The Burnt Tongue

We thoroughly enjoyed our quick lunch of soup and fries here after seeing the amazing Beaver Hall Group show at the Art Gallery of Hamilton.
Our confused look was a tip-​off for the server to explain their daily menu — everything sounded scrumptious! We chose soups — the asparagus and mushroom and the turnip — and fries (of course). We asked about what was in one choice — and our server pulled out a binder that described the ingredients for every item on offer! The chalkboard items were coded for vegetarian, vegan etc. The service was very friendly, helpful and quick. Seating is limited.
Like so much of Hamilton in 2015, this independent business is working hard, and earned our top-​drawer marks for value, customer service and quality. The city has been more prosperous in previous decades, but The Burnt Tongue and other small local business ventures demonstrate a new potential for Ontario’s Steeltown. The James-​King neighbourhood is worth a few hours to poke through a great variety of shops.
Well done — we recommend The Burnt Tongue without reservation — we will be back…

Consistantly amazing. If you ever see the coconut beet soup on the menu… ORDER IT!

Beef barley soup was wonderful. They feature a number of different soup options that change regularly, and the price is reasonable. Cozy little spot that’ll warm you up on a cold day.

I used to work at the Inc across from this place and I’d grab lunch from here all the time, consistently awesome and I love the different soups every day/​week. Amazing fries ugh, my guilty pleasure for sure.

The soup was great (although the one I had was super spicy), but the grilled cheese was the best I’ve ever had! So crispy and perfect! I wish this place was bigger though!

Pretty good, had a french onion soup grilled cheese, just tasted like a grilled cheese with onions. Had a side of fries, good but over salted. Smallllllll little place, not really my thing. My friend had the kale salad which looked amazing. Wish I would have got that. If I go back it will be for the Kale salad, to go!

I’ve been here a few times. I tried to give them the benefit of the hype everyone has been giving them. Soup is decent but crazy expensive. Everything else is gross.
Also the staff is kind of snappy and hipster.
I tried.

Small casual galley style Café where you order and pay at the kitchen then sit to be served. This seems efficient as the place was super busy when we went for lunch. The atmosphere is warm and friendly — popular so it has a noisy buzz. Service was great — spotted a table for us while we were in the queue — and genuinely nice.
Soups burgers and salads on the lunch menu. We had soups which were wonderful thick vegetable filled and had interesting seasonings. (You could get Sri Lankan sweet potato, sweet potato and lentils, seafood chowder…) The burgers /​salads the people next to us had looked good too.
Tips — try not to sit near the door in winter as there’s a blast of cold air when it opens.
Will definitely go again — one of the cool lunch spots downtown, and just round the corner to Mulberry Café to pick up one of the best coffees in downtown after. What could be better…

My boyfriend and I ordered a brussel sprouts roasted almond soup, a shrimp jalapeño creamy soup and a French onion grilled cheese sandwich.
Soups were delicious and flavourful, and came in a decent portion even for a size Small.
I enjoyed the grilled cheese sandwich as it is not too heavy.
I would definitely come back again for a quick lunch!

For a causal lunch/​dinner spot, this is as good as it gets, and maybe one of the best restaurants in Hamilton, period. Soups are well conceived and full of flavour. Burgers and grilled cheese sandwiches are simple but flawlessly executed. Only downside is that place is very small — go with low expectations for a seat and be prepared to wait. Food can also be ordered to go, thankfully. Awesome.

The soups are ok – But I will crave for the fries once a while… and that is what make me going back…

Double banquet burger and fries $ 19. Are you kidding me. The burger was ok nothing exceptionally outstanding and was wrong items I asked on it. Fries were ok. The currie dipping sauce was really good. Would not be a place I will go back too

Seriously delicious soup! I tried a bowl of spiced carrot & lentil yesterday and was impressed. Whatever combination of spices they used added a nice depth of flavour that I wouldn’t be able to recreate at home.
Friendly customer service.
There isn’t a large sit-​down area, this place is meant for a quick bite or take aways. Looking forward to my next return.

Delicious soup! I tried a bowl of spiced carrot & lentil yesterday and was impressed. Whatever combination of spices they used added a nice depth of flavour that I wouldn’t be able to recreate at home.
Friendly customer service.
There isn’t a large sit-​down area, this place is meant for a quick bite or take aways.

Simple and new daily menu with good food. I had the broccoli and cheddar soup with a grilled cheese with sautéed onion. I suggest getting that it your grilled cheese… it complements the cheese Nicely.

to be honest, i had heard a lot of good things about this place but when i went it was nothing special. however, i still would recommend them as a place to get soup, fries, or a burger as their prices are incredible. their soups also rotate frequently, so it is possible that i got a dud soup — i had a potato/​leek dill soup. it was good, but ive had better.

I work around the corner from these guys and seriously go once to three times a week. Absolute sweethearts the lot of them! I had the medium Butternut Squash, Apple and Arborio one today to go which was a lovely sipping soup with a ciabatta bun. Frigging yum ^^! I can be a little picky so, when they’re not too busy with a line-​up of people, they can give you mini samples of soups to try before you buy. If whoever is at the register doesn’t know exactly what’s in something (for allergies), they quickly ask someone who does. I buy soup for my equal picky diabetic father often and they’re great when it comes to narrowing down options.
I don’t get the comments about them being rude but then again I always come in smiling like a dork, loudly saying Hi Boys and Bye Boys… I’d be a sad panda if I had to stand near deep fryers if that’s any excuse for what some people take as rudeness. It’s a very busy place like where I work and people get tired. I honestly have no issue with their amazing customer service. Love them boys!

