For those who know them, REALTORS® Christopher Mekker and Angela Mekker are unofficially considered to be the foremost French Onion Soup Connoisseurs in town. Now it is time for Buffalo City Living to make their Connoisseur Status official! We have asked our Facebook followers to post their opinions and to join the Mekkers on their epic adventure to find the Best French Onion Soup in Buffalo!
French Onion Soup Rating
How does a French Onion Connosseur grade, or rate, their soup? For interest of simplicity, we have devised a 5-Star rating system, wherein five separate quality categories earn a single star on a pass/fail system. Your two judges, Christopher Mekker and Angela Mekker, grade each category independently. Their scores are then averaged to give us a final grade which may result in half-star ratings.
Five Qualities of the Best French Onion Soup:
- Presentation
- Cheese
- Broth
- Bread
- Onions
…and now for our reviews!
Glen Park Tavern – 5507 Main St, Williamsville, NY 14221
- Overall Rating 4 of 5 Stars
- Christopher’s Rating 4 of 5 Stars (for quality presentation, cheese, broth, and onions)
- Guest’s Rating 4 of 5 Stars (for quality presentation, cheese, broth and bread)
- Commentary: Christopher was accompanied by a guest reviewer at Glen Park in Angela’s absence. Both of our soups were “presentation perfect,” featuring broiled cheese melting down the sides of a crock. We asked the kitchen to explain their cheese, which pleasantly confused our taste buds in to thinking it was either provolone or swiss, and turned out to be a custom-blend of both. The beef-based broth was a nice consistency, not too thin and not too thick. Our team didn’t agree on the bread and onions. Christopher docked the chef a point “out of principal” for using croutons instead of genuine baguette, while our guest reviewer loved the taste of the croutons but got hung up on a heavy-handed portion of undercooked onions. Curiously, the onions in Christopher’s soup were well-done and perfectly proportioned. Perhaps the kitchen’s ladling technique changed and/or the guest’s broth could have been a new batch that hadn’t simmered quite long enough.
- Date and time: Friday 9/13/2024, lunch at 1:00pm
The Eagle House – 5578 Main St, Williamsville, NY 14221
- Overall Rating 3.5 of 5 Stars
- Christopher’s Rating 3 of 5 (for quality broth, bread and onions)
- Angela’s Rating 4 of 5 (for quality presentation, broth, bread and onions)
- Commentary: We could tell right away that the Eagle was having some consitency problems in the kitchen. Christopher’s soup came out with burnt-black cheese on top while Angela’s soup was “presentation perfect,” featuring an iconic cheese waterfall melted evenly around the circumference her crock. While only one of our soups was burnt, both of our provolone cheese layers were abnormally thick and difficult to pennitrate with a spoon. The beef-based broth was sweet, and obviously wine-infused. The bread was genuine French baguette and the vidalia onions were cooked well and perfectly perportioned.
- Date and time: Saturday 7/6/2024, dinner at 6:30pm
