Pittsburgh, PASoups

Kavsar, the Uzbek restaurant on Mount Washington, keeps eight to ten house-made soups on the menu at a time, all drawn from the traditions of the Silk Road country. Order the borscht, listed as borch: a beet-forward bowl on a beef broth with melting chunks of beef, beets, cabbage, potato and carrots, an edge of vinegar and a dollop of sour cream. Mastava, a classic Uzbek soup of beef, vegetables, rice and chickpeas, is the other one to try.

Brothmonger began in 2018 as a cottage soup business that sold its soups around the city and built a devout following, and in 2024 it opened as a warm, cozy soup shop on Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield. Its soups range across the globe and follow the seasons, and they rotate off the menu quickly, so order whatever is on that day.

Cafe Du Jour is a long-lived South Side restaurant on East Carson Street, and its Wild Mushroom Consommé is the soup to order, packed with shiitake, king oyster, porcini, maitake and shimeji mushrooms. The kitchen also makes a different soup of the day, so there is a second bowl to consider.

La Palapa is a cozy Mexican spot on East Carson Street. Order the Sopa de Pescado, a specialty of coastal Veracruz: a tomato-based fish soup with onion, garlic and large pieces of tilapia. The Sopa de Tortilla is the other one to know, a garlic, cilantro and oregano broth with tortilla strips and a poached egg on top.

Known for fresh fish, Penn Avenue Fish Company is also the Strip District stop for seafood chowders, bisques and gumbos, with several seafood soups on at once. Order the spicy seafood gumbo, or the lobster bisque, which is smooth and creamy.