Over 5,000 Instant Ramen Noodle Reviews Since 2002
Just over 2 years ago, I reviewed the local Korean version of this one. Found this at HMart which was a bit of a shock; their single pack selection has been abyssmal recently… I wish we had the RT Mart that was in Taiwan I got to visit – holy crap that place had the mother of all noodle aisles – singles and multipacks of everything – both sides, long as a Costco aisle – no joke. Anyways, enough thinking about that – let’s give it a try.
So first, I did a pack like this of original topokki. Next, a carbonara cup. This is rapokki – a combo of noodle and rice cake. It’s usually a really great melding of textures. This should be awesome – let’s give it a try.
Just opened a big box from James of Lakeside, California and this was in there – thanks, man! This is an interesting one – unsure what BBQ is like in India – maybe smoky? This is a four pack – pretty crunched up – they usually are. Let’s cook it up and give it a try!
Here’s another Otoki variety for the United States and another packaging redesign. I don’t recall doing a tempura udon bowl before though… Yeah, no – I haven’t. Let’s give it a whirl!
We end the year on an interesting note today! My son Miles is very interested in trying out Buldak. Now, he’s very food sensitive – he generally only like non warm, crunchy things (Cheez-Its, chips, apples) , pudding, chocolate milk, soda… It’s kind of an uphill battle introducing new things for him to try that he’ll go for, Noodles are definitely not going to be an easy go except for the fact he really wants to do Buldak. We saw this at 7-Eleven and he was all over it, so we got it. I’m going to cook it up, add nothing, and let it cool. I can’t think of any time he’s eaten anything hot temperature wise in years. He used to eat oatmeal and peanut butter with me, and he did used to eat noodles – but at a certain point he stopped. Is this the turning point? There will be a mukbang below – so watch and see.
Now this one sounds good. In the last post, I complained about all the creamy and spicy varieties out there, but this is tteokbokki and it’s hard for me to get cranky about tteokbokki. Let’s hit the start button on the microwave!
Note – I prepared this incorrectly, however in an upcoming review it is prepared correctly.
I’m slowly finding more of the cup, bowl, and pack versions of Jin Ramen lately – tried both of the bowls, trying this pack, and got two of the cups, so just need to find the spicy pack. Honestly. I think these are among the best of Korean ramyun. The noodles have been great, flavors as well. Let’s give it a go!
This is the first of a lot of tteokbokki varieties I’ll be reviewing from Good Seoul. This product is made in South Korea and at this point distributed in the GCC and soon Europe. That’s great – everyone need tteokbokki in their life I swear! This came out of a big box of varieties they sent from Dubai! Let’s give it a try!
Another find at GMart in Lynnwood, WA. Out of Rancho Cucamonga comes an old standard in the Korean ramyun world. I believe the classic bowl noodle hot they made was a yukgaejang but this one seems more premium at the outset. Sounds good – let’s cook it up!
Update 12/26/2025 – Now that Christmas is over, back to the standard daily posts. This was done July 7th, 2025, so that should tell you how far ahead I’ve been. I’m going to attempt to let things catch up a wee bit and work on top ten lists for you in the interim, so you should be seeing one sometime soon – I’ll come out with a post regarding them as usual before the day they post. Some regular annual lists haven’t come out as firstly, I’ve not been able to source enough varieties for a logical update and secondly, the top tens are a lot of work and honestly not always that much fun to work on – a lot of video editing and keeping from reviewing. So, since I’m nearly six months ahead, I’ll be working on them in a more mellow way instead of trying to last minute slam them out. Hope all that enjoy holidays enjoyed the previous and upcoming ones and those that don’t avoided the ridiculousness they can entail. For now, that is all. I should note my ten year old son Miles is really amped about trying Buldak. He is a very picky eater though; he won’t eat anything hot temperature wise and he doesn’t like certain textures. I can let it cool down, but I’m curious to see if he is up to the texture of it. So we shall see. I might release that for NYE. Anyways, we continue and thank you so much for your continued support of what I do!
*unless you don’t like Christmas and then just plain merriness to you
Found this at GMart in Lynnwood, WA. This is a mung bean/sweet potato thread noodle with a low calorie amount of 120. It claims that K-pop stars will stay fit and skinny by eating this. I dunno about that, but it does sound interesting, so I got it. Let’s give it a try.
Well, here we are. It’s Christmas Eve! This has been a big shift in how I do things – 24 reviews, one per day for 24 days. Didn’t know what I was reviewing until I opened the package each morning. Usually I have lead time, but not this time. I got up, did a video of opening the door, then shooting package photos, editing, then doing what I’m doing right now – editing the post. Next will be cooking it up, then shooting more pictures, editing them, then editing the video and scheduling, posting and boom – all done. Usually, I break it over two days – edit images the day before, cook the next day and then do images for the next day after that. I guess we will see how I do it going forward. What’s certain is I’m so far ahead – like six months ahead. So, maybe doing one review per day and skipping the weekends might work well.
