NOTE: I don’t sell, manufacture or distribute instant noodles. I only review them and share my thoughts on this blog. That being said, I do know a lot of people in the instant noodle business and can help you get in touch with them if need be.If you are a company that produces instant noodles and would like me to review, please email me! If you are in the media and are interested in an interview or comment, please call me. If you just want to know something about instant noodles or have a question, please email. Thanks!

68 comments

    2. Hey! There are 2 things from Buldak i haven’t seen on your blog
      Buldak Seaweed Snacks and Buldak Mayonnaise

      Reply

  3. I sent a direct e-mail to you, but found this forum and figured to double my chances. I was a huge fan of Maruchan Tomato Ramen! Ever since it was discontinued, I’ve tried many different variations of tomato ramen to much disappointment. Do you have any recommendations? Thanks!

    Reply

  5. Hello! I am trying to find the NAME of a product made by Doll. I can’t have noodles (diabetic and too many carbs,) but I had a Doll brand bowl as a snack on Cathay Pacific airlines on my way to Hong Kong about 10 years ago. It was in a bowl with a peel off top – add water. I remember the label said sesame oil, but it didn’t have noodles! If I remember correctly, it had miso and/or tofu with a small packet of sesame oil to add to taste. I am still craving it. I can order it if I can find the exact name. All I can find on the Internet are Doll brand bowls with noodles and sesame oil. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you! Kate

    Reply

  6. Hi, I come from Indonesia and there’s a new Indomie flavor: Indomie Goreng Cabe Ijo (green chili fried noodle). It’s green and very spicy. I think you should try it out. There’s also many local flavor here.

    Reply

  8. Hello! I absolutely LOVE your site to bits and i share your love for instant ramen! I have a silly question though, when i’m at the end of the home page, there doesn’t seem to be a “older”/”older entries” button, so how do i continue browsing all the ramen entries? TIA!

    Reply

    2. Hello Ramen Rater,

      I am a big fan of Ibumie’s Penang LadMee Hot Pepper Flavour Instant Noodle, which I can see you previously reviewed.

      Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to be available to purchase here in the UK anymore. Please can you recommend a similar product, with a similar white pepper/sweet soy sauce taste?

      Any help would be appreciated.

      Thanks,

      A M

      Reply

  9. Oh, I feel stupid for not reading closely. I assumed you had sampled Ramen from restaurants too. I am even more excited now that I realize this can all be done from Seattle without setting foot in a restaurant. I have some things on order from amazon.com thanks to you.

    I’m an Edmonds man myself. I am living in South Everett but I consider Edmonds my home. I was born there and my family has lived there since WWII ended. I love the fact that there are so many Korean places there now. Sura near 164th is my current favorite for BBQ. My Korean business associates like to eat there so that is what turned me on to the place.

    I go to Central Market in Mill Creek to buy my Kimchee, Nato, and Ramen. The Ramen I buy is Yamachan (mountain sweetheart?). They stock Shyooyu, Tonkastsu Shyooyu, and Miso in the frozen section. Tonkastsu shyooyu is my favorite and I doctor it with shitake, enoki, green onion, tofu(or boiled egg), nori, and bean sprout on occasion. I like to drink alcohol so my Sunday mornings are usually consisting of Ramen and ice water.　 げんきですね。

    I am very much looking forward to trying some of your favorites. I am also interested in trying what some of my Japanese friends call “salt Ramen”. I’m not even sure what that is. My Japanese is weak so I’m not sure what they were talking about exactly.

    By the way, I have a Japanese friend that works at a teriyaki restaurant in Anacortes of all places. I can only wonder if that is the same place you did your only restaurant Ramen:)

    James

    Reply

    1. Hey wow small world! I’m sure it’s the same teriyaki restaurant! I can clue you in about the salt ramen – it’s called ‘shio’ and in my top ten I’ve got Sapporo ichiban’s Shio in there. It’s tasty stuff! I’ve seen it at H-Mart ( on 184th in Lynnwood and I highly recommend it) – you know what’d be fun is to organize andn instant ramen meet-up with locals who hit up my site for suggestions, etc.

      – TRR

      Reply

      1. Yes I know H-mart. I will be in Edmonds today visiting family so I will probably pick up some shio and try it. Maybe not today because I already had some for breakfast and I try not to eat it more than once a day. One could argue that maybe I should:) Thanks for the tip.

        A meet up would be fun. I believe you have my email from posting on your site? Let me know. That would be really cool. I would love to learn from you and meet other enthusiasts. I am going to be tied up until early May but from then on I would be very interested in a Ramen get together.

