Soup Nutsy

Use to be a regular at lunch.
Great hearty soups, healthy sides e.g. veggie sticks, sandwiches, crusty rolls
My favorites were clam chowder (large tasty clams), cream of broccoli, Cajun shrimp chowder, crab bisque, mulligatawny, and Sherry beef stew. Loaded with flavour and yummy goodies to fill you up.
Nice affordable lunch option for people who work downtown.

Dear Soup Nutsy,
You say your shops offer service «with less emphasis on cantankerousness and more on carefully prepared soups with a smile.» Ummm… no. It was more like «NO SOUP FOR YOU!» There are staff who really are Soup Nazis.
I used to be a regular customer who would buy your breakfast soup at least 3 times a week on my way to the office. Unfortunately, I will not be going back because there are 2 staff members who tainting the otherwise pleasant experiences I have had there. Today at around 8:45 am I stopped by to buy a large beef bone broth. Usually it is a very friendly staff member of Vietnamese descent or another taller brown-​haired guy or a lady with sandy brown hair usually in a ponytail who all happily assist me. Because the soups are scalding hot, I usually request and am given a double cup and a double cap. Because you don’t offer coffee cup sleeves, the double cup insulates the heat and makes the cup manageable to carry as a have another 15 minutes of walking to reach work, climbing stairs etc. Without the double-​cap, the scalding soup spills all over my hand as I walk and it burns or ends up staining my clothes. I’ve never had an issue until today. One of your staff, a female with burgundy red hair (who has been very rude in the past) told a short male staff member not to give me a double-​cup and double-​cap. When I requested these, he told me «I can’t give these to you because it’s wasting money.» If you provided sleeves and a proper cap or cap plug, then I wouldn’t need to request these things. I’m not about to have boiling soup spill all over me. It’s a matter of customer safety and courteous customer service. I was made to feel like I was asking too much. I was so disappointed that I cancelled my order. I really loved your breakfast soups so this is unfortunate.
I hope you will rectify this for your remaining customers. I am sadly no longer one of them!

First time here and on an excruciatingly hot day, my buddy decided to have lunch here. I ordered the Jamaican crab bisque which was very delicious! Initially, I was hesitant trying this because most crab soup would have the imitation crab meat (white fish), but not here! There’s celery in the soup, but you can barely taste their flavour (I’m not a celery fan). Thank goodness for both perks!
The service was great, I have no complaints here either. The servers also allow you taste the different types of soup they have that day in a mini-​cup.
Upon purchasing, there is an open caf area where you can enjoy the meal.
For a small seafood soup plus any 2 sides (apple, banana, orange, celery/​carrots, or buns), the lunch cost less than $ 10 which is quite rare, especially around the financial district. Overall, great experience!

Everything I’ve tried is delicious! A little expensive for 1 person, but the soups are very filling and they give yiu two sides (bread, fruit, veggie sticks) so overall value is good! They have about 8+ soups a day to choose from: meat, seafood, veggie.

Love Soup Nutsy! The name immediately caught me as one of the few references that I remember from Seinfeld. Soup Nutsy offers a variety of different hearty and creative soup flavours. Sure, it is a bit pricey, but isn’t everything a bit over-​priced at the heart of the financial district? Many of the soups are dairy-​based, but if you’re lactose intolerant, I recommend that West African Senegalese peanut chicken soup. Each of the soup has an indicator such as vegan, lactose-​free, dairy, etc.
How it works: pick your soup size, your soup of choice and then pick 2 items as free sides. The side items that I like are banana (which can be saved for later) and carrot and celery sticks. I say, ditch that salad and try a warm hearty soup instead!

The soup was average, the customer service was terrible.
Today I went to Soup Nutsy for the second time and ordered a small soup — Butternut Squash and Apple.
When I went to pay, the cashier told me to choose two sides. I responded that I only wanted a small soup. The cashier told me the policy was that I had to have a meal — a soup with two sides. I explained that I wanted a soup, not a meal. He kept telling me to choose two sides since it was their policy to only sell meals and not soup alone. He said I would be charged for a meal even if I didn’t want one.
I ended up paying $ 7.90 including tax for a cup of soup, around 250 ml. Imagine if a deli forced its customers to pick a a soup and salad when they tried to buy a sandwich or if you were forced to buy fries and a drink with your burger.
The attitude of the cashier was a complete turn-​off.

Had high hopes for Soup Nutsy, as it was recommended by a friend.
There are lots of different flavours each day. I really like how you can check out the menu of each of their locations (they have 3) and its updated for each day.
The soup was good, but definitely on the pricier side. I got the Lobster Bisque (12oz) combo with a fruit bowl, and it came up to a little over $ 10. After previously reading other reviews, I thought the combo came with a piece of bread, but I was told its $ 1 extra. Probably won’t be returning on a regular basis.

