Zoup! Soups and Sandwiches Offers a Wide Variety of Soups

1828 Airport Road
Allentown, Pennsylvania 18109

It is near the ABE Airport and is open Monday-Saturday 11 am - 8 pm and Sunday 11 am - 5 pm.

Zoup! is a "Fast-Casual" restaurant franchise created in 1997 that offers a wide variety of Soups and flavors change daily. At any one time, each Zoup! location serves a dozen varieties of soup. Each comes with a hunk of bread - French bread, multigrain, or sourdough Ciabatta and prices start at about $4. Their soups come in four sizes including, Side 8 oz., Cup 12 oz., Bowl 16 oz., and XL 32 oz. (2 Breads).

Zoup! sells regular every day type soups as well as more unique or gourmet flavors. Using the current menu at my local Zoup!, the "regular" flavors include Chicken Potpie, White Chicken Chili, Italian Wedding with Turkey Meatballs, Broccoli Cheddar, Pepper Steak, and Corn & Roasted Red Pepper Chowder. The more unique flavors include Lobster Bisque, Spicy Crab & Rice, Chicken Fajita, Pumpkin Pie Bisque, Overstuffed Bell Pepper, and Buffalo Chicken. As you can see, Zoup! has flavors for everyone. Flavors vary by location and usually change each week, so it's a good idea to call ahead or visit the website and browse to your location before placing your order.

In addition to soup, Zoup! also sells salads, sandwiches, bread bowls, and desserts.

GreenZ or salads each come with a hunk of bread - French bread, multigrain, or sourdough Ciabatta and prices start at $4. The varieties do not usually change and include Cobb, Loco Burrito, Sonoma, Asian, American Farm, Chicken Caesar, and Greek.

SandwichZ start at $4 and are on your choice of Artisan Ciabatta or rolled in a Multigrain Flatbread Wrap. You can get sandwiches in two different styles: Grilled Panini or plain Cafe-Style. The sandwich types do not usually change and include Chicken Greek w/ Feta, Southwest Turkey, Turkey Club w/ Swiss, Cali Veg w/ Provolone, Tuna Salad w/ Lemon & Capers, Tuscan Chicken w/ Pesto, and Classic Grilled Cheese

Bread Boule or bread bowls consist of 8 oz. Of your choice of soup served in a bread bowl.

Zoup! also has a few other items including, Try Two! Combo, Desserts, Drinks and Extra Bread.

Some Zoup! locations, like the one I went to, accept FAX orders using printer-friendly forms available on the Zoup! site. This is a cool service for people who are in a hurry and want their food ready-to-go at the counter or have a large order for groups of people. Zoup! also offers catering and a catering rewards program in which users earn a point for every dollar spent on catering.

My Review

Whenever I try the food from a restaurant I try to order several items from the menu to get a broad taste of what it has to offer. With that in mind, I knew wanted to try several soup varieties because that is their specialty. I ordered four kinds of soup and two kinds of sandwiches. I avoided their salads because I really don't like salads in general but you need to know that they are available at Zoup!

I bought a half price certificate from Half Off the Valley so I could try a variety of menu items. My total Zoup! order cost $26.61 which is reasonable for deli style food.

Zoup! has a knack for trying to be unique and cutsy with their use of the letter "z" in place of "s" in their name and many menu items, such as SandwichZ and SaladZ. They also write Boules instead of Bowls. I just find it annoying, like teenagers using "netbonics" online. One other oddity is that their custom sandwiches (oops, sandwichZ!) list proteins instead of meats -- I know meats are proteins but never saw restaurants refer to them in this manner. I guess I'm just a guy who likes my food straight up, no frills, no fancy words -- real men don't want protein, we want meat (ignore how that sounds!).

Soups

Right off the bat I'd like to say that all four of the soups I tried at Zoup! had one thing in common: salt! Every one of them was loaded with salt, some more than others. I am a firm believer in not adding much salt to food, especially soup, while it is being cooked -- everyone has different tastes and some prefer less salt and for some it is even a health risk. I think restaurants should allow the customers to add their own salt. The salt was considerable but not enough to make the soups inedible for me at least.

Chicken Potpie costs $3.95. This soup seems to be available daily, so I figured I would try it just because of this factor. In my opinion, it's almost the same as saying the house soup which embodies the whole concept of the establishment. The official description states "Creamy chicken soup with mixed vegetables. Garnished with homemade pie crust." This was my favorite soup of those I tried at Zoup! The chicken was good, not as creamy as I thought, the vegetables were there but not too much and I'm not sure which parts were the pie crust because I really didn't taste anything similar to a pie crust. Overall, it didn't taste like chicken pot pie but its still had a good flavor to it, aside from the salt, which wasn't too bad with this soup.