        -James

        Reply

  10. I admire your dedication to Ramen. You site is great. I went to Japan for the first time in 2006 and fell in love with Ramen. My wife at the time got really tired of me dragging her into every Ramen shop I came across. No correlation to divorce:) I am by no means an expert but Ramen is something I’m very interested in learning more about so I will keep tuning in to what you have to offer.

    It appears that you are from Seattle. I am as well. Perhaps I am wrong but my feeling is that Seattle (especially north of town) is lacking in the Ramen department despite a fairly large number of Japanese that live here. Do you agree with that or am I just unaware? My point of comparison is Los Angeles which seems to have it everywhere. I am wondering if you can steer me in the direction of some of your favorite Ramen places in town. I’d like to try some that is specific to certain regions like Okinawa, Hokkaido, Hiroshima, etc. What I’ve had to date has been pretty typical, I think, of Tokyo/Yokohama area (mostly I buy it frozen at Central Market).

    Thanks and keep up the good work.

    Reply

    1. Honestly I only review instant noodles, I’ve only had ramen outside of my kitchen once and that was at a little teriyaki place in Anacortes of all places. I’m actually in Edmonds and live near 99 Ranch Market and a few other Korean places.

      Glad you like the site! Can you tell me more about the stuff you’re getting from Central Market?

      – TRR

      Reply

  11. Hi Hans!

    First off, love reading your site! I was a college student and like many have devoured thousands of blocks of instant noodles! Personally, especially with the dried variety, I always slightly fry them with the seasoning and then add a sunny side egg on top. It gives the noodles a “fried” flavor. You should try it! Just throw the water out of the pan after you’re done cooking and stir-fry it for about a minute or so.

    Anyways, would you be interested in also having your own instant noodles store online? I work for a company that deals with a lot of international foods (that includes instant noodles) and we help our clients set up their own ecommerce store selling our products. Let me know if its something you’d be interested in.

    Cheers!,
    Benjamin

    Reply

  12. Personalized website and pictures are reading like gin.

    (not meant to be taken in bad way, referring to “gin”, font gin feel. (utterance of gin ).

    Reply

  13. Nice Site and Cool recipes, however there was couple thing that is bothering me, I am Japanese and been a fan for Sokuseki Ramen (Instant Ramen) since childhood but your favorite top 10rating for Ramen includes Yakisoba and Udon. Japanese consider these totally differnt food types, even Soba is a total differnt concept dish from a Japanese point. Perhaps might want to devide these differnt basic catagory dishes, Yes I know there all noodles but trust me, I once remember there was a coupld that just got to Japan from the US which I became friend and they though there all the same and I now know why now, not blaming your web site but the proper information goes along way.

    Reply

    1. Konichi-wa Robert!

      Thank you for your comment. I’m sure another thing you’ve noticed on my top ten are others like Koka’s Laksa Singapura and Indomie Mi Goreng. These and Japanese varieties are totally apple and oranges of the noodle world, but they’re noodles. If I called the site http://www.theinstantnoodlerater.com‘ I suppose it would be a bit more correct, but it is theramenrater.com. I never honestly thought it would get this big and I understand your point, but I also think that here in the states,m people think that instant noodles are ramen for the most part; whether domestic grocery store brands or anything else. I hope some will read your note and learn something – also, I would invite you to write something I could post on here to educate people a little about this difference. I’m here to extoll the virtues of instant noodles as well as the cultures surrounding them.

      Thanks!

      Hans Lienesch
      The Ramen Rater

      Reply

  16. You should try http://www.Central-Market.com
    Stores :
    Bainbridge Isl.
    Millcreek
    Poulsbo
    Seattle
    Issaquah
    I saw your article in the Sunday Skagit Valley Herald this morning. No mention of Central-Market. Check out their website & then check out any of their stores. U will never go to the other Asian market again….

    Reply

    1. Hey glad you found my site! As for Central Market, I’ve been to a couple and found that while they have a pretty okay noodle section, there’s really nothing there I haven’t tried before. I’ll have to check it out again one of these days. For the aspiring ramen aficionado though this place is a relatively easy to find goldmine of exotic tastes!

      Thanks for your comment!

      – The Ramen Rater

      Reply

  17. Ahh I didnt spell it correctly when I searched. Yeah Man I chicken out with anything “hot”…It did look good however.

    Reply

  18. Hey Hans! Its Mike M. from NY, this is my new wordpress account. I have a request, can you review those hot ramen I sent you?

