I'm sitting here in eager anticipation of the turkey-rice soup simmering on my stove, taking in the scent, reflecting upon the primal pleasure that eating soup brings. Perhaps no other course is more basic, more universal. Soup is present in every culture, in every kitchen, because the basis for soup is water, the very basis of life itself.
Originally in France, a soup was a clear broth poured onto heels of bread, but later, soups were divided into two categories, clear and thick. Thick soups are also divided into two categories, purees (finely minced thick soups) and bisques (usually made with cream and, if it's a seafood bisque, ground-up shells). For our purposes here, let's classify them all as soup.
Almost any cuisine you can name has a great soup identified with it; French onion, Italian minestrone, Chinese wonton, Japanese miso. South of the border, Mexicans make caldo, brothy cauldrons stocked with chicken and beef, while tortilla soup, also popular there in lighter form, takes on a more substantial character when prepared in this country.
There are a number of places that do matzo-ball soup in Vegas, but none that hold a candle to my mother's version, stocked with ethereally fluffy matzo balls, or even the one you can get at Nate and Al's in Beverly Hills. Vietnamese pho, the rice-noodle soup eaten with various cuts of beef simmered in beef broth, is also available in restaurants here, but in general, none have the beefy intensity of the ones found in more heavily Vietnamese areas.
Still, a disproportionately large number of marquee chefs and high-end restaurants have made Vegas a major soup town. I recently had a chestnut soup at the Wynn resort's Alex that could have been the single best soup I have ever tasted, and I also give high marks to Lotus of Siam for a banana-blossom hotpot with smoked sheet fish, but since neither is a regular menu item, they are not included in the list below.
What I'm listing is simply a sampling of the dozens, maybe hundreds, of good soups available in Las Vegas restaurants. I'm sure I will have left out many of your favorites, and I'd welcome any input you have.
Oops, gotta go check on that turkey soup. The natives are restless.
Chicken Tortilla Soup
El Pollo Loco
The chain's hearty chicken tortilla soup makes a restorative meal for anyone who is hungry, and is a real bargain that few fast-food soups can equal. Loaded with chicken meat, it is an intensely spicy broth served in a 24-ounce container, enriched by carrots, onions and plenty of deep-fried tortilla strips. For less than $6, you get a giant bowlful, and eaten with the accompanying flour or corn tortillas and a few of the house salsas, which are complementary, a bowl will sate almost any appetite.
$5.49. Multiple locations all over the city.
Pasta e Fagioli
Bartolotta
Chef Paul Bartolotta is passionate about the fresh fish he flies in from Italy, but his passion also shows in humble dishes like a killer version of pasta e fagioli that he makes with tiny pasta tubes and the round, brown Italian beans known as borlotti. Much of the soup's deep flavor comes from a rich chicken stock. The chef slow-cooks it until the beans virtually melt, and then serves it in an elegant white porcelain crock, a peasant dish gone uptown—way uptown.
Inside Wynn Las Vegas, 770-7000.
Chicken Soup
Rainbow Bar and Grill
The whole world loves chicken soup, as the saying goes, and this version will explain why. It's a grandmotherly chicken soup, minus the matzo balls, a soup that could be identified with almost any cuisine. Order a cup, and you'll get a bowl; the bowl here is the size of a birdbath. Both are filled to the brim with a thick potage of shredded chicken, sliced potato, soft carrots and rounds of zucchini, a homey yellow broth that is as close to a homemade taste as you'd have a right to hope for in a restaurant.
$2.95 (cup), $4.95 (bowl). 4480 Paradise Road, 898-3525.
Tarator
Magura
Magura is the only Bulgarian restaurant in Las Vegas and, as far as we know, in the entire American West. One of the great glories of this Turkish-influenced Balkan cuisine is tarator, cold yogurt cucumber soup with dill and walnuts. I'm not much for cold soups in general, but this one, with its cool, creamy demeanor and delicious complexity, is hard to resist, especially in the summer. Diced cucumber, crushed walnuts, and a subtle hint of dill make it one of the more sophisticated soups you will ever taste.
$3.95. 1305 Vegas Valley Drive, 693-6990.