Absolutely fantastic! The food quality is outstanding and the staff are informative and pleasant!
With a rotating daily menu and quick service, this place shows how great the downtown core is becoming!

I don’t get it. The soup was fair. I love soup normally. The other food, fair. The dine in area, drafty. The décor, awesome. The service wonderful, even though busy as heck. If you are the ⁹⁄₁₀ people that ends up raving about this place, enjoy, because it’s great supporting nice people. Truth is just because they are all so darn jolly here, I’m certain in future, I will be back accompanying one of the many people I know who love it here.

I love everything about this place! !!! The souos are fresh and so very different from your run of the mill offerings, The burgers where small but packed full of flavor and the staff is friendly. What more could you want!

Had a delicious burger and soup here for lunch. Seating is limited to avoid peak times. Would definitely go back.

I don’t know why this place is so highly rated. It’s okay, but not somewhere I’d constantly return to. The atmosphere was nice, but a draft of cold air would enter any time someone opened the single door.
It’s half-​serve style, so you go up to order and you pay first. So, how much tip is that?! We haven’t even tasted the food or experienced the service, yet! The one guy was really polite and friendly, but another guy was just doing his job. The menu was on the wall; not a very appetizing menu.
They asked us if it was our first time there, but didn’t bother to explain that their main focus was soup. Maybe we should’ve known based on the name and the selection of soup, but it didn’t seem like other customers knew, either (based on how many people actually did not order soup).
Don’t bother ordering their $ 4 hamburger anyway… very few toppings available and it’s slightly bigger than a slider! I suppose it’s supposed to go with the soup. The fries were delicious. The soup we ordered got to us in a really wide bowl (plate?) and so even though it arrived hot, it soon became lukewarm.
The soup wasn’t even that good. Not better than anything outside of a Campbell’s soup can. Highly forgettable. And what were the sides for the soup? Apple slices or baby carrots/​celery or bread? We chose the bread, which was basically the same thing Tim Hortons gives you with their soup.

Had the best soup of my whole entire life, ever: lamb and dried apricot
This is as good as it gets

SOUP-​er. I’m sorry, but I had to.
This place is really delicious. So many homemade soups made fresh daily, and delicious sides. I tried the french fries and the spicy cucumber salad. And a cauliflower soup that was to die for.
Highly recommended. AND if you’re feeling really broke, you can get a grilled cheese for $ 3. Yup.

I came in here for a quick bite during art crawl. It’s a tight (people in line will brush up against your table) but cozy place that offers decent food at affordable prices. The soups were hearty but there wasn’t much variety for a place known for soups. I would skip the burger as it’s rather plain and more of a slider. The grilled cheese and fries were rather mundane. I do like their drink selection though.

Hot soup with is yummy but beyond my imagination. Referred to the good comments about this restaurant, no t that special actually

I checked out The Burnt Tongue with my husband and father, and let me start by saying that my dad is the Soup King. He loves soup, like, LOVES soup. My brother calls him Soup Man. As soon as I told him about this place he insisted we go. We ended up there around 6:30 on Nov. 28^th.
The restaurant is cute, kind of rustic Canadiana meets old-​school diner. It’s a bit dark, so those of us who like to instagram everything we eat may be out of luck. Plus, and this is a biggie, they have their own free parking! In downtown HamOnt! Nice. No website yet, but they are on FB, Twitter, Instagram (@theburntongue), where they post the daily soups.
Anyway, Dad and husband had a split-​pea soup that was stupid. It was so good; the stock used in that soup was so meaty-​tasting and hearty, it was awesome. I don’t even like peas, and I’d eat that every day. I had a potato-​rosemary soup that was thick without being grainy, and it had a great rosemary flavour, like the potatoes had been boiled or poached in rosemary, subtle and really fresh. Again, so good. We all got them with buns, which were a standard soup bun (crunchy outside to stand up to the soup, chewy inside for mopping up the bowl), but we could have gone healthy and had the veggies or an apple. All-​in-​all, the soups we had were delicious, I mean really satisfying. The Soup Man heartily approved, and said that is where we are going for dinner whenever he visits.
We also tried the burger with cheese, and an order of the Belgium fries. The burger was an average burger, and sometimes that is exactly what you need. It wasn’t fancy or weird, it wasn’t trying to be anything other than a decent burger, which made it satisfying. The fries were on another level. Served with a mayo they get imported from Holland, they were so good. They were salty, savoury, a bit of crunch. And a medium order was more than enough to share between the three of us. To round it out, we each had one of their glass-​bottled sodas. Dad and husband went basic with Coke, but I tried the Chummy Rummy grapefruit something-​or-​other. Can’t remember what it was called but effing YUM.
The only complaint, and this is being picky, is that they sell out really quickly. They were down two soups by the time we got there, but it’s not like there was no soup at all. They still had four on the menu, so come on.
Total bill for three medium soups, two burgers with cheese, one medium fries and three soft drinks was $ 45, which I would happily pay again. Plus the owner was soup-​er nice (get it!?! SOUPER?!? Oh puns).
Anyway, if you’re in Hamilton, eat at The Burnt Tongue. Go there. Order all of the soup. Eat it. You will thank me. But more importantly, you’ll be full of soup.