Overstuffed Bell Pepper costs $4.50 and the official description reads: "Sautéed beef with garlic, oregano and basil, green and red bell peppers with rice." This soup interested me because I like stuffed peppers and this flavor of soup seems to be gaining popularity everywhere, so I thought I would try it. It turned out to be my second favorite of the four soups. It tasted pretty close to our homemade stuffed peppers but it was served in a very strong tomato-based broth that might bother people with acid reflux and the salt was a negative factor again.

White Chicken Chili costs $4.25 and the official description reads: "White meat chicken chili with navy beans, celery, onions, green peppers, green chili peppers, sweet corn and fresh oregano and thyme." I was hoping to try one of the beef chilis from Zoup! but no such luck on the day I ordered. This really did not taste like any type of beef chili I have ever tasted; I have tasted a few chicken chilis but even those tasted more like beef chili than this. It tasted more southwestern than Texas or Mexican chili and I'm not a big fan of southwestern food. I have also never had chili made with navy beans before. If you like southwestern food, you will probably like this but, if you are a fan of chili, this will be a hit or miss.

Buffalo Chicken $4.50 and the official description reads: "Tender chicken simmered with sautéed celery and carrots, finished with spicy hot sauce and bleu cheese." I love Buffalo chicken and jumped at this soup when I saw it listed. How disappointing! This was the worst of the four soups and probably one of the worst soups I have ever tasted in my life. This tasted nothing like Buffalo anything. The chicken itself was shredded and had a good texture; there was quite a bit of chicken, making this a very chunky soup. There were not many vegetables. The main negative is the broth, in which I could only detect a slight amount of heat and no hot sauce flavor. I also couldn't taste much bleu cheese but enough to know it was there. The broth was like a cream with a hint of bleu cheese but I really can't describe how bad this tasted to me. It tasted almost as bad as cough syrup! I barely finished this soup.

The hunks of bread were all quite tough -- I don't think they were stale, just made tough. I suppose they are the type of bread suitable for dunking in your soup without the worry that it might crumble or get soggy.

SandwichZ

The sandwiches were decent but the rolls and flatbreads tasted strange to me, often overpowering the ingredients inside. The ingredients tasted fine.

Chicken Greek with Feta cost $3.95 for half a sandwich and the description reads "Grilled chicken strips, feta cheese, tomatoes, black olives, scallions, sliced pepperoncini and cucumber dill tzatziki sauce." I ordered this on a ciabatta, grilled style but received a flatbread wrap that was grilled instead. I wasn't going to get this sandwich at first but I just bought it on a whim because of the olives and the tzatziki sauce made me curious. This was not listed as hot but with pepperoncini I'm not sure why it wasn't. I don't mind the heat but I just don't understand why it wasn't listed as such. The whole combination of the sandwich ingredients went well together but left a strange aftertaste. I think I would have liked this more if I had gotten it on a ciabatta like I ordered.

Southwest Turkey with flatbread wrap cost $3.95 for half a sandwich and a description reads: "Sliced turkey, pepper jack cheese, tomato & chipotle mayo." I ordered this on a flatbread wrap, cafe style. This was a simple and great tasting sandwich, so it just goes to show that sometimes the simpler the better. The turkey tasted like Boar's Head quality and a lot of the flavor came from the pepper jack cheese.

Conclusion

Overall, I found Zoup! to be a moderately good deli-style restaurant with moderately good food. It really depends on the soup ordered on each particular day -- some soups are better than others but most are very salty; they should offer low-sodium versions of their soups for people that don't like salty food or have low-sodium diets. They offer Low-Fat, Vegetarian, Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, and Low-Points (for Weight Watchers, etc.) soups but oddly none labeled Low-Sodium.

The prices are moderately-priced and about what you'd pay at most delicatessens. I think the soups are a bit overpriced by a dollar or two because they're not much better-tasting than non-condensed canned soups. It's a judgment call. I see some locations allow customers to sample soups before buying and I highly recommend trying several soups before deciding which to order.

If you want a quick lunch with a large selection of gourmet soups at a moderate price, Zoup! might be a good place for you. However, their selection of sandwiches and salads is limited and unchanging, so they come up short in that area compared to most full-service delis with much broader menu. You could do worse than Zoup! so at least give them a try.

Rating: 2.5/5