Well, happy Halloween for this one. Does that make sense? The episode of Instant Noodle Recipe Time debuted on October 31, 2025. So, there you go. I think that means this post came out in, what… Christmas 2025? Pretty crazy as I type this in early July 2025… Let’s see – this is review 5404 and I posted 5244 today – 160 days from today which is July 8th will be… I was close – December 15th. The video for Instant Noodle Recipe Time comes out around 45 days before the post does… Yeah, I guess it’s kind of a nightmare… Either way, wow you’re close to Christmas. Here’s an early gift. Mac’n Cheese (not macaroni but rotini) and its ranch flavor which is highly disturbing. Let’s cook.
Merry Christmas Eve Eve to you as the kids say! It’s also Festivus – certainly a red-letter day of miracles, feats of strength, and the airing of grievances. The great material contonuum has been truly kind these past few days. Let us begin our next to last item from the amazing and wonderful ramen advent calendar!
We’re back at it with another massive Korean mukbang fest. I found this at a store called GMart in Lynnwood, Washington for $20. By the way, no, I’m not eating this whole thing, that’s for sure – it requires 2,2L of boiling water. That’s insane. I don’t advise sucking down this whole thing – 3440kCal, 14,960mg of sodium. I watched a guy eat the whole thing on YouTube along with a Korean beer and some crunchy squid. If you get one, share it with friends is my advice. Regardless, this should be fun – I mean, it’s a lot of noodles.
Today is a very special day at our house. 16 years ago today, my wife and I spoke for the first time. We met on an online dating service website. She was home sick from work living with her folks and I was working for a fish company living in my friends garage. Well, it was a remodeled garage at least. We talked on the phone for about 4 or 5 hours. It was great – although I really didn’t expect anything to come of it – she lived all the way down in the Bay Area and that was a bit far from Anacortes up here in Washington state. We talked again the next day, and on Christmas Eve, we talked all day long – like 14 hours all day long. Christmas morning she asked if I’d come down for New Years, and I accepted – best decision I ever made. Let’s have some shrimp Cup Noodles!
Found this at HMart during my big early summer noodle drought of 2025… I don’t see a lot of boxed varieties, let along ones for the US. This used to be in a bowl – although maybe it still is. Anyways, sounds like a good one to try out – let’s give it a whirl!
Well, I overslept… So, it’s time to get stuff done. We were up really late – the plan was to watch Stand By Me, but couldn’t find it so we ended up watching the new version of Running Man – at least part of it. Surprisingly it wasn’t bad. Anyways, enough of our exceedingly late night viewing antics – let’s try this pack version of their Chili flavor – the cup version was really great so we shall see.
Big thanks to The Fat Hipster for sending this along. This is an instant noodle for hikers and campers. So if you’re neither, think of carrying tons of stuff for a multi day outdoor trip. You will need food. Do you want to carry something heavy or light? When you’re done, do you want big trash to lug around? Well, this is a solution. These packs aren’t huge, they’re light, and unlike a foam bowl, this is also the cooking vessel and folds up for disposal away from the trail. The expiration date said 2029 as well, so if the universe hasn’t blown up yet, you’ll have noodles, and if it has blown up, it’ll be right there for you in your secret noodle bunker! Plus, it’s curry. Sold! Let’s give it a shot.
Well we’re almost there. It’s been a lot of fun thus far. It’s Saturday – kids are now on winter break, aka Xmas break. It’s cold out. I’m hoping tomorrow I’ll be trying out a new camera if the battery charger shows up. Guess we’d better start getting on wrapping gifts – definitely not my strong suit. However, my wife Kit is really good at it – she’s got it down cold and makes them look professional. Well, let’s get to cooking – I really liked the pack version of this so now it’s the cup.
Found this at HMart during the great noodle drought around here… This is a newer logo for their Tangle range… I liked the old white and orange logo a lot… Well, let’s try what comes in the bowl.
It’s been cold, wet, and breezy – now it looks like it’ll be just plain cold today… I guess we shall see. Let’s continue the calendar with some chicken!
Well, this is about it as far as noodles I have on hand. What a revoltin’ development! Found this one at S*Mart in Bellevue, Washington. The rest of these have been excellent – let’s check it out!
Wow, that stripe at the top of these posts is getting longer and longer to do every day! I have to edit it in every single post! I’m sure there’s some kind of way to automate it, but I am just doing copy paste on each one at the end of the day – easier. Anyways, this is a spicy yakisoba we have here – let’s give it a try!
