New England Soup Factory

They close at 6pm, not 8pm per their website in the summer. It’s 6:20pm and I now need to find dinner elsewhere :-(

I really love all their soups and go there whenever I get a chance. Tonight however I want to go and realized they have their summer hours and they closed at six.
Unilocal doesn’t have their summer hours online has no summer hours nowhere does it list the summer hours until you go there wanting soup and see what they have no soup because they’re closed. Great sadness

As I’m finishing up my lunch from the New England Soup Factory, I was really curious to see what other Unilocalers had to say. Upon entering, as I’ve never been here before (and honestly just stumbled in looking for a place to get lunch) I took the time to look over the menu. Since there was no line, I didn’t see why this was a problem, but I definitely felt the pressure to tell them what I wanted. I decided on a half veggie wrap and a small side salad of tomato + mozzarella. I was disappointed to realize the sandwich was already made, but, whatever. I was also surprised to see this ring up to over $ 8, considering the sandwich was a premade– half wrap with no meat, but again, whatever. Service was at New England standard (coming from a native Midwesterner, this is not a compliment). By the time I walked home with my food, I was pretty hungry and excited to eat. As far as the actual food: Pros: the wrap was easy to eat– sometimes they overflow and it gets a little messy. The tomato mozzarella side salad was also pretty good. They also thought to include a fork for the salad, which I appreciated. Cons: The wrap was bland. No flavor whatsoever, and I had to continuously check if I was eating the paper when I was eating the wrap itself, as it was so hard/​dry/​flavorless. Perhaps because it was so «light,» I am not full and will probably eat again in an hour. Overall, I was not impressed with this place, but would probably give it another chance on a cooler, soup-​appropriate day.

We found this little place on a warm June day and loved it. Can’t imagine how awesome it would be when Boston is below freezing temperature! Loved their chicken soup with lemon and orzo. Lobster Newburg could use more than 2 pieces of lobster in a pint, but still tasty.
Location: steps from the Brookline Village stop on the Green line.
Facility: clean, neat little place with a few tables. Don’t plan on a sit down meal during rush lunch hours!
Food: great selection tasty soups (both hot and cold) with good ingredients (their chicken and seafood chunks taste like real food and not Campbell’s), a bit salty but hey that is why I like soup! Could use a bit more chicken/​lobster etc though!
Price: awesome! $ 4.50 for a sandwich, soups come with bread, soup combos are about $ 10, give for take a few $ depending on soup size. It will fill you up!
Service: fast and friendly enough by New England standard, meaning no welcoming smile but at least I haven’t gotten yelled at… yet!
Conclusion: will be back!

Very bad customer service! There’s no reason to have such bad attitudes. no one forced you to work at a soup place! So act like you want customers to spend their money!

Couple of weeks ago got a Sand (walkable from work) very bland. Premade which had I looked here first would not have bothered. Could only taste the mustard. Have not tried the soups only because I’ve heard from coworkers that they can be quite salty. I like salt but not ocean water.

So yesterday I go in to the soup factory for dinner an the nice young man helped me might I add I was new there an very indecisive. He gave me samples after samples an I loved the country vegetable… Nearly 2min later there grew a line behind me the poor young man yells for help 2 or 3 times finally a old wobbly man come out to help more people come in so they call for more help but this time the yells fall on deaf ears The servers are great the soup is great but the lack of management staff to help the staff suffocates the place in my opinion… Just found a new spot I love thanks young man #newenglandsoupfactory

I would’ve given The Soup Factory 4 stars but changed that to 2 since they still pummel the soups with salt.
Really great variety of soups. I have come to this place for 8+ years. However, am extremely disappointed that they are using MSG. Their soups are good but definitely on the salty side. I called and spoke with the owner, asking for a offer of a low sodium/​non msg version and she became very defensive. She stated that she had not heard any complaints about the salt levels. Hmmm, seems like she was caught in a little white lie on that one. Many here have specifically commented on the salty nature of these soups. As others have mentioned, don’t promote how healthy, organic & kid friendly your food is while killing us with salt.

