Over 5,000 Instant Ramen Noodle Reviews Since 2002
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!
*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.
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.
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.
Here’s an interesting one I found at HMart. Speaking of HMart, I would like to speak directly to them. Hey HMart – how are you today? Would you do me a huge favor? Would you put more varieties in your single pack area? You have so many multipacks which is great, but they’re not well represented in your single pack selection. Expand it, please! Thank you for your time, sincerly, myself. Let’s give this a try!
I was kindly given this one by my kids’ morning bus driver. He’s a really nice guy and we’ve talked a lot about instant ramyun from Korea – he’s Korean I should add. As I write this, it’s been almost a month since my last review. I took a week to do editing and readying 5 top ten lists – it takes a lot of time. Then I took a couple more weeks off. It’s been a nice break, but I’m done I need to do my work lol – I really enjoy it and productivity is like a drug to me when it comes to this stuff. What’s funny is that by the time this comes out, my kids will have a new morning bus driver and it’ll be the new school year. I posted #5212 today, so that’s…. Hmmm… Oh wow – mid November? Heck, I could take summer off… But I like doing this. Let’s do this one up real nice and big thanks to my kids’ bus drivers – they’re really nice people.
Okay, so I don’t live under a rock so I know about these things. In fact, I saw an advert for this awhile back and thought ‘oh – the kids might like this.’ So, I let them check it out and I watched a bit of the movie. I hated it. More than I hate slicing a bagel incorrectly. Well, maybe not that much, but I’m really annoyed by this film. I know that a lot of people really like it and that’s fine. However, I do not. It’s K-Pop’s version of Frozen. I went through that Frozen crap when the kids were really little, so another take on it really isn’t something I can embrace. Plus, the animation is awful. The music is catchy, but not the catchy K-Pop I really like; this is so… Commercial. But I do enjoy a tie-in product and this one’s pretty cool. I should mention that the Korean local version of this (yes, this is made in the United States in a great factory in Rancho Cucamonga, California) came with stickers, and I did hear chatter that people over there were buying tons of Shin, taking out the stickers, then selling sets of those stickers on eBay or their equivalent.
Here’s a Koreno variety that was in a Project Ramen megabox! Highly recommend checking them out – go to www.projectramen.com and use the coupon code THERAMENRATER to get a discount! So this is interesting as it’s a range by Paldo and a departure from the Volcano curry – Buldak clone? Let’s find out.
This is the third review of the day and this is a fingers crossed situation of saving the best for last. I love rapokki – ramyun is paired with tteokbokki with a sweet and spicy sauce. This can go awry though, especially if the cooking instructions are iffy. I’m hoping we’re gonna make something rad. Let’s start.
Big thanks to Noodle Journey for sending this one! So, this is a new version of Paldo’s Bibimmen, kind of a 2.0 deal. Looks interesting – I guess we ought to sample it.
Big thanks to Noodle Journey for this one! My God – what a past few weeks. We’ve gone through some seasonal colds, holidays, ice, snow, snow days… I have been stuck at home, so I’ve been reviewing – a LOT! Just want to go outside and walk around but it’s been hell getting to be able to. Yesterday was a snow day and it melted a lot – this morning it got into the mid 20s – so all that melt has turned into ice. Bah. It’s not permanent – it’s not like, forever, though…
This one came by way of Noodle Journey – thanks! Yes, this is made in South Korea, but everything on here points to being an export variety for the Indonesian market. Very curious… Let’s give it a go, and don’t forget to check out the mukbang below!
Big thanks to James from Lakeside, California for sending this one along! Well, this is the third review I’m doing today- a day full of so much ‘ugh’ that I would’ve expected it was Friday the 13th… First, I lost a sachet for a variety I was reviewing. Next, I decided to review this one while my kids are home sick – they like to chide eachother repeatedly and get ridiculous which isn’t helpful to my train of thought. Third, once this was done as I was making the kids their lunch, a jar of toothpicks fell and went everywhere. Hopefully this gets everything out of the universe’s system. Anyways, let’s cook up this massive tray of noodles!
Well, this is the last of all the big trays I have currently, and this gets drained off. A massive jjahangmyeon! Spicy jjajangmyeon isn’t usually my cup of tea, but we shall see. Let’s cook up a monster.
