Samyang Hot Mushroom Flavour Noodles (Yukgaejang)

Made by Samyang Foods of Korea, a company founded in 1961, who made the first noods in Korea. They are 65p for 120g; the noodles are deep fried, and the powder is veggie. There are some dried veg flakes included. The flavour is mushroom  - a strangely popular flavour considering how bland it is. And then you can't really taste or appreciate the subtle mushroom flavour because the "Hot" of the title consists of rather a lot of chilli pepper. This is not warm, nor spicy, this is simply searing hot, as though eating chilli pepper powder. I couldn't eat it as it was and had to smother it in ketchup.

So, not a good experience for me.....

A-One Pho Tom Cua Instant Rice Noodles Shrimp & Crab Flavor

Pleasant enough, though the noodles taste like rehydrated plastic. The flavour is not that interesting. It's fairly strong, but in an artificial MSG way, and doesn't taste of anything specific. While not actively unpleasant, it's not an experience I want to repeat.

Score: 3

A-One

A-One Pho Bo Beef Flavour Rice Noodles

These are flat, thin rice noodles, and they work very well. The flavour is very pleasant - quite fresh and lively with flowery and citric notes. Hints of lemon, lime, and coriander, but no real suggestion of the beef flavouring.

Very pleasant. A little different from the standard nood, and all the better for that. Though I didn't like that there were several packets to open. Made in Vietnam by Saigon Ve Wong Ltd. 65g for 32p from TradewindsOriental.

Pho is the Vietnamese name for noodle soup, and Bo is beef. So Pho Bo is beef flavoured noodle soup.

Score: 7

Other reviews
*CrankyInTheMouth

A-One

Beef flavoured

Tiger Tiger Cup Noodles Thai Spice Satay Style

There's a plastic pot inside the cardboard box, and a fork. So a little bit too much packaging. £1 for 90g, which is about standard. Unlike the packet Tiger Tiger noods, these are made in Thailand. The quality is different: these are quite poor - the sauce is bland and floury. There is a mild peanut flavour, but mainly it's the flour-water paste that I taste. Even putting on more salt didn't help matters. This tastes like a basic pot nood costing between 20 and 40p, so I assume the extra price is to pay for the marketing and packaging and the dried veg which don't hydrate properly and get stuck in your throat. Piss poor really, and no comparison with the excellent packet Tiger Tiger noods.

Tiger Tiger

Tiger Tiger

Tiger Tiger are a UK distribution company based in Nottingham. Launched in 2012, the company have their packet noodles made in China, and their cup noodles made in Thailand.

The packet noodles are good value for the quality. Tasty recipes. Simple, but effective, and easy to make.

Tiger Tiger Indian Tikka Masala Instant Noodles

Tiger Tiger Thai Red Curry Instant Noodles

Tiger Tiger Chinese Peking Duck Instant Noodles

Kitchen 88 Asian Take-out Satay Chicken Noodle

Attractive New York Asian take-away box, this is 280g for a £1 from a pound store. It is made by Octa Foods of Thailand, who were formed in 2003; and imported into the UK by Crown Foods of Hampshire.

This is very tasty. Not dried, but fresh food, seal packed, like the Indian curries. The noodles are rather fat and doughy - I prefer deep fried dried noodles; if going for fresh, then flour and water doesn't cut it for me - I'd prefer a decent quality noodle made with egg. However, the sauce is tasty - fresh and natural, with good flavours. However, there are solid pieces of real chicken in the sauce, which is not my thing.  To be fair, this is the most natural and fresh tasting chicken noodle dish I've had, but not the most enjoyable. Its each to their own, and this is a damn good product - its just not my thing. All the Kitchen 88 products contain chicken chunks, so I'll give them a miss. Others, though, will love them.

Score reduced because of use of real chicken.

