Cousins Lobster Bisque

Today, we are reviewing the Lobster Bisque from Cousins Maine Lobster. Cousins is primarily a food truck business founded by two cousins, Jim Tselikis and Sabin Lomac, in 2012. Both Tselekis and Lomac grew up in Maine. After moving to Los Angeles, the two cousins saw the potential of LA’s growing food truck industry and decided to enter it, serving foods from their hometown in Maine. Today, Cousins operates food trucks in 46 different cities across the United States. In addition, they have added five franchise stores and an online-order food business – all serving up foods from Maine.

Lobster Bisque is a dish that originated in France. It features chunks of lobster in a thick, creamy, seasoned broth.

Cousins Maine Lobster offers two soups: New England Clam Chowder and Lobster Bisque.

The Construction

Cousins Lobster Bisque is a soup served “as is,” meaning there are no customization options.

Stock: Roux-thickened stock, complemented with Spanish sherry, light cream
Maine Lobster Chunks
Pepper
Dimensions: 4 inches (Bowl Diameter)
Weight: 12.5 ounces
Size: Large
Price: $10.00

The Experience

Food reviews are not one-size-fits-all when it comes to scoring. For example, with the Cousins Lobster Bisque, I couldn’t use the same scoring criteria as for the Clam Chowder. This is because the Lobster Bisque primarily focuses on the quality of the broth and the chunks of lobster.

Like the Clam Chowder, I still opted to give the broth the most significant score component since you can’t have a soup without it. Lobster was given three points, as it is a secondary but important ingredient.

Stock (Broth, including seasoning): 5 points
Lobster: 3 points
Intangibles: 2 points

Stock/Broth

The broth of Cousins Lobster Bisque is a cream-based fish broth thickened with a roux. Roux is typically a mix of fat and flour used as a thickening agent. I tend to like soups that are not overly thick. Much like with their Clam Chowder, I found the thickness of the Lobster Bisque to be at my sweet spot – not too thick and not watery.

The stock really brought the cream and sherry flavor together. There was a nice fusion between the cream and sherry. The sherry contributed some sweetness, but not too much, which is a good thing. In addition, there was enough fishiness in the broth to satisfy one’s appetite.

Some bisque stock tends to be rich, robust, and intense. While there was a certain nice amount of flavor from this stock, I usually prefer it dialed up a bit more in terms of the body of the flavor.

Score: 4.00 out of 5.00 points

Lobster

The lobster meat used in Cousins Lobster Bisque was tasty, but it was much more like a condiment than a main ingredient.

Score: 2.25 out of 3.00 points

Intangibles

One thing I always look for is that the overall experience is greater than the sum of its parts. This was a tasty stock and a delicious lobster, but there wasn’t any magic between these two components to take things to the next level.

As mentioned, the lobster was more like a condiment. There was not enough lobster in this soup, and I felt this soup fell a little short of the $10.00 price point.

Score: 0.75 out of 2 points

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

As mentioned, the lobster and the stock are delicious, and they carry this soup to the seven-point mark. Now imagine a more intense broth, featuring more lobster, and some condiments like green onions and herbs, and this will be incredible. This soup was more filling than its Clam Chowder counterpart, but it also isn’t enough for a main dish. In the end, while I wish the soup had more to offer, it still provided enough to satisfy.