I love how this place plays off the Seinfeld episode of the Soup Nazi — if you were wondering which episode like me its season 7 episode 6. There was even a photo of the Soup Nazi himself which was autographed.
There was lots of different flavours to choose from but once I read out the flavour which was right in front of me I was sold. Jamaican crab bisque. Medium was $ 9 and change and the size was pretty decent. The soup itself was a perfect texture, not too thick and not too watery. Nice amount of crab meat. Packed with all kinds of flavours. When I took the first sip I was just overwhelmed with how many different flavours I could taste. Salty, peppery, a hint of curry I think. After each spoonful I enjoyed it more and more.
Probably one of the best soups that I can remember. Just a bit on the pricy side though.

If you work in the Finical District, I am 100% sure you have seen HUGE lineups outside this place call Soup Nutsy. This soup fast food chain is only available in downtown and they are scattered around all the Financial District food courts.
All the Soup Nutsy serve the same type of soup with different daily soup specials, but whoever decided to introduce Wrap/​Sandwich Soup combo was a GENIUS! This place previously only serves Soups and one medium soup that comes with two sides (bread, veggies or fruits) will cost you around $ 10. Their NEW Wrap/​Sandwich Combo with a combo size soup (one size smaller than small) is also around $ 10 and you can always upsize the soup to the next size for $ 1 per size higher. Doing the math, I strongly think the Wrap/​Sandwich Soup combo is more worth it!
Their soup has always been good and I was surprised how good their wraps and sandwiches are also. I personally prefer the Wrap especially the Mediterranean Lobster Wrap over their sandwiches because the breads they use are HARD. Combo the wrap with a small Lobster Bisque, Jamaican Crab Bisque, Clam Chowder or Cream of Mushroom and you have yourself a legit meal in downtown core for around $ 10.
If you want to skip the line AND be able to choose whatever sandwiches/​wraps and soup you want, make sure you are here around 1145am. With all the overpriced healthy food or the greasy/​fatty Greek and Chinese food within the PATH, 2 meals a week from Soup Nutsy could be a very decent option.

Meh, not sure why there’s such a big lineup for this place during lunchtime weekdays.
I hear of this place many times from my friends who work downtown, and I finally tried it out.
I don’t get it. Soups are not bad. They are hearty which I would expect since they charge so much. It was $ 9 for a combo — side soup and a sandwhich. I got the clam chowder which was pretty decent, and a chicken wrap. They have premade sandwhiches and salads in the fridge which you pick up before getting your soup.
Sandwhich was healthy but I was expecting them to heat it up. Like how Zoup does, and I believe they make their sandwhiches fresh too. There’s also no sampling of different types of soup which Zoup also does. The one thing going for Soup Nutsy is their variety. I just didn’t feel like my money was well spent here :(
Is there a Zoup nearby instead?

I visit Soup Nutsy occasionally, when I am in the mood for a hearty, satisfying soup. Their menu changes daily and you can find the daily specials on their website which is very convenient.
They have a soup and a sandwich special, but I always just get a medium size soup which comes with two sides (veggie sticks, fruit or bread) and it’s a perfect lunch portion. The cost comes to $ 9.15 including tax which really isn’t bad.
If you have food allergies, their website clearly details which soups are dairy free, gluten free or vegan which is a very nice touch.

