The Best Soup in Every State

Seriously, who doesn’t love soup? The possibilities are literally infinite, it’s easy to make and serve, and it’s warm and comforting. Thankfully, restaurants all throughout the country are making some truly great bowls of soup from scratch, and we’ve tracked down the best in every state.

The Best Soup in Every State (Gallery)

Just about every culture has a place in its diet for soup. It’s a way to make the most out of both fresh seasonal ingredients from the market and ones that we already have hanging around in the pantry, and even amateur cooks can throw a halfway decent soup together. But when in the hands of professional chefs, a bowl of soup can be elevated to serious heights.

For our ranking, we’re highlighting individual scratchmade bowls of soup from restaurants as well as soup shops that sell a variety of soups that change regularly; because many of the best shops change up their offerings on a daily or weekly basis based on what’s fresh and in season, it can be tough to track down one soup that’s the absolute best (you’ll just have to try them out for yourself!). Each region of the country has certain soups that it’s known for; so we tried to highlight as many of those as possible. Asia, with its wide variety of spectacular soups (and thousands of restaurants across the country that specialize in them) could have taken over this whole ranking by itself, so we didn’t take Asian soups into consideration this time around (you can find a ranking of America’s best ramen shops here). We’re also defining soup as any hot liquid-based concoction that you eat from a bowl with a spoon (except for chili, which is another animal altogether; you can find our ranking of America’s best here), so stews and chowders weren’t exempt from consideration. As for cold soups, well, hold off until it gets warm out and we’ll tell you where to find the best gazpacho.

From gumbo in Louisiana to clam chowder in Massachusetts, from matzo ball in New York to she-crab in South Carolina, read on to learn where to find the very best bowl of soup in all 50 states as well as Washington, D.C.

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More on Soup

• 101 Soups for All Seasons
• The 50 Soups of America
• The 50 Best Soups for Fall and Winter
• 15 Quick Soup Recipes to Keep You Warm During a Blizzard
• 25 Slow-Cooker Soups and Stews for Winter