Over 5,000 Instant Ramen Noodle Reviews Since 2002
Hit a couple Asian markets last weekend and found this and its non-spicy counterpart. I’ve been trying to get my hands on everything in this new Otoki range. Not a super fan of the new labeling; I really liked the standard yellow style. But who knows this might be a bit of a recipe change. Let’s give it a try on this rainy day.
Here’s another one from HongKongFoodies.com! Go check ’em out as they’ve got a treasure trove of hard to find Demae Iccho variants! This is a straight noodle variant with two servings and the black garlic oil. Let’s kick it into high gear.
Found this locally… I think I saw this called Ramen Daren years ago up in Canada. Tang means soup in Chinese, and daren means master so it’s really the same thing but a little goofy since the first or sencond word is a different language than the first. Either way, I’m happy about these – I found 5 different varieties of them. Let’s try this Chinese take on Korean style ramyun a try.
Well, well, well… My son now is very interested in trying tteokbokki. It will go one of two ways. I’ll do it up then we shall do a mukbang (both videos below. So he will either like it or barely try it and say I don’t like it. I guess we shall see. He does like carboinara Buldak, so it’s possible he’ll like it – we will just have to wait and see…
Time for the second variety from the mega bucket! Found this at the new Y&Y Supermarket in Lynnwood, Washington. Was the only thing I got but there were quite a few other things I wish I had. It’s a big bucket maybe 15 orso inches tall, containing a lot of different varieties. $13 was indeed a good deal for such a large thing. CNY promos are where it’s at! Let’s try this one out.
Here’s another Rap Snacks variety sent by The Fat Hipster – thanks! As usual, not expecting a lot from these but I guess we shall see. Let’s give ’em a try.
Here’s another one from HongKongFoodies.com! Go check ’em out as they’ve got a treasure trove of hard to find Demae Iccho variants! This isn’t ramen – it’s macaroni. It’s not macaroni and cheese but macaroni and broth – should be quite nice! Let’s cook it up!
Another one in the long line of Korean toowoomba variants. This one looks a little different – it seems like this is definitely more pasta than an instant noodle. Let’s delve into the depths of this bowl.
My son Miles is in full swing obsession with trying everything Buldak. This is an enormous switch for him. Miles is on the spectrum and doesn’t generally venture out of his comfort zone at all when it comes to foods. I’m impressed that he’s making such an effort here – there’s a mukbang below! Let’s give it a go.
Big thanks to The Fat Hipster for sending this along! This is a yellow curry and crab flavor variant and it sounds very interesting. It could either be really great or pretty awful – only one way to find out. Of course, I will be joined by my son Miles for a mukbang below. Let’s get started!
I mentioned previously that I’d made a big mistake a few years back. The logic was that the Top Ten lists for the first half of the year would have the current year in the title, and the ones published after June would be the following year edition with the logic that it would be more active in the following year. Well, that ended up confusing and annoying a great many people. So, some lists have been skipped in order to do this reset. But in this case, I wanted to do a new one – a 2.0. I’m announcing today also that the video versions of the topo tens are going to be limited from here out. They take a huge amount of time to film, edit, compose, etc. So only a couple lists now will have these videos. With that, let’s check out The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Singaporean Instant Noodles Of All Time 2026 Edition 2.0!
This one is an absolute favorite of mine, however I and others have noted some changes in taste from some of the newly named Otoki vs Ottogi. Hopefully, this remains a wonderfully smoky and spicy seafood wonder. Let’s find out!
Time for the second variety from the mega bucket! Found this at the new Y&Y Supermarket in Lynnwood, Washington. Was the only thing I got but there were quite a few other things I wish I had. It’s a big bucket maybe 15 orso inches tall, containing a lot of different varieties. $13 was indeed a good deal for such a large thing. CNY promos are where it’s at! Let’s try this one out.