This one was kindly sent by Mark K. – thanks! I’d never seen this before and thought wow that’s rad – so he sent some! Coconut soup with herbs… Sounds really nice – let’s cook!
Only about a week to go until Christmas Eve – crazy. Hope you’ve got all you gifts got and ready to go! It’s getting late in the game… But today is my daughter’s birthday! She’s exceedingly stoked! Let’s try this Thai take on chicken from Nissin’s newest range – made in Vietnam for the EU market.
Well, here you go! We found this while looking for Slurpees for the kids at 7 Eleven a month or two ago. There’s a Mexican rice flavor one as well I’ve reviewed in the past. I know – not ramen. However, it’s with the ramen so there, and made by a ramen forward company. Let us microwave!
Had a feeling this one would make an appearance sooner or later! We slept in a skosh so glad it’s one I’ve already tried – makes things a lot quicker on readying the post. Let’s cook it up!
This one came by way of James from Lakeside, California – thanks again! Yes, as usually said ‘I know this isn’t ramen.’ However, you might finbd it near the ramen and likely on the same instant noodle aisle. This one’s particularly interesting as its salted egg flavor. Sounds good to me – let’s give it a go.
I started doing this big advent calendar 2 weeks ago today – pretty crazy! It’s going very well thus far it seems! Thought I’d mention – if you like following, that’s great – I have my posts going out on quite a few platforms, but a couple have barely anyone following. I’m on Substack and Bluesky – it seems people started noticing that and then poof. So, I thought I’d remind folks that if they like those, I’m there. Tumblr too for what it’s worth. Now, on with the review!
I’m currently broke and my options are limited, so I thought I would walk over to the discount grocery stores nearby. I found one option – this. 99 cents! It says its made in South Korea, but my whom is anyone’s guess. I’m curious – let’s cook.
I’ve been happily going through a big box sent to me by the kind folks over in Germany at Nissin Foods. It’s a huge advent calendar filled with instant noodles. Each day I have been starting my doings by shooting video of myself opening the correlating door and freeing a pack or cup of noodles – often before I’m really awake. Then I get the post ready to go and go on with my day until the right time when I cook it up on Instant Noodle Recipe Time and then post around 3 to 4 in the afternoon. Usually, I do reviews and I’m very far ahead, so a post I do today might not come out until close to six months from now. This is a very different way of doing things for me and it’s been a whole lot of fun! I thought maybe I ought to do a single post where I can have everything easily viewed. I’ve been updating a stripe at the top of each review – adding a link to each day. I’ll be doing that here as well, but it’ll be stuck to the top of the home page of The Ramen Rater for easier access. With that, here is the calendar series – from the initial unboxing to current day. I should also note I’ve no clue what is going to be behind each door I open – despite being tempted to open the door the night before. I should also note we have a LEGO advent calendar – I am showing those in the beginning as well – but they are of the previous day so as not to spoil anyone doing the same one. Alright – let’s go.
Had a great time for my daughter’s birthday party yesterday, did a bunch of stuff afterwards, then my wife and I stayed up watching YouTube until almost 4am. It’s noon now so I’m kinda behind my usual workflow, but it’s Sunday so no big deal. Anyways, let’s cook this up – I’m very curious how this will be! Let’s cook.
The last of the versions found at HMart recently. The first one was super salty but the rest haven’t been too bad. I think this one sounds good – let’s find out.
Well it’s Saturday and time to start the second half of the advent calendar. Today’s my daughter Mimi’s birthday party so I’ll have to get going here. This is the teriyaki Soba pack version as opposed to the cup I did prior. Let’s cook it up!
This one was hiding in my meager hamper stash – found it at S*Mart in Bellevue, Washington. First off, this is a cold noodle – good for during hot weather – which we’re getting toward as the day I’m reviewing this is the last day of spring. You can steam these or microwave them – and the latter sounds like the easier option. I am making this on the last day of school for the kids. Egad. Let’s get started.
Ah its a day for beef. I went to the grocery store to get some. I got my second shingles vax yesterday and today feel like death warmed over. Anyways, I tell the guy at the meat counter I need 1oz of their cheapest ground beef. He tried to give me 0.4lbs which is way too much, then a much smaller amount that was perfect, but when he tried to weigh it it wouldn’t register so he said it was on the house. So shout out to butcher at our local Safeway. But yeah I feel worse than crummy. Let’s see if I can cook a Cup Noodles this morning…
Well, here’s the last of these they sent – thanks again! I seem to be getting to the last of a lot of things… Running low of noodles I’m afraid. Hmmm… Well, let’s cook.
This one was included in the advent calenda box from last year – and it would have been good I figure. Alas, I lost the sachet from this one. I hunted through the trash but never found it. Fortunately, I get another chance at it! Do I give it a new numbe? Why not! Let’s cook it up!