A mid day errand is a pain in the ass. A place next door that serves healthy lunch quick? Sign me up!
A simple request to not throw cheese in a salad was met with a surly «they’re already made». Sure enough, the glass counter was filled with salads packaged in plastic bowls just like in a gas station. While scanning the menu board for something else, the guy kept hassling me «do you want anything or what…» Maybe I was keeping him from facebook? There wasn’t a line.
So I got something. I asked for chicken on it, assuming it would be a chicken breast. Silly me. I ended up with a couple thin strips sort of equivalent to one single slice of deli meat. They asked what dressing should come with it. Oil and vinegar, I asked. But, no. Alas, the simplest most basic type of salad dressing is not on offer at the place with the sign that blares salads. They had a variety of premixed stuff on offer. But half the point of getting salad is avoiding mystery ingredients. Could I have asked what’s in the dressing? Maybe if I wanted to strike up a conversation with the irritated guy behind the counter. Whatevs. I just will head elsewhere next time.

Picked up some chicken soup with noodles and the optional matzo balls. My husband and I both make chicken soup with matzo balls from scratch but he’s been busy and I’ve been sick, so we opted for this as a substitute. And I just find the soup… strange.
The broth tastes good and the way chicken broth should taste when made from scratch. I don’t quite understand their choice of noodles– the noodles are the same variety you’d find in a box of Lipton’s instant soup, so they kind of cheapen the whole experience. The chunks of vegetable are enormous. But the real issue is the matzo ball. It is very very large — so large that I had to cut it in half just to fit one into my large soup bowl. And when I cut it in half, I discovered unpleasantness #1: it is raw in the middle! What is the point of having such large matzo balls when it sacrifices your ability to cook them properly?! Smaller, fully-​cooked matzo balls would be far more impressive. A large undercooked matzo ball feels gimmicky and annoying. Unpleasantness #2: their matzo balls don’t taste like anything. The texture on the outer layers is okay, but there’s not schmaltz or matzo meal taste that I am accustomed to. After all the raves I’ve heard from various people about this place’s matzo balls, I gotta say, it was completely unimpressive. I daresay they would have better results making them from the Manischewitz mix!
I guess it’s too much to expect that matzo balls are made correctly en masse… the soups taste good, which is the most important thing. But for those of you who think this is as good as matzo balls can get, please find a Jewish mother, and invite yourself over to her house around the holidays. I can assure you, you’ll have better matzo balls there than you did at NESF. I can make better ones in taste, texture, and that aren’t raw, both when I make them from scratch and when I use a mix. Save your money on the optional matzo balls.
12÷8÷14 Edited to add: The owner sent me a private message saying my review was «mean» and she’s a trained chef who has cooked for 30 years and knows what she is doing… but she did not address my complaint about the matzo balls being raw. She then said that I «would not like it» if someone wrote about me «the way you wrote about my business.» But isn’t that telling — she equates criticism of a business’ product with criticism of the person who created the product.
She also doesn’t seem to know when to stop, because she has continued to write me messages even when I basically said, «please stop badgering me.»

MSG!
Sodium Factory… more like MSG factory. Very disappointed to find out ALL of their soups are «seasoned» with MSG. The owners should be ashamed considering their website claims to make children love vegetables. No kidding. Because they’re consuming neurotoxic, addictive, cancer fertilizer. Thanks for letting us know it’s vegan, gluten free non-​dairy. If you cared you would let us know you’re frying our brains. I’ll take the gluten thank you very much.

We actually found the «soup nazi“in Brookline.
During our week stay visiting Boston, our only negative experience was here. Don’t be fooled by the «family owned» aspect of this business. We tried several restaurants and enjoyed good food and pleasant dining experiences at other family owned restaurants… until we tried this place. Not only was the clam chowder exceeding salty, they do not make sandwiches to order. I tried to order a simple ham and cheese for my son (who doesn’t like mustard) but the manager refused, claiming they were too busy. We were the only people in line. The owners should return to the basics… focus on making good food and hire workers who understand that customers should be their priority.
If we could give less than one star, we would.

