Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Stew, salad and Soup Du Jour

Every day soup restaurant brings an impressive variety to Serra Mesa

A cup of short rib soup with tender daikon radishes in a pork and vegetable broth
A cup of short rib soup with tender daikon radishes in a pork and vegetable broth

Rain. Wind. Cold. Our long summer has finally given way to what passes for winter (for the time being), which has proven the perfect time to visit a new restaurant built around a fondness for soup.

Place

Soup Du Jour

8583 Aero Dr, San Diego

Soup Du Jour recently opened on Aero Drive, in a modern, mixed-use apartment building on the northern edge of Serra Mesa. Last I visited, this was a deli that cured its own meats and made a mean pastrami sandwich. I’m sorry to see it go, but then, there aren’t a lot of restaurants or other retail businesses nearby to drive traffic to the area.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Chunky albondigas soup with a side of roasted vegetables

Nevertheless, on a rainy day this week I found a lively dining room populated by soup fans slurping their lunches. The new business has added a few decorative touches, but for the most part the set-up of the previous tenant remains intact, a long service counter slash beer and wine bar on one side, booths and community tables banked by windows on the other, and a spacious dining patio out front.

Braised pot roast with a side of rice

The menu’s not exclusively soup: small plates ranging from 5 to 9 dollars include spring rolls and Taiwan-style popcorn chicken, while 10- to 13-dollar salads range from sesame noodle salad to crab mango. Which is to say, there’s an unusually diverse assortment of solid meal options, some revealing Asian influences, some merely highlighting the owners’ preference for local vegetables and naturally raised proteins.

A fast casual counter restaurant built around soups

But yes, what the family behind the place really loves is soup, and they furnish no fewer than six soup options, available by $6 cup or $10 bowl. There’s a lot to like here. For fans of Mexican soups, there’s a free range chicken tortilla soup served with strings of oaxacan cheese melting into it, and albondigas packed with chunks of chayote and large meatballs made from a beef-pork blend and fragrant dose of cumin. For Asian flavors, you can look to the hot and sour soup featuring both shitake and wood ear mushrooms, and the option to include shrimp; though I would recommend checking out the daikon soup, swimming with tender daikon radish, bolstered by shitake mushrooms and the option to include spare rib.

Soup Du Jour replaces the previous tenant, Carve deli.

For a place that makes everything from scratch, I’m impressed to find so many different base stocks at play. A beet broth is the base for both vegan and beef borschts, while the corn clam chowder builds off a roux and clam juice. There’s beef for the albondigas, chicken for the tortilla, and a vegetable stock built from ginger, carrot, chayote, and mushroom starts off the vegan daikon soup, then gets blended with pork broth for the short rib version — my favorite of the bunch so far, in case that’s not already clear.

I was surprised not to find any noodle soups, but I didn’t miss them. While the stocks are thin, they do not want for flavor, and the large, chunky solids make them fairly substantial, whether you’re bouncing from cup to cup as I do, or commit to a large bowl. Either way, they come standard with sides such as tortilla or wonton strips, which can be upgraded for 1 to 4 bucks to a choice of something like naan or roasted veggies: a tasty jumble of eggplant, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, and onions coated in chili paste.

When I asked whether cold soups such as gazpacho or vichyssoise might make an appearance during warmer times of the year, the owners said it’s a consideration. But they’re confident soup lovers will eat these chunky soups year round. If not, they can always move over to the stews menu, whether ratatouille, chickpea and cauliflower curry, or a hearty braised pot roast with hunks of carrots and potato ($11).

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The Digital Currency Wave Hits the Shores of San Diego

A cup of short rib soup with tender daikon radishes in a pork and vegetable broth
A cup of short rib soup with tender daikon radishes in a pork and vegetable broth

Rain. Wind. Cold. Our long summer has finally given way to what passes for winter (for the time being), which has proven the perfect time to visit a new restaurant built around a fondness for soup.

Place

Soup Du Jour

8583 Aero Dr, San Diego

Soup Du Jour recently opened on Aero Drive, in a modern, mixed-use apartment building on the northern edge of Serra Mesa. Last I visited, this was a deli that cured its own meats and made a mean pastrami sandwich. I’m sorry to see it go, but then, there aren’t a lot of restaurants or other retail businesses nearby to drive traffic to the area.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Chunky albondigas soup with a side of roasted vegetables

Nevertheless, on a rainy day this week I found a lively dining room populated by soup fans slurping their lunches. The new business has added a few decorative touches, but for the most part the set-up of the previous tenant remains intact, a long service counter slash beer and wine bar on one side, booths and community tables banked by windows on the other, and a spacious dining patio out front.

Braised pot roast with a side of rice

The menu’s not exclusively soup: small plates ranging from 5 to 9 dollars include spring rolls and Taiwan-style popcorn chicken, while 10- to 13-dollar salads range from sesame noodle salad to crab mango. Which is to say, there’s an unusually diverse assortment of solid meal options, some revealing Asian influences, some merely highlighting the owners’ preference for local vegetables and naturally raised proteins.

A fast casual counter restaurant built around soups

But yes, what the family behind the place really loves is soup, and they furnish no fewer than six soup options, available by $6 cup or $10 bowl. There’s a lot to like here. For fans of Mexican soups, there’s a free range chicken tortilla soup served with strings of oaxacan cheese melting into it, and albondigas packed with chunks of chayote and large meatballs made from a beef-pork blend and fragrant dose of cumin. For Asian flavors, you can look to the hot and sour soup featuring both shitake and wood ear mushrooms, and the option to include shrimp; though I would recommend checking out the daikon soup, swimming with tender daikon radish, bolstered by shitake mushrooms and the option to include spare rib.

Soup Du Jour replaces the previous tenant, Carve deli.

For a place that makes everything from scratch, I’m impressed to find so many different base stocks at play. A beet broth is the base for both vegan and beef borschts, while the corn clam chowder builds off a roux and clam juice. There’s beef for the albondigas, chicken for the tortilla, and a vegetable stock built from ginger, carrot, chayote, and mushroom starts off the vegan daikon soup, then gets blended with pork broth for the short rib version — my favorite of the bunch so far, in case that’s not already clear.

I was surprised not to find any noodle soups, but I didn’t miss them. While the stocks are thin, they do not want for flavor, and the large, chunky solids make them fairly substantial, whether you’re bouncing from cup to cup as I do, or commit to a large bowl. Either way, they come standard with sides such as tortilla or wonton strips, which can be upgraded for 1 to 4 bucks to a choice of something like naan or roasted veggies: a tasty jumble of eggplant, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, and onions coated in chili paste.

When I asked whether cold soups such as gazpacho or vichyssoise might make an appearance during warmer times of the year, the owners said it’s a consideration. But they’re confident soup lovers will eat these chunky soups year round. If not, they can always move over to the stews menu, whether ratatouille, chickpea and cauliflower curry, or a hearty braised pot roast with hunks of carrots and potato ($11).

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The Digital Currency Wave Hits the Shores of San Diego

Next Article

Taco Taco Poway still has 99-cent fish tacos

Tacotopia prizewinner is well known among Powegians
Comments
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
Dec. 7, 2019
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.