Pho Dac Biet
Pho Hoa
One place to try the beefy rice noodle soup is Pho Hoa, a small café near the Hard Rock. The broth is excellent, the price is right and pho is essentially all they do. Dac biet means "special combination." The dish consists of a huge bowl of broth containing lots of chewy rice noodles topped with various cuts of beef, including flank steak, beef balls, beef tendon and beef tripe, accompanied by slew of herbs and vegetables on a side plate. Filling, nutritionally balanced, delicious and cheap—small wonder pho has lately become a national craze.
$6.62. 4503 Paradise Road, 696-0172.
Minestrone
Romano's Macaroni Grill
The rich minestrone, in what is essentially a midpriced family restaurant, comes as a major surprise, because it is one of the only soups in town that tastes as if it has been simmering on a stove all day. (In fact, the restaurant doesn't serve it every day, alternating it with other good soups, such as a fine pasta e fagioli.) It's chock-full of vegetables, pasta, dried herbs and beans, and, with some house bread, you have a small, inexpensive feast.
$3.49. 573 Stephanie Road, Henderson, 433-2788.
French Onion Soup
Bistro Bacchus
French onion soup is often eaten after hours in that country, as a remedy for a night of hard drinking and eating. Here, at this wine shop and bistro, the soup is served in small brown crocks crusted with cheese on the top and sides, yellow onions and veal bones in a rich veal stock laced with thyme and garlic, plus a bit of Pinot Noir. On top, there is a real French baguette to hold the cheese, bubbly and golden brown from its time in the oven.
$6. 2620 Regatta Drive, 804-8008.
Split Pea Soup With Vermont Cheddar and Fried Prosciutto
Envy
Chef Richard Chamberlain, who owns both a steakhouse and a fish house in Dallas, is quite an innovator, and specializes in regional American comfort foods. In his nontypical American steakhouse Envy, he breaks the mold with several dishes, but perhaps none is more creative than his split pea soup, a Kermit-green creation that rises to great heights thanks to the simple additions of shredded Vermont cheddar cheese, which gives it a yin-yang appearance, and shards of deep-fried Italian prosciutto, the legume's natural foil.
$6 (lunch), $9 (dinner). Inside the Renaissance Las Vegas, 3400 Paradise Road, 784-5716.
Stone Crab Bisque
Joe's
Joe's is famous for stone crab claws from Florida, great with whole grain mustard or a shower of melted butter, but I prefer this coral pink bisque, an almost chunky soup. What gives it flavor and color is crab shells, but ingredients such as onions, carrots and celery add dimension, while white wine, brandy and heavy cream add so much richness that the fresh crab-meat garnish seems almost like overkill.
$6.95. Inside the Forum Shops at Caesars, 792-9222.
Avgolemono
Opa
Making avgolemono at home, which any good Greek home cook can do, isn't rocket science, but just try getting it right the first time. Avgolemono is Greek for "egg lemon," and this chicken-based rice soup gets its thickness from stirring in pure egg yolks, which are then curdled slowly with lemon. The soup's taste and purity depend on the quality of the ingredients, and Opa gets them exactly right.
$6. 2550 S. Rainbow Blvd. 876-3737.
Seafood Gumbo
Commander's Palace
Is gumbo a soup? I say yes, and so does chef Carlos Guia of the famed New Orleans eatery, albeit a soup that is thicker, and richer, than possibly any other. Guia's version is a roux-browned flour- and oil-based concoction stocked with Gulf shrimp and oysters, and then finished with gumbo file and powdered sassafras leaves, as well as okra, so bring your appetite. Sometimes Guia also makes chicken and sausage gumbo the same way. We can count our blessings.
$7.50. Inside Desert Passage, 892-8272.
Clam Chowder
R-Bar
Chef Rick Moonen has already made a national reputation for himself by specializing in sustainable seafood and avoiding inferior farm-raised products, but he also deserves a nod for what this New England native thinks is the best clam chowder in the country. He uses Little Neck clams, celery and bacon in a creamy soup that is naturally thickened by the starch that leaches out of the potatoes used to give it body, and it puts to shame the pasty, flour-thickened soups that pass for clam chowder in most American restaurants.
$9.95. Inside Mandalay Bay, 632-7777.