Over 5,000 Instant Ramen Noodle Reviews Since 2002
Found a set of these at HMart recently. I was sent some I think from Portugal or Italy a long time ago. I have always wanted to review varieties from Ajinomoto but always have trouble finding them – plus they’re not responsive. Anyways, let’s try this one!
Today is a special day! The video at the bottom will be my 2,600th episode of Instant Noodle Recipe Time. Yep – I’m done a ton of em and just keep doing em. I figured I would review this ramen. You might say ‘that’s not ramen.’ Well, in the United States it qualifies. I cite the Totino’s Pizza Ramen. It calls itself ramen however on the ingredients it says it is paste. This says it’s macaroni but it’s clearly rotini. It recommends topping with broccoli, shredded cheese, and Cheetos. Let’s cook up this ramen with buffalo sauce flavor and go straight to hell.
So as I type this, it’s Cinco De Mayo. My eyes are watery and I’m sneezing. Really allergied out. This variety was chatted about with friends in the Section 42 mod group – the admins for Ramen Junkies. I decided I’d re-review it; new package, over ten years… Last time, it made my bottom ten. Oh wow – more than ten years – it was review 161! So that’s 15 years ago. Sheesh! This one’s made in South Korea and packaged for US sale. Let’s give it another try – maybe I’ll like it now?
Well, here it is – the spiciest one as well as the one I’m most curious about – tonkotsu. I’m hoping for a rich, creamy and savory base with a ruthless beatdown of heat. Let’s give it a whirl.
Hey look at this one! Big thank you to my wife Kit for getting me this! Only at Walmart. So, haven’t we gone through this before? Yes and no. Yes, it’s identical in every way to the pumpkin spicy flavor Cup Noodles – except one little thing. The name. They changed the name from spice to pie – why? I don’t know. New barcode now as well. To see both and a myriad of weird things to do with it, check out my definitive guide here. I’m gonna do it up real pretty. Let’s do it up!
Well, I’m not sure if shrimp or spicy will apear out of thin air much as this chicken and the prior beef did at our local Kroger affiliated Fred Meyer grocery store. The beef wasn’t bad to be honest. What’s more, it’s produced in Brazil! Let’s see their take on the most standard flavor in the instant noodle world.
Well, this is the last one of the Totino’s / Old El Paso things. Honestly, I’m hopeful we might have one that gets more than a zero here. Fingers crossed.
The second of the Jin Ramen bowls from Otoki. Excited to try this with my new add-in! Let’s hit it!
Here’s the second of the two pizza ‘ramen.’ I’m not expecting much but I’m hopeful – so far this and the Old El Paso stuff have netted a zero star. Pray for the pizza noodles. Let’s begin.
This one is particularly interesting. They changed the package design – and the brand. This has been Ottogi for years but now it’s Otoki. Perhaps a way to get westerners to pronounce the brand name correctly? Well, let’s give it a try!
It should be noted that this is being posted on National Noodle Day – October 6th, 2025. I didn’t really see anything pointing for the reason for the inception of this day. All I find are things about noodles. Anyways, I guess every day is National Noodle Day over here.
Well, this is it. The last of the Momofuku varieties. I’ve been waiting to do this one and as this is Thanksgiving eve eve, hopefully I’ll be doing this one tomorrow. On with the pre-turkey noodling!
Here’s another one from James of Lakeside California – thanks again! I was pleasantly surprised with the chicken flavor from this range – not bad. Doesn’t make we interested in going to prison though – these will generally only be sold to people who are in prison. My guess is this range wasn’t so popular or an order wasn’t picked up. It’s in Grocery Outlet all over the place at the moment. Let’s give it a try!
Here’s one sent by James of Lakeside, California – thanks! The first of these was good as I remember and this one sounds very good. While made in China, everything is done specificall for the USA. Let’s give it a whirl!
Here’s the last of the Kenchan Ramen varieties they sent over – thanks! I think I might end up doing this cold today. Let’s give it a try!
This and the next Kenchan Ramen varieties I’m trying will be gluten free, which I think will appeal to many. I’m very curious about these – let’s give ’em a go!
In addition to fresh noodles, Kenchan Ramen also has shelf stable stuff like these. These can go hot or cold. Let’s try em hot!
Kenchan Ramen is providing a myriad of different delivery ramen options. The recently sent a box on ice with fresh as well as shelf stable varieties. The fresh boxes contain two servings of everything. This one today is their tonkotsu – a lot of nice garnish and looks good to me – let’s give it a go!
Kenchan Ramen is providing a myriad of different delivery ramen options. The recently sent a box on ice with fresh as well as shelf stable varieties. The fresh boxes contain two servings of everything. This one today is their tonkotsu – a lot of nice garnish and looks good to me – let’s give it a go!
