Worth the Trip: Loop de Loop Is the Country Pit Stop for an Ex-Porteno Chef’s Standout Soup

In 2024, soup season kicked off a month before winter did when Loop de Loop debuted in Orange. The little soup kitchen in a demountable in the centre of town is where you’ll find chef Richard Learmonth ladling out an ever-changing pair of soups every weekday: one vego, one meatier. The people loved it last year – and the 2026 season is off to a hot start.

“One week under my belt already and we’re busier than ever,” Learmonth tells Broadsheet. “I’ve tried to keep things as consistent as possible over the three seasons, so there aren’t too many differences. I’ve taken on a lot more capacity to keep up with demand.”

The man – who spent time leading the Porteno and Pendolino kitchens, before making a country change – loves soup, any way you put it: “I eat soup year-round. I make them at home, I eat them in restaurants everywhere I go. But it’s very much a seasonal thing here. Winters are real winters [in Orange].”

There are two Loop de Loop soups on the menu, with Learmonth making a double batch of a newbie around 6am, swapping one flavour out each day. Expect a wide-ranging line-up: simple classics like roast tomato and peppers, gruyere-topped French onion, and sweet potato jazzed up with local miso. Then there are noodle soups from around the world: laksa; Korean spicy beef with vermicelli; Balkan-style chicken noodle; Filipino chicken sotanghon; and Chinese duck with gai lan. Plus, funky ribollita; wild stinging nettles with mascarpone; a velvety chowder-style broccoli, potato and bacon; and roasted cauliflower bowls topped with gorgonzola and walnuts.

And they’re all $14. “It’s an idea of doing something cheap and cheerful, but still healthy and delicious. My friends can come in on the regular, every week.

“The local stuff is really the key driver. We’ve got so much great produce out here that it’d be mad to pass it up. I really love working in Orange. We’ve got a whole lot of late-harvest tomatoes and peppers, which are going to go on the menu this week while I still can. I’ll have truffles coming through soon.” Once the rain really sets in, foraged wild mushrooms will power the menu.

The obvious addition? House-made chilli crisp, of course – and sippets. They are herbed-up square soup-specific croutons. “They make every single soup better – it doesn’t matter what style, just little crunchy savoury bits.”

Loop de Loop’s a great sell for a rural town with a food scene that’s only been on the up. While it’s the home of Australia’s longest-running food festival, there are a clutch of outstanding venues – like cosy wine bar Hey Rosey and family-run winery Chalou – bringing new energy.

“In the eight years I’ve been here it’s just grown so much,” says Learmonth. “Very much ‘new generation’ coming through that are used to the standards in Sydney and Melbourne – and there’s no reason we can’t do that out here.”

Loop de Loop
43 McNamara Street, Orange

Hours:
Mon to Fri 11.30am–2.30pm (or until sold out)

@loopdeloopsoup