Get a hearty deli classic that’s a meal in a bowl at this metro Atlanta restaurant

Goldbergs Fine Foods is known for serving classic New York-style deli food. One of those dishes, mushroom barley soup, is a bowl of tradition as well as a balm for bleak days. Chock-full of vegetables, the soup is a meal in a bowl that nourishes as much as it delights.

It’s not a looker, though. You get a lot of brown and beige, with crescents of celery floating here and there and nuggets of carrot offering a burst of color. There also are fine slivers of onion in the soup. And, of course, there are mushrooms, including large slices of creminis bobbing around in the broth amid the tender pearl barley, which adds a hearty chewiness while also being nutritious.

Everything is simmered in an intensely flavored beef broth that, to me, perfectly describes “umami.”