Ladle & Leaf

Ladle & Leaf is another chain restaurant that is targeted at the downtown lunch crowd. I think it has about 10 locations in FiDi so you will run into a location every couple of blocks. As its name suggests its main offering are soups and salads, but it also has sandwiches. This is the location that I've been to the most as it is closest to my place of work. During peak lunch hour as expected it is very busy with a line out of the door. Unfortunately it does not move fast and takes more than 20 minutes to be in and out. They have a huge list of soups including seasonal soups and daily soups that keep changing and a set of signature soups like clam chowder, Mexican tortilla, turkey chili etc. which are available every day. Similarly they have a bunch of standard salads and rotating seasonal offerings so there is plenty to choose from. I generally get the perfect pairing which is a combination of a medium soup and salad. I think that I've tried the Turkey Chili and the Mexican Chicken tortilla soup and the Brussels, Kale and Quinoa and the Chicken Chipotle salads. The turkey chili is thick and has the real stuff not a bunch of beans. Unfortunately it is not seasoned correctly so tastes bland. The Mexican Chicken tortilla soup does not even come close to the one from the San Francisco Soup Company. The salads are just plain bad. They look cramped and wilted. Goes without saying that I did not like what I got at Ladle & Leaf. Price wise the perfect paring with cost you about $13 which is just a tad over the $12 threshold that I'm used to paying for half soup and sandwich in FiDi, so it would be in line with what you would pay at other places. Service needs a mention and not in a nice kind of way. It needs improving, as the people behind the register need to cheer up a bit and be more helpful. The menu options are vast and there are many different combinations that can be ordered so its not nice to just brush people off. All said I'm definitely not a fan of Ladle & Leaf.