I’ve seen this on Amazon and elsewhere kind of recently but never in the ‘wild’ until this last weekend. Well, as I type this I mean September 28th 2024 last weekend. My lovely wife Kit took us over to S*Mart in Bellevue, Washington for a quick noodle hunt and three varieties of this range were lurking. It wasn’t really a quick hop over there – there was some insane traffic on the way home. However there was a bit of rain and a nice rainbow for the kids to enjoy on the way back while we sat in traffic. This one is made in South Korea by Samyang let’s check this out!
Well, I’ve finally gotten a slew of Korean varieties – some of which I knew of, some never knew existed, thanks to Noodle Journey – another instant noodle review YouTube channel! Thanks! Check out what they sent!
Another one sent by James of Lakeside, CA – thanks again! Nope – no noodles here, but definitely something you’ll find on shelves next to instant ramyun bowls, that’s for sure. tteokbokki are tubes of rice cake which are soft and chewy – and in this one they’re in a spicy, sweet sauce. Let’s check it out and give it a try!
Hey it’s time for some Korean seafood noodles! This one comes with some sea tangle (kelp) that helps season the soup! I’m kind of excited about this one. Let’s hit it up.
This sounds really good – I’ve had rose Buldak before but this is something very different. I’ve had the pack version of Tangle which is more of a creamy thing without a kimchi aspect. Looking forward to trying this – the last one I’m reviewing this week.
This one comes by way of Exotic Noods – you can get great subscription boxes from them full of interesting varieties. Try using THERAMENRATER coupon code for a discount. Cheese and South Korean noodles go great – let’s give it a go.
A big thank you to Daniel over at www.exoticnoods.com – you should check out his boxes! They’re multinational, so not just from a singble country. Good stuff! He sent some varieties that can be found in those boxes. Let’s check ’em out!
This one was found at HMart. So let’s delve into jjolmyeon – here’s Wikipedia’s info –
Okay so I found this at HMart and I believe (could be wrong) it’s from the same people that make Bulramen. It’s certainly made in South Korea, but for sale in the United States and packaged for that reason. Anyways, let’s try some beef flavor noodle.
Another find at HMart. Found the pack versions there as well. The packs were certainly underwhelming; both insofar as flavor and heat, however the noodle was pretty good. Let’s give this one a shot.
Had a great day yesterday – went and walked all the way to my wife’s work for the first time which was fun, going through forest, construction areas galore and under/over passes. Then we hit Costco and then HMart! Found this at HMart which was very cool. Haven’t heard of doenjang jjigae – a regular popular stew from South Korea before. Let’s give it a try!
Hooray for cold noodles! Nongshim has flirted with a few cold noodle varieties – they had a buckwheat zaru soba a few years ago. I think their Doong Ji is really good as well. This one’s new and I am guessing somewhat akin to a hiyashi chuka soba. Let’s give it a whirl.
Looks like we have a Korean boy band with a ton of dudes. Yep. There’s a lot of these tie-ins in Korean varieties. There used to be one that was called DJ Doc which was a tteokbokki and ramyeon variant that was really great – that was the first one I’d seen. Anyways, can’t complain about tteokbokki, that’s for sure. Let’s give it a try!
Ah, tteokbokki. I really wish I knew about this stuff when I was a kid. Wondrous tubes of rice flour – like big Beefaroni, slathered in a nice sauce. Better yet, with cheese. If you’ve not tried it, you’re really in for a treat once you do, trust me on this. No, not ramen, but definitely something you’ll find on the instant noodle aisle at a Korean market.