Okay, here’s another chicken that isn’t exactly right. It’s pork flavored. When as AI was asked about the idea of chicken in carbonara –
Here’s another one from HongKongFoodies.com! Go check ’em out as they’ve got a treasure trove of hard to find Demae Iccho variants! Today’s Friday for me – maybe for you too. I did a ton of walking this week – about 30 miles and I am thinking this will be a nice reward. Aka tonkotsu has a vibrant orange red broth and some heat – had it before and it’s a beautiful thing. I think this is a great one for today.
Found this one at HMart. The Otoki variants are for the US while Ottogi ones are for the Korean market – at least that’s what it seems like, but I could be wrong on that as I don’t have any official comment from the company. What I do know is that westerners saying Otoki is closer to the hard g/soft k kinda thing. Anyways, let’s have a nice kimchi bowl!
Here’s another one from HongKongFoodies.com! Go check ’em out as they’ve got a treasure trove of hard to find Demae Iccho variants! This is instant macaroni andyes, it’s not a noodle. It’s gonna be okay. This is something you’d find on the ramen aisle. Let’s cook it up and give it a try!
Previously we tried the Big Bowl version. Our local Albertsons affiliate has had tons of Buldak all of a sudden – would be nice if they do more exclusives as they’re going to be easy for me to get my hands on. Let’s check out this pack version – mukbang to follow as well!
Found this at the new Y&Y Supermarket in Lynnwood, Washington. Was the only thing I got but there were quite a few other things I wish I had. It’s a big bucket maybe 15 orso inches tall, containing a lot of different varieties. $13 was indeed a good deal for such a large thing. CNY promos are where it’s at! Let’s try this one out.
Big thanks to James from Lakeside for this one! I recently got a comment on my reviews for my ‘poor sentence structure.’ Well, I write the way I speak (mispelling omitted of course). I used to try and flourish things a lot but I kind of left that behind as it seems ingenuine to me. I had a guy who used ChatGPT to reply to my emails – it was awful. So perky. Anyways, this is a cold one; that works well as its wintertime and this should post in the summer. Let’s cook!
Big thanks to The Fat Hipster for shooting this over. So I’ve sampled Rap Snacks instant noodles before with pretty low scores. I’m hopeful that this new set will be better, but I guess I’ll have to try them to know for sure. I do like trying things even when I really expect to be underwhelmed. The potato chip flavor these are based on is quite good, so hopefully this will follow suit.
The tteokbokki train keeps a rolling! I even got kimchi! Let’s cook it up!
Detail of the side panels (click to enlarge). Contains fish. To prepare, add in sachet contents and hot water to line. Microwave at 1000W for 90 seconds. Finally, stir and enjoy!
Today, I’m reviewing the next to last of these tteokbokki varieties – big thanks to Good Seoul for sending them over! Let’s microwave it up! It’s cheese time!
Another from James of Lakeside, California – thanks again! So this is the third and I’m guessing final variant in the Thai Connext range. This sounds incredibly up my alley. It’ll be the third review on a Friday and the last of this week. All over it – let’s cook!
Here’s yet another from James of Lakeside, California – thanks! Here we have a fusion of Indian and Chinese flavors. I recently reviewed one in this style by a different company from India. Let’s try this one out!.
UPDATE – When I originally posted this, it was review #2023. I thought it a fitting throwback for today. Happy 4th of July – the 250th anniversary of the country, aka the semiquincentennial
Here’s one of those varieties that really makes ne scratch my head. Says it’s made in Vietnam, but it’s got Chinese on it. I remember going down the rabbit hole on this one and finding it was made for the Taiwanese market, however that text on the front is Japanese. Whatever. It’s a kimchi noodle cup. Let’s give it a shot, eh?
A big thank you to a donor from Instagram for this – she sent two varieties of Chun Noodles after seeing my initial review. Taiwanese dry noodle is truly a favorite of mine – let’s cook it up!