    Thanks.

    Reply

  19. I really like your website! At some point, could you possibly compile a list of the gluten-free ramen you have tried? That is, the ramen you have tried which contains rice noodles or buckwheat noodles? There are some of us who love ramen, but can’t eat the actual noodles which are made of white flour. Thank you!

    Reply

    1. That’d take a long long time – I dare say that it would make more sense if you wanted to look through all my reviews and list the ones that are rice noodle or bean thread based and send it to me and I could start a new category and continue on from there.

      Reply

  20. Read about you on MSN earlier today.

    I really like your reviews and as a fan of ramen, I think I will be looking into some of the brands you wrote about.

    A brand you may want to look into is Crying Tiger. I got it from the local 99cent superstore.

    Reply

  21. Omg…love, love, love this!!! Such a great site, not to mention a fun pursuit!! My latest ramen love is NongShim Bowl Noodle!!! You are def getting bookmarked Hans! I must go now….have a super craving for some ramen before work! I’ll def be back to check out your faves!!! Have a great day!!!

    Reply

  22. Great site!! We love ramen, but now that hubby and I are getting “older”, we find that we’re really sensitive to salt. Have you run into any ramen varieties that are lower in salt? I know it’s all relative… Thank you!!

    Reply

    1. I think what you would have the best luck with is making your own! Go to an Asian grocery and look at all the noodles they’ve got, then add your own seasonings and garnish. There are ‘lower sodium’ varieties out there, but so far I’ve not seen any that are very friendly.

      The Ramen Rater

      Reply

  23. Glad you’re getting some worldwide web play, but you’ve got to change your site. I can’t see a thing except the background(which is great), but I can’t read shit. You’ve got to fix it, it’s a problem. You should definitely get a couple of sponsors too and start getting a little green to supplement your skills.

    Reply

    1. Hmmm I don’t know why you’re having issues viewing the site – you’re the only one who had said this. As for the web exposure, yeah it’s ridiculous; I’ve gotten over 1000 hits this hour and its only 31 minutes past 8am my time! Sponsorship’d rock but nobody’s stepped up with any interest so far. If you’re out there, email me!
      – The Ramen Rater

      Reply

      1. Sorry, must have been the pc I was on at the time. Everything looks great now. I hope you pick up some sponsors soon.

        Reply

  24. I have a Ramen recipe you might want to try.when i was teenager i had a idea one day how about adding hambuger meat and corn and black pepper to beef flavored ramen noodles and it was a great one to my family and friends and even my kids love it they say mom this is so yummy and the hubby too! so i hope some of you try this and let me know what you think.Thanks Faith

    Reply

  25. Whoa. I’m from Indonesia and I’m amazed by the fact that you love Indomie — probably as much as I and most Indonesian do! You have to come by here sometime, I bet that you’d be thrilled to see more variants of Indomie that you can’t find elsewhere. One of the newest flavor they added is Mie Keriting Rasa Kornet Curly Noodles With Corn Beef Flavor, you gotta love it!

    Reply

  26. Love the blog. I eat four or five blocks a week — love to add hot sauce and prawns.

    Have you thought about a Twitter feed?

    Craig

    Reply

  27. Huge fan here too. You must be loving Seafood City – their ramen aisle is almost as good as T&T here in Vancouver.

    Actually, they have BBQ chicken Indomie which seems impossible to find up here >_<

    About to crack a Ma Ma seafood cup which advertises SEVEN sachets on the package… Woo!

    Reply

    1. Seafood City? Never heard of it – I’m just north of Seattle… As far as Indomie BBQ Chicken – hard to find? 99 Ranch Market and pretty much anywhere carrying Indomie has it – in Jumbo Packs! Where exactly are you at?

      Reply

    1. Hey thanks! Yeah there are some of us it turns out! Let all yer peeps know bout the site – I’m on facebook (search for Ramen Rater) and the reviews are spat out on twitter at #theramenrater. I’ll keep eating and reviewing…

      The Ramen Rater

      Reply

    1. Hey – any tribute to Momofuku Ando is great, but why Maruchan and not Nissin? Ando started Nissin – Chikin Ramen and then Cup Noodles in 1971. Also liked your mention of the Sriracha sauce – I know a lot of people who swear by that and what’s funny is that technically would turn it from Top Ramen to something more akin to Top Pho would it not? I liked your article!
      The Ramen Rater

      Reply

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