You ready for a historic roadshow in a cup? This variety has gone by a few names and packaging wordings, but I’d say this is my favorite.. For example, here is review #695 – savory vegetable flavor. But wait – here’s good old review #1030 – this one is ’60 ingredients’ flavor! Back in 2011, I reviews the 60 Ingredients cup – review #553! Well, now this one’s called Vegetasty. They’ve dropped the whole looks how many ingredients and given it a very interesting name. I think this one is a troublemaker. The reason I say this is because they want to market it – and indeed it’s been pretty good – but as far as export, it’s a tough one to come up with a good name for perhaps. Vegetasty is kind of catchy, but for a Western audience, it might be a little tricky to pull off. It does bear the Vegan logo on there which is a good thing. Vegetasty sounds very monolithic; like it’s from a sprawling corporate empire. I would say completely revamp. Show farm imagery – crops being cared for or rolling fields in the sun as a background, then in the foreground a basket being held containing lots of different vegetables. Maybe a rustic theme. Then a better name – something like Nature’s Delight or Back To Nature Vegetable Noodle Soup – granted those aren’t taken already. Either way, vegetable and in particular Vegan varieties are very popular. I;ve been asked many times by companies my thoughts on how to name something for Western markets – a real honor I have to say. Anyways, yeah – let’s cook it – maybe I’m ruminate on the episode on Instant Noodle Recipe Time that appears at the bottom of this post – the finest show in the universe – and you all want to like and subscribe to. Yeah.
Well, here we are. The standard stuff. This was found at GMart in Lynnwood, Washington. So, what is it? It’s a combination of ramyun and tteokbokki – which are tubes of rice flour that are chewy and truly wondrous. Anyways, these really have been hit and miss on preparation – either dry or exploding in the microwave. Let’s give it another try.
This one is definitely a trip – so it’s made in Vietnam for the South Korean market. Found it of course at the famed S*Mart – that’s right kids – shop SMart – shop S*Mart! I really don’t think any people in that Korean store have seen Army Of Darkness, but honestly I think they’d get a kick out of it. Anyways, let’s commence.
This one came from James of Lakeside, California – thanks, man! Pulmuone leans towards the healthier end of the stick when it comes to food manufacturing. I believe I read a while back about how there is in fact a large farm Pulmuone runs that is also a school on heritage farming for students in South Korea – pretty cool. Let’s make some crab ramen!
Thisd is a very interesting one found at GMart in Lynnwood, Washington state. This is made by Acecook Vietnam for the South Korean market. Honestly, I’ve never heard of tomyum eaten in South Korea. Do they do that? Thai food is popular in Taiwan, that much I know. Malaysia too – but they’re neighbors so that makes sense. I suppose they wouldn’t make this is nobody liked tomyum soup in South Korea. Anyways, it’s interesting – let’s checkk it out.
Ahhhh jjamppong! Awesome – I freaking really love jjamppong. Seafood and spicy and sometimes smoky – kind of imparts a grilled seafood flavor – those are the best. Let’s waste no time and give it a try!
Usually I try to track down the manufacturer and this one if rather difficult. It seems that Seoul Trading is distributing it, but not the manufacturer. It’s made in South Korea, however. There are three varieties of these – this carbonara, a spicy, and a fire spicy. This one gets a South Korea label since it’s an export version for many countries. Let’s see how spicy this stuff is.
For those who crave spicy things, here’s Paldo’s Teum-sae. It didn’t used to be hyphenated, but it is now. There’s the soup version, and then this, the dry noodle version. Let’s do this.
So here’s one I’ve really enjoyed for a long time. Indeed, it has also been in exitence for quite awhile as well. It’s the original variety that was introduced to the South Korean market back in 1963. Initially, it was mistaken as a textile which is kind of funny, but that didn’t last long at all. This is the packaging for export, but it’s the same as what you’ll find in South Korea.
Found this one recently at Boo Han Market in Edmonds, Washington. I rarely buy a multipack, but I found this one so compelling that I figured why not. Bulgogi is a delectable dish which usually isn’t represented well when not in it’s original form, and marrying it to something as western as an alfredo pasta seemed really fascinating – if it works. Let’s see if they can manage to balance the authenticity of both dishes well.
This one ame by was of Daniel over at Exotic Noods – thanks again! This one’s a jjajangmyeon style noodle, so it’s got a thick and hearty black bean sauce with it. I’ve seen varieties made for GS Mart (a Korean chain) by Paldo, and everything about this package screams Paldo manufacture. If you look on the back by the barcode, you can see it’s made specifically for Us distribution. Anyways, let’s give it a try!
Found this one at HMart recently. Looks to be a Vegan version of Jin Ramen and that sounds neat as a change of pace. I’m in the mood for something different – haven’t done a lot of Korean varieties lately. This one is of course made in South Korea but packaged for sale in the United States. Let’s give it a try!