Well, another Monday and another strange week. My kids have the day off due to teacher grading day. So many days off – just had winter break, then MLK, now this one. It’s strange – we didn’t get that many, nor did we get short days on Wednesdays like they do every week. I think they get out for summer break late June – we got ouy mid June as far as I can remember. Anyways, today we’re doing another mukbang. Continuing the era of my son Miles wanting to do mukbang, I’m adding a little twist to the mix. I’ve been doing just plain varieties without any garnish. Today I’m adding chicken and scallion in there – oh wait am I out of scallion? Crap. Well, we’ll try it out. with just some chicken. I don’t think I can remember him eating actual meat – this should be interesting, so check out the mukbang below for the results. I’m expecting a look of disdain, but who knows; he might go for it. I’ve not had this in years – do you remember when the original and the cheese both had dark backgrounds? Anyways, let’s kick it into gear.
So it’s been forever since we’ve had a date. We have two kids, 9 and 10 years old. The best we usually get is maybe if we have an appointment while the kids are in school and we get to hang out, and dinner after they’re in bed. We wanted to get honey walnuts prawns as that a favorite of ours, and we found a place with good reviews in Bellevue, Washington called Supreme Dumplings.
Another kind donation from James of Lakeside, California – thanks again! A day of being productive awaits me. Eggs are done, dragging the kids to the thrift store, doing reviews early… Good stuff – gettin’ ‘er done. This one translates to tangy and spicy – let’s give it a go.
Here’s the counterpart of the creamy Saucy Noods. I’ve only seen it once and that was at a liquidation style place so unsure if it still exists, but the creamy one was quite good so hopefully this is good and it is still around.
This this one came by way of James from Lakeside, CA – thanks! There are a lot of iterations of these noodles and this one I’ve not sampled. It’s cold outside today so shrimp sounds good. Let’s cook.
This is a special one – my daughter Mimi joins me in the Instant Noodle Recipe Time at the bottom so don’t miss that. This is slime. When I was a kid, my mother would have given me hell for playing with something like this and asked me what was wrong with me. Nowadays, there are actually gourmet slime shops and you can lay out a hundred bucks on boutique slimes. What is wrong with our world and what is coming next? Anyways, let’;s proceed with caution as this is slime.
Here’s another one from HongKongFoodies.com! Go check ’em out as they’ve got a treasure trove of hard to find Demae Iccho variants! This one sounds interesting – but what is takana? From what I see it’s giant mustard green and has a peppery flavor. That sounds good – especially in tonkotsu. Let’s give it a go.
This is a very interesting one and I believe it to be its third iteration. Way back, this was garlic teriyaki and it was a splendid variant – one my wife loved and she’s not the biggest noodle human. Then they came out with a version with a huge drop in sodium – about 35000mg down to 700mg. Then we have this one in the ‘carton’ version. Well, let’s give it a try.
Hey look! I thought I’d do this up again as it’s truly wonderful stuff. I think it’s a wee bit different this time around but we shall see. Shall we?
The last Korean review I did involved a spicy and sweet noodle served hot I kind of think might have been better cold. Well, here’s a cold noodle. Sounds good – let’s check it out!
We have a heat wave here – like it’s going to hit 60 degrees in mid January heatwave – which says one thing to me: get ready for the opposite. Seems like that happens often. But today it’s a review – and then a mukbang. My ten year old son Miles has all of a sudden decided he wants to try Buldak. So, I’ll do the review today and then on the weekend we’ll do the mukbang. It should be noted that the sprinkles that are candy and star shaped make me immediately think of Samyang Popeye snack which also have star shaped sugary bits. This one is a sweet and spicy – let’s give it a go!
Ahh – Taiwanese dry noodles. I really enjoy this style of noodle and haven’t had many cross my desk in recent times. Alas, a few years ago, cases upon cases used to grace my desk. This and another variety were sent by a reader a little while back – let’s give this a try – and if you’re a Taiwanese noodle company, I really want to hear from you!