First off, I need everyone reading this to understand that I am an avid soup fan, and a former employee. I used to eat Marjorie’s soups every day, and even now I am nowhere near sick of them. The owners of this restaurant are hardworking, kind hearted and genuine people. I worked for them for over a year, and in that short time I’ve seen them help out their employees in ways you’d never imagine possible.
Now for the food.
Every single scrap that leaves this place is home made from the location in Brookline. Soups, salad dressings, cookies, even the mustard that comes with their house baked pretzel sticks. Their team of hard working chef’s come up with delicious creations every day. I am bothered to see that someone and their coworkers on here have referred to them as the «sodium factory.» To this, I say that, they’ve had their soups tested for this, and their salt count is about 200 per cup, where other places such as Panera are about 500. Perhaps the soup factory’s soup tastes slightly saltier, because there aren’t any filler ingredients to hide the taste of the small amount of sodium. I’ve seen these soups made from scratch. I’ve seen the chicken stock on a low boil with just water and vegetables over night. There are so many loyal customers who will only eat their soups, because they know Marjorie and Paul, and they know that they will only produce the finest quality product for their beloved customers. Hopefully hearing my insight will change the minds of those who feel strongly opposing this wonderful soup restaurant. I know many people who travel from all over to stock up on these unique and flavorful soups. I’ve even met people who live across the country now, and will come home to visit family, and the soup factory is their first stop. No one will beat their chowder, newburg, or chicken vegetable (or any other soup creation for that matter)

I have been coming here for YEARS and was so disappointed to recently learn that they use MSG in nearly all of their soups. I just wish I had known this earlier because I never would have eaten here. We are given the courtesy of being told if the soup is vegan, vegetarian, with alcohol… seems there should be a «with msg» next to all these soups as well.

I used to go to college in the area and lived off of this place for years. You can tell when food is made with love, and passion. The owners of this place surely have lots of it which made my tastebuds, and belly very happy.
They have options for everyone; vegetarians, vegans, glutten free and even if you aren’t a soup fan their cookies are to DIE for! I reccomend this place at anytime during the year as their salads and sandwhiches are very fresh and taste just as good as the soups.
The space it’s self is very cozy though, so beware during lunch time it becomes very cramped. Parking is also a pain in the ass (and expensive), so subway is the best way to get here (D line to Brookline Village). They also don’t have a bathroom… which sucks, but there is not one very far away.
I’d give my right arm to have a cup of their clam chowder on this cold January day.

Pros:
–closest eatery to my work
–soups are hearty and warm
–good variety of chips/​cookies/​soda and other lunch go-​withs. Mmm snickerdoodle cookie!
–freshly made salads
–the chicken pot pie soup comes with a flaky biscuit that is Mmm Mmm GOOD!
Cons:
–heavy on the salt. Coworkers have nicknamed it ‘Sodium Factory’
–sandwiches are pre-​made so you cannot get them minus any particular ingredient/​sauce
–$ 6 limit to use your credit card (bowl of soup is usually around $ 5.50 so this limit ensure that you must buy soda/​chips/​etc)
–their website isn’t always updated with their soup (s) of the day. So I’ll go wanting to get something that ends up not being available.
Place gets busy during lunch and there isn’t much seating. If you’ve got a larger group or want a quiet area, I’d recommend avoiding the lunch hour or heading somewhere else.

I have no idea how I have lived here for 2 years and have never tried this soup until last month. My mistake! It is located on the other side of the Brookline Village T tracks and I have been steps away for so long without knowing what I was missing out on. This place is delicious! The chicken matzoh ball soup tastes like my family’s, the lobster bisque is soooo good and their seasonal soups (blueberry cardamom in the summertime is one of many delicious specialties, and butternut apple sage is one of of many featured now for fall) are great. Truly delicious, and dangerously close to where I live.
The only reason for ⁴⁄₅ stars is because I can’t find the nutrition info anywhere. Maybe it’s better that I don’t know…

I went with the pint of Clam & corn chowder which came with 2 rolls for $ 6.50. While I liked that the New England Soup Factory gave additional rolls to go with the larger portions of soup, and that they offered both french and multigrain, I found the multigrain roll to be a bit tough and the soup on the peppery side.
I will, however, be willing to return to try some of their other offerings since they have my friend’s beloved huge brown sugar chocolate chip cookies and two frozen pints for the price of one — just check out the freezer on the left for that day’s options.

Look, I don’t know what to say, this place is amazing and I have heard that it will one day leave and I am already mourning it.
Fantastic soups, friendly staff. I go as often as my pocketbook will allow.

I always say that the key ingredient in my cooking is passion.
This is what I first noticed as I tasted their Split Pea with Spinach (Veg) was how amazing this soup tasted, and then it slowly dawned on me that I was tasting a true master piece, and the the symphony of flavors was from the love and passion poured into this dish. I could taste the care and affection with which it was cooked to perfection and I understand, I mean I see that someone else out there ‘gets it’
You can taste the love