After a long rainy day, there is nothing better than a piping-hot bowl of soup. With 4.4 stars on Yelp and 4.7 stars on Google, Central Square’s What A Soup is the perfect way to indulge in your rainy-day desires. Originally sold off boats in Bangkok, traditional boat noodle soup is the staple of this Thai restaurant whose menu features a variety of rice bowls, sides, and appetizers.
Opened in January 2024, What A Soup has been satisfying customers’ rainy day cravings for over a year now. The owners also own two other Boston-area Thai restaurants: What Da Chick and Thai Bar Shi. After the boat noodle soups became a hit at Thai Bar Shi, the owners decided to open a restaurant fully dedicated to the dish. Co-owner Sacharun Manvicha explained that preparing the broth for a boat noodle soup can take upwards of twelve hours. Despite the time-consuming process, he exclaimed to Eater Boston, “We love this soup.”
Upon entering the restaurant from the stormy outdoors, we were greeted by welcoming workers and a warm atmosphere. There was even a coat rack to hang our dripping coats and avoid any further discomfort. The menu was funky and brightly colored, a sentiment illustrated throughout the small but vibrant restaurant. The service was quick, and the prices were reasonable, contributing to overall a very positive experience.
We started our meal off with the Thai iced tea, made from Ceylon black tea, milk, and sugar, which was a great opener to our meal. The aromatic cardamom, anise, and tamarind spices balanced the mild milky flavor. While most store-bought beverages are overpoweringly sweet, we appreciated the not-too-sweet but still flavorful drink. Next, we tried out What A Soup’s french fries with a colorful surprise—fried purple sweet potatoes. The crisp breading as you bite into the fries paired nicely with the chewy potato, offering a familiar yet unique experience.
The Wonton Noodle Soup came with pork and shrimp dumplings, bok choy, and bean sprouts over a bed of egg noodles in a clear broth. A modern take on a classic Asian street food dish, these wontons were uniquely shaped into rectangles instead of the traditional semicircles with intricate folds. Despite their unconventional shape, the wontons still kept their silky and rich essence. The crisp vegetables paired with the umami wontons and chewy egg noodles offered a warm, comforting dish that left us planning our next trip.
Lastly, we had to try one of the staple boat noodle soups. Deciding on the Beef Boat Noodle Soup, our dish included beef, tendon, dark soy broth, crunchy pork belly, meatballs, and a fried wonton crisp. A little bit of heat (though not enough to have us downing our Thai iced tea) brought together all the flavors in the dish. The noodles and meatballs were perfectly soft, while the tendon was tough and provided a unique texture.
Any Cantabrigian in need of soup after a long, rainy day must pay a visit to the cozy and delicious What A Soup.
This article also appears in our February 2025 print edition.
