Soup Shop
Founded in Anaheim, this small and growing Vietnamese pho chain also offers garlic noodles and rice plates
Serious fans of Vietnamese pho beef noodle soup tend to gravitate to places such as Pho Flavor, PhoHolic, or Pho Lovers – and likely have opinions on the area’s historic Pho 79 – but they’re only a tiny fraction of Orange County’s pho restaurants. Right before the COVID-19 pandemic, a one-off alternative named Soup Shop opened in Anaheim, soon expanding to additional locations in Anaheim, Irvine, and LA County before setting up shop in Costa Mesa near Deli Seoul and Yubuya. Though its name may sound similar to the once locally beloved American chain Souplantation, Soup Shop is unambiguously Vietnamese in execution, with a far more focused menu.
One might imagine from the large, hard-bound menu that there are countless choices here, but the pages alternate between photo spreads and large text, revealing a fairly short and simple collection of options. Six appetizers ($4 to $11) precede a page of pho soups ($18 to $22), four garlic noodle dishes ($19 to $23), a couple of fried rice entrees ($17 to $19), and four “premium rice” plates ($19 to $23). Many dishes share the same several proteins: crispy chicken, shaken filet mignon beef, pan-seared salmon, shrimp, and/or sauteed veggies and tofu. There are also three desserts ($5.50 to $6.50) and around a dozen drinks ($4 to $7) including Vietnamese coffee, two types of Thai tea, and a nice passion fruit juice with fresh seeds.
Some Soup Shops offer two or three extra items not found at the Costa Mesa restaurant we visited, which is around a third or fourth the size of the chain’s largest (Irvine) location; our server mentioned fried chicken wings and cream-topped drinks as examples. But the menus are always weighted heaviest towards beef brothed soups, while offering more than a few vegetarian alternatives ranging from appetizers to veggie pho or noodles.
Our group tried several of the appetizers, skipping deep-fried popcorn chicken, cajun garlic fries, and crunchy pork and quail egg bao buns. While the pork, jicama, taro, and carrot filling in the egg rolls ($5.45) wasn’t anything special, the rolls were delicate and legitimately crispy as promised, upleveled by sweet and sour dip. The sauteed scallion corn ($11) was unexpectedly (but wonderfully) spicy thanks to a slathering of spicy mayo and cayenne pepper, which paired with parmesan cheese, a lime wedge, fried scallions, and green onions to create a sweet, citrus, bitter, and creamy collection of flavors. By comparison, the roasted parmesan cauliflower ($11) was closer to health food, lightly seasoned and dusted with parmesan, then served with thin-sliced pickled cucumbers and cilantro. Each item was solidly good rather than great, and felt appropriately portioned for its price.
To see what Soup Shop’s signature item was like, we went with its most deluxe pho: the $20 pho combination, augmented with an optional beef rib bone at a total price of $26. That’s a lot for a single bowl of soup – more than even Pho Akaushi charges for wagyu pho. While this princely sum is basically impossible to justify with common pho ingredients such as sliced meatball, triple, tendon, brisket, and ribeye, we’ll note that the bowl was physically large, the portions of medium-thickness rice noodles, broth, and veggies were substantial, and the total quantity of beef before the rib was enough to be filling. That said, the single beef rib wasn’t huge or heavy with meat, and we’ve had similarly loaded phos with stronger beef broth (locally and recently) for less. Soup Shop’s version is closer to South Vietnam-style, less fatty and oily, but still tasty and probably safer to drink down to the bottom of the bowl.
We also ordered the garlic noodles with veggies and tofu ($19), which coupled an amply mound of pasta with around twice as much sliced broccoli, carrot, cabbage, and fried tofu – a fairly substantial entree-sized plate. In terms of crowd-pleasing flavors, this may have been Soup Shop’s single best dish, delivering genuinely outstanding, obviously garlicky, lightly chewy noodles with fresh veggies and tofu that were obviously wok-finished with just hints of char. If we visit Soup Shop again, we’d be more inclined to order a version of this dish than the pho.
From the small selection of desserts – a two-layered coconut jello ($6.45), caramel flan ($5.45), and creme brulee (listed as $6.45 but only $6) – we went with the latter, shown on the menu as a seemingly wide porcelain dish. In reality, the portion was roughly hockey puck-sized and served in a take-out-ready foil cup, though perfectly caramelized to a crunchy sugar finish on top, and appropriately creamy and vanilla-rich underneath. It wasn’t incredible, but its pricing was reasonable enough to make for a fine end to the meal.
Our quick summary of Soup Shop: Pretty good flavors, generally solid protein quality, and prices that range from reasonable to high. We’re not yet sure if we’ll revisit in the future; if we do, we’ll update this article with additional impressions.
Stats
Price: $-$$
Service: Table
Open Since: 2019
Addresses
1534 Adams Ave. Suite E
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
657.232.1507
214 S. State College Blvd.
Anaheim, CA 92806
714.603.7802
Additional locations in Anaheim and Irvine
Instagram: @eat_soupshop