Why do I keep coming here?
From the very first time I ordered I knew it wasn’t very good. At ten bucks for a thing of soup and two sides — don’t forget your two sides! — it’s a bad deal on its face. But what kind of idiot pays that kind of money when what you’re getting is bland mush that is — in my non-​expertise-​based allegation — reheated from frozen?
Well, this kind of idiot. I’ve known it was bad since my first fateful visit two years ago, and yet for some reason I’ve filled up my loyalty card at least four times over. This place has truly mastered the art of *seeming good* without actually being good, to the point that it’s choked with crowds of us gullible Bay Street types every lunch hour despite spewing out some truly mediocre soup.
Anyway, some observations.
First, brace yourself for a quote-​unquote premium soup experience. You get a nice bag (use it again for $.25 off your next order), a nice little napkin-​wrapped spoon and, as I noted before, two sides — don’t forget your two sides! — of your choice (apple, banana, carrot & celery sticks, bread of various sizes). This is how one convinces oneself to pay $ 10 for soup, I suppose.
If you really must eat here, stick to the creamy soups. I have to admit the bisques and other heavy cream soups are savoury and quite good, being unaffected by the (alleged) freezing process. Word of caution though: the creamier soups are RICH and heavy as lead, so don’t try em before anything you’ll need energy for.
Outside of the creamy stuff, to put it bluntly the soups are ingredients bloated to puffy mush coated in bland salt sauce. This is especially true of any of the starch-​containing soups: african peanut chicken is chicken and peanuts floating in mushy rice, tomato tortelloni is floury paste with vague tomato flavour. Same holds for chicken noodle, minestrone and pasta fagioli (minestrone with a few chunks of bacon thrown in to justify the higher «meat» price). Just serve the noodles separately if you’re going to have it simmering all day (and then freeze and reserve it, allegedly)!
The starch-​less ones are less mushy but still mediocre, sharing the same bland bases (god help you if you try the miracle diet soup and want to actually taste something) with none of the creamier soups’ richness of flavour. I know spices are expensive, but come on. These are just objectively bad soups, and you should avoid them.
Don’t look to the chili to be any better. It doesn’t matter what kind you get — and I’ve had ‘em all at least twice. Especially bad is the chipotle chili, which often (but not always?) has chunks of odd-​flavoured lunchmeat turkey. The «kick-​ass» chili they were serving for a while did no such thing, so don’t let the marketing fool you.
The soup is also rather glitchy. Sometimes I’ve had soups that were clearly mixed together: for example, I used to like the peppery beef goulash and ordered it regularly, until one day I had it and suddenly there were unexplained chunks of chicken and AWFUL discordant flavours — I’m pretty sure they mixed it with the carribean chicken. Similar experiences with the chili and other ones too, where soups I’d had many times suddenly changed dramatically for the worse. I don’t know if it’s a cost-​cutting thing or just mistakes, but they definitely combine soups sometimes to disastrous results.
One thing in its favour is that the service is always good. The staff are very helpful — don’t forget your two sides! — and friendly. Also, it’s nice to be able to check out the website in advance to see what they have for the day.
To conclude, a metaphor. This place has pinned up a signed picture of the actor who played the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld, expressing how great he thinks the soup is. While Larry Thomas clearly has a certain aura of soup-​authority (soup-​eriority?) about him, if you think about it he presumably has no substantive soup-​related skills or qualities whatsoever.
That is the Soup Nutsy.

The line always wraps around the corner during lunch, but they handle their work pretty efficiently so the wait is never as long as it seems.
Soups are overly salty, but generally very good. Nice selection of cold foods too!

Soup Nutsy is at the food court at the bottom of my office building so I tried it for lunch one day. It’s crazy busy at lunchtime! They have a really good system going though, lots of people working behind the bar, and the line goes efficiently.
Main negative for me is that their soups are salty, but I find a lot of things overly salty. They have a pretty huge selection to choose from.

Yes, it is named after a character of Seinfeld. So?
This place is tiny. The layout actually has you go into the store only to pick your soup, move to the left, get your soup, make a U-​turn and make a line-​up out toward the cashiers.
As Stephanie mentioned, I found myself, in line, then not knowing exactly what selections they have so I sent my partner-​in-​soup in a recognizance mission to pick her soup while I held to the line. Then when she had made a choice, I did the same. There is no other way to do it, unless you do that once you are there and then you will hold up the line forever. Hence the line today easily made it’s way out of the store. Like in the show.
I personally got myself a gumbo which had barley, not a real gumbo in that regard, however it was tasty but you can imagine there are some old grandmas in Louisiana spinning in their graves due to such blasphemy to the original recipe.
Now the one thing to remember that they are not necessarily cheap. A medium «sized» soup, which is on the small side is $ 8 and a large is $ 9 plus taxes. They try to soften the blow by offering «any of the sides» on your side of the counter. Which normally are some bread, a banana, apple or some celery & carrot sticks wrapped in plastic.
True they are tasty and the presentation is alright but I do not think they are necessarily worth almost $ 10 for a soup. Especially since you might get twice the amount at a Ramen or Phở fast food place for $ 7-​$ 8 where at least you can seat in and enjoy what you just bought rather than to seat in a smoky (that’s another review) food court.
Oh, and under the «not-​sure it is a great idea,» if you get their rewards card then after purchasing 20 (medium or large) soups you get to receive a «small» serving for free. Holy-​anti-​climatic-​reward-​Batman!
That means you have to spend around $ 100 worth of soup to get a small serving. Yes, it beats a kick in the face but I do not think I will be doing that, thank you.

The dictator of soups has opened up another downtown location.
The Richmond-​Adelaide Centre is newly renovated and it includes a lot more shops and fast food places including the Soup Nutsy.
Today was my first time visiting and the fact that it’s been open for over a month, this location isn’t as crazy as the one at TD. Well, not yet.
The layout is particularly odd for a business that sees long lineups. I can totally envision people walking up to look at the menu, stepping ahead of others and bumping into other people behind at the cash register. But maybe it might work out. That has yet to be seen.
As always, the Soup Nutsy offers great and hearty soups for an affordable price with tons of variety that suits any diet. Be sure to check online at their daily menu.
For now, enjoy the quietness because I have a feeling this place will be buzzing once the weather cools down.