Score: 5

The best Chicken flavour instant noodles

Vifon Hoang Gia Bun Mang Gio Heo (Vermicelli with Stewed Pork Pie & Bamboo Shoot)

95p for 120g, so quite a big pack. It's rice vermicelli rather than proper noodles, and there's lots of packets: the soup base, two dried veg, and one sealed sachet of pork and bamboo shoots. Rather too much meat for me. And a lot of fuss cooking which I'm not sure is worth it. The result is not impressive - greasy, watery, and with a savoury artificial meat flavour. Bleurgh, really. And the noodles didn't do much for me - rather like eating sewing cotton.

When I first starting eating instant noodles, I was very much against any fuss with cooking as my experience of instant noodles was mainly Pot Noodles. Open the pack, pour in the boiling water, stir and eat. I have discovered since then there are a great range of instant noodles, with a variety of ways of preparation, so I am no longer completely dismissive of having to fiddle with several packets. But it is still something of a negative for me.....


Date: May 2014   Score: 4 

Vifon Instant Noodles

Chung King Instant Noodles Chicken Flavour (cup)

2 for £1 in a pound-store. The noodles are fine - they don't make much of an impression and are not tasty, but are not slimy or doughy either. The flavour is a bit floury and artificial, but savoury enough. It tastes more like dried mushroom soup than chicken, but it's quite edible. There are a few pleasant pieces of dried veg. All in all, an OK but unremarkable nood.  Says specially produced in China for Chung King Foods, and then gives a PB Box address in Northampton which is used by a Chinese printing company, Jiaming, who make various stationary items for companies like Walmart.


Score: 4

The best Chicken flavour instant noodles

Tiger Tiger Thai Red Curry Instant Noodles

This is damn tasty. There's very little curry flavour, and barely any spice kick. But it is tasty with warm coriander and lime notes. This tastes surprisingly fresh and natural. No powdered chickens or other dead animals in this, either. Nice one.

Best curry flavour instant noodles

Tiger Tiger

Nissin Demae Ramen Spicy Seafood Flavour

A warm spice and a lot of savoury flavours, but rather artificial and chemical tasting. There's also some tomato sweetness, which is pleasant. This is a nice, edible nood, but not outstanding.

There are similarities to the Nissin Cup Noodle Seafood Flavour, and the Nissin Demae Ramen XO Sauce Seafood Flavour.


Score: 5

Nifty Nissin noodles

Nissin Demae Ramen Shoyu Tonkotsu Flavour

May, 2014
As with other Nissin noods, this is good value, though the quality is not top notch. The noods are OK - firm and chewy, with some decent wheat flavour, but the sauce is a little dull. It's mostly savoury soy sauce, and a little bit lacking in impact and salt. And there isn't much variation. I mean it's OK, but just not that interesting.

Shoyu means soy sauce, and tonkotsu means pork broth. The meat flavour comes from peanuts, so this is veggie.

Score: 4/10

May, 2015

Very savoury and rich. Lots of onion and peanut flavouring. Perhaps a bit too rich and one dimensional. No meat, but does contain powdered fish.

Score:  4/10


Other reviews
* RamenRater
* ASimpleGeekyLife

Nifty Nissin noodles

Nissin Soba Classic

Another tasty treat from the world's largest  noods company, the Japanese owned Nissin. This is made by the German branch of Nissin, somewhere in Europe. As the style is Japanese fried noodles, the preparation is done in frying pan with little water, resulting in moist but not watery noodles. The flavour is fried onion and soy sauce, and is really quite tasty. The noodles are a little bland; being made in Europe, perhaps they are air dried rather than fried. However, the end result is all veggie and quite tasty - a top nood.

Soba is Japanese for buckwheat; it is synonymous with a style of thin noodles that were originally made from buckwheat, though the word also applies to all noodles in Japan. The style of this dish is like yakisoba, which is a Japanese version of chow mein.

Score: 7/10


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*RamenRater (cup version)

Nifty Nissin noodles

Best instant noodle chow mein