This sounds interesting; I donn’t see what flavor it is as ‘tofu flavor’ wouldn’t make much sense. Spicy? Sweet? I suppose I’d better cook it up and find out!
Here’s a new one from the folks over at Lemonilo! They’re an Indonesian company with export varieties – and this one says it’s going to have a burn to it! Let’s give it a try!
I actually ordered this off of YamiBuy which is something I never do but I wanted to give this a go. I’m guessing it won’t be incredibly spicy and I don’t know if or what to pair with it. Dessert ramen? I mean, there’s candy references all over it… Maybe a little chicken though. Let’s cook!
Today, we have a variety from Indonesian company Lemonilo for the US market. I like curry – a lot. Let’s give it a go.
Tried this 12 years ago. Packaging has changed as well as what’s in there – let’s give it a whirl in the microwave!
Here’s one that The Fat Hipster sent – thanks! These are made for hiking/camping as they don’t make a huge amount of waste that takes up a lot of space afterwards, they’re light, and just need boiling water. Let’s check it out!
Here’s a new packaging variety from the ‘states. These contain instant rice as well as little bits of noodle – last one I tried was quite nice – let’s give it a go!
I’ve done a lot of reviews lately of things that arrived in a Nissin Germany advent calendar box. This particular variety arrived in a box from Nissin USA that contained every noodle product they make! Let’s cook this one up!
Big thanks to Noodle Journey for sending this along! This is a cold noodle variety – the third from the Noodle Salad range by Nongshim – let’s give it a go.
I’m still pretty surprised at how much I liked the Tapatio Birria version – I figured I’d try this one, the last they sent (thank you very much!). I’ve got shrimp, so I’m hoping to do this up nice. Let’s give it a go!
This one came out of the gargantuan National Noodle Day box Nissin sent. I looked it up and I reviewed this once before – in 2013. Let’s revisit this one – done a lot differently as for my garnish than the first time.
Here’s a newcomer to the Tapatio cup range – Birria. I’m ready – let’s try it out!
This one comes by way of James from Lakeside, California – thanks again! I think this might be the last of the Prince Katsu/Sanrio collab variants – could be wrong though. These are made in Vietnam for A-Sha. Let’s give it a try!
We were at HMart and saw these – couldn’t resist. Who could resist a nice plate of tteokbokki in between watching people get slaughtered while playing children’s games? I’m hopeful on this one; I really like tteokbokki. I should also mention – this is my 2,500th episode of Instant Noodle recipe Time – it’s down at the bottom. I forgot about that, so episode 2,501 will have a little more about that. Let’s give it a try.
Thanks again to Noodle Jourmey for sending this along! I’ve seen this around quite a bit and I’ve tried the tray version, but here’s the pack. I’ve curious and ready to give it a go, so let’s do it.
A-Sha Dry Noodle of Taiwan’s Prince Karsu range has a lot of Hello Kitty going on – snacks as well. This one’s made in Vietnam. Let’s cook it up and give it a try – I don’t believe it contains any Hello Kitty in the cup’s ingredients.
Found this at HMart – it was this or a jjajangmyeon and I went straight to this one. I don’t know anything about the gentleman on the front – his name is Paik Jong Won. Here’s a little about him from Wikipedia –
This little square tray caught my attention at a local grocery store recently. I though it looked interesting, so we shall see. I must say the microwaved noodle usually is quite good in Nongshim stuff.
This one sounds good – the Tapatio folks sent it along with two more varieties I’ll be reviewing in upcoming days. Let’s try it!
When I found out about these, I was skeptical. I’ve been preaching two varieties – pizza and taco flavored. But dill pickle doesn’t make sense to me; dill pickles aren’t served warm unless on a hamburger as far as I know. On the bright side, they were at Walmart at $1.18. On the sad side, if they did do media kits of these, they didn’t send me one and I’m truly bummed about that. I’m trying these out on July 3rd and will release this post on the 5th, skipping the 4th as I’m guessing you’ve got better things to do than hear my thoughts about instant noodles on the 4th of July if you’re in the states. I did release a post yesterday though.
Well, as I type this is January 30th, 2025. Just had almost a full week of kids being sick and at the tail end while the kids are now back to school, we’ve got a cold. Feels like I got punched in the nose, my eyes are drippy, and I feel beat. Chicken instant noodles sound like a nice restorative, although I’ve got to go to the store and get scallions this morning. I feel the whole ‘I don’t want to do anything’ voice in my head but I learned a while back that if you listen to that voice, it’ll get its way. So onward! This one was sent by James from Lakeside, California – thanks again! I did get another from this interesting Ottogi range a while back. I want to say this is one that ends up in Mexico often – unsure. Anyways, on with it.
