hoping it would be.  The broth is a special “low sodium” broth, but it definitely tasted salty to me.  Again, it was much better than I was hoping.  The “crouton” was described as a “low carb” crouton.  I couldn’t tell you the effect of that, as to me the only purpose of the crouton is to hold up the cheese.  My mission to Applebee’s was completely unsuccessful.  I did not bring down the average, and the French Onion Soups were adequate, including the diet one!

Rating: 5.5 out of 10

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Extra ratings points for lots and lots of cheese.  It’s a combination of provolone and swiss.  Broth was tasty.  Located in the Sheraton University Hotel.

Rating 6.5 out of 10

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Decent soup with provolone.  Nothing special.

Rating 6 out of 10

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This traditional greek-style diner has what I remember eating growing up in New York.  It’s “comfortable” onion soup, while not French traditional.  Provolone cheese, nice and browned, and salty soup.  One of the top of the pedestrian soups.  This particular diner is the place that has become a regular stop for folks travelling from the NYC metropolitan area on their way to some of the upstate colleges (Cornell, Syracuse, Binghamton, etc.)

Rating: 6.75 out of 10

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Served as typical pub fare, this soup definitely rates in the upper eschelon of its genre.  It’s just provolone cheese, but they do a very good job of browning it, and it has a good flavor.  The soup has just the right amount of salt.  Note that this is one of a chain of “Miller’s Ale Houses”, each being prefixed with its city.  I’ve found the soups to be consistent in quality throughout the chain.

Rating 6.5 out of 10

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This soup brought on a very warm feeling.  It reminded me of the FOSs I used to get at the various greek diners around NYC when I was growing up.  Although it is non-traditional and pedestrian, it wins the award for best in that class.  The right amount of cheese, and sensible broth.  Recommended by one of our readers who posted about it this morning, so I figured I’d try it out for lunch.

Rating: 7 out of 10

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Excuse the picture “tone”, as we were seated next to bright yellow neon signs.  If that isn’t an indicator of the expected quality of the soup, I don’t know what would be.  Decent amount of cheese (provolone and swiss), and browned nicely.  However, the soup was like drinking a bowl of salt water with some black pepper and onions thrown in.   The onions were nicely caramelized.  This is another entry in my recent tour of chain restaurants.

Rating: 5 out of 10

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This could have been any of the 1,019 Friday’s restaurants in the USA.  The FOS here is the same as it has been for decades: pedestrian, but comfortable.  It is in no way traditional in the european sense, but it’s consistent and serves its purpose.

Rating: 6 out of 10

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