Symington's Golden Wonder Normous Instant Noodles BBQ Beef Flavour XL

Twice as much noodles as normal, but a moderate flavour. Fairly acceptable, even if nothing great. There's a pleasant tomato sweetness, and some onion flavour. Not one I will rush to buy again, but I'd be OK with eating this again.

No meat in the ingredients.


Score: 4

Symington's

Beef flavoured

Symington's Golden Wonder Normous Instant Noodles Mild Curry Flavour XL

Big packet - two portions of noodles, and very cheap. But tastes fairly bland. It feels like twice as much noodles, but the same amount of flavouring as a regular pack. Cheap, but not necessarily good value.

Veggie ingredients.


Score: 3

***

Symington's

Best curry flavour instant noodles

Symington's Golden Wonder Noodle Pot Beef & Tomato Flavour

These are made by Symington's, but they don't own the Golden Wonder name, so they licence it from Tayto, an Irish crisp company (seriously!), who bought the Golden Wonder company from Unilever. Curiously, Golden Wonder were the original owners of the Pot Noodle brand, and it was sold as Golden Wonder Pot Noodle. When Unilever acquired Golden Wonder, they kept Pot Noodle, but sold the Golden Wonder brand name. Symington's are now reviving that original Golden Wonder Pot Noodle, but switching the Pot and the Noodle around to read Golden Wonder Noodle Pot.

Anyway. This is a bland product. It's edible, but forgettable. The noodles take ages to soften, and when they do they taste floury.

It's veggie. Made in the UK.


Score: 3

Beef flavoured

Symington's

Batchelors Super Noodles Chicken flavour

There's a lot of cooking to do these days with most noodles, and now Super Noodles are asking us to boil for several minutes. What ever happened to the instant noods? The noodles are typical British - floury and tasteless, and if cooked as instructed, they become mushy as well.  Flavour is like buttered chicken. It's reasonably tasty.  Made in Britain, and veggie.


Score: 3

***

Super Noodles are crap

The best (and worse) Chicken flavour instant noodles

Pot Noodle Sausage Casserole

On at half price (50p) at my local Tesco, so I grabbed a few. I like Pot Noodle. This is a new flavour, sausage casserole. It's veggie. It consists of Marmite and onion juice. And that's what it tastes like. Rather weak, so I had to add some salt. A bit boring for a Pot Noodle, but likeable in that particular Pot Noodle way. Not a big success, but OK.


Score: 4

The best of the Pot Noodle slags

Aldi Asia Specialities Soy & Sesame Microwaveable Asian Noodles

89p for 250g from Aldi, Made in Thailand. Veggie. You snip off the corner and heat it up in the microwave while still in the bag,  As with the other Microwaveable Asian Noodles from Aldi these are dry and lacking in flavour. I added soy sauce and some onion salt and a fair bit of water to make an edible if not entirely enjoyable meal.

Fail.

Score: 2

Aldi Instant Noodles

Tesco Everyday Value Spicy Curry Flavour Noodles (pot)

Cheap. Edible. Bland. The noodles take a while to soften, and when they do they are more texture than flavour - rather doughy and flavourless. The curry sauce is very mild and again quite bland. I added some salt in order to give it flavour, and then it became acceptable.

Date: Feb 2016  Score: 3


 While agreeing with my review from last year, I do find them quite acceptable and enjoyable. A little bit of salt brings out the chip shop curry sauce flavour quite pleasantly. Quite British - floury sauce and bland, chewy noodles, but I wouldn't object to having these again.

Date: Jan 2017   Score: 4

***

Best curry flavour instant noodles

Tesco noodles

Aldi Snack Noodle Spicy Curry Flavour

39p for 90g. This is nice. A proper British pot noodle. Roughly similar to Lidl's cup noodles at the same price, and Sainsbury's cup noodle at a higher price.  This really challenges Pot Noodle. I could stock up on these at this price. Well, either these or Lidl's. I'll try a side by side taste test to see which is the best. At the moment I have the Lidl at a higher score, but in truth they are probably fairly equal.

Date: Feb 2016   Score: 6

Aldi Instant Noodles

Best curry flavour instant noodles

Aldi Asia Specialities Teriyaki Microwaveable Asian Noodles

89p for 250g from Aldi, Made in Thailand. Veggie. You snip off the corner and heat it up in the microwave while still in the bag, The finished product is quite dry and lacking in flavour. Teriyaki generally means a sweet and savoury sauce.  This one is simply dull. I had to add moisture and seasoning to make it edible.

I won't be getting these again. Though, to be fair, I have not liked any Teriyaki instant noodles I have tried, including Naked Noodle and Home Bargain's Chef Hou brands.

Score: 2

Aldi Instant Noodles

Aldi Snack Noodle Chicken & Mushroom Flavour

39p for a 90g pot is good value. And it's very tasty. Plenty of flavour, and quite pleasant tasting. Yes, it tastes artificial, but in a cheeky Pot Noodle way so it's OK. You're not this to get an authentic Asian cuisine flavour, especially as it's a very British chicken and mushroom flavour with bits of sweetcorn. It's veggie, and I love it. What's to complain about? Nice one Aldi. This is probably made in the UK. Probably in Wales.....


Score: 8

The best Chicken flavour instant noodles

Aldi Instant Noodles

Homebargains Thai Delight Pad Thai Noodles with Pad Thai Sauce

Another Homebargains noodle box. Cheap to buy and easy to make, they are quite filling, and there is a pleasant peanut butter flavour along with a warmth from the chilli. Eating them from the box works fine, and is a slightly different idea for the UK, though not unique. I can't recall how much I paid for these, and can't find any info online, so I'll check out next time I'm in Homebargains, and see if they have any other flavours.

Pad Thai is rice noodles - the sauce doesn't seem to be very specific though tends to include fish.


Score: 5

Homebargains Thai Delight Hokkien Noodles with Peanut Satay Sauce

Cheap from HomeBargains. Looks and sounds good. Made in Thailand. All veggie.  Easy to make. But rather disappointing. Not really a very good peanut satay sauce, tasted more of tomato ketchup than peanuts. The noodles were fat, floury and tasteless. Could have done better by just putting tomato ketchup and peanut butter on some instant noodles. Don't think I'll be getting these again. Though I don't mind trying other flavours.

Score: 3

Itsu Thai Yum Yum Crystal Noodle (Cup)

I had the Itsu Noodle[pot] Thai Original Flavour in January 2014 and absolutely hated it, and so did everyone else.  The company have made adjustments and relaunched. The new range was on offer at Tesco for a £1 (normally twice that), so I bought three. The company still has the silly pink spork, but at least now they have a tasty sauce - it tasted fresh, authentic, and warmly spicy. The noodles were not so good. Wiry tasteless plastic. When made up it takes a while before it is cool enough to eat. The instructions suggest adding cold water, and that's a good idea. It's not that the sauce (or soup) is hot, it's that the noodles are really tricky to get into your mouth, and you sort of burn your lips and chin. Not nice. On the whole this doesn't really work because the noodles are so inedible and awkward to eat. Throw away the noodles and drink the soup and it works. But then it's not a cup noodle, it's a cup of soup.

O crap, I just looked at the ingredients, and it's mostly decomposing chicken. Yugh! Come on folks, it is possible to make edible food without using dead farm animals.

Score: 3

Batchelors Super Noodles Taste Adventures Zingy Peri Peri Chicken

Second one in the Taste Adventures series, this one is a "New kid on the block", so I assume it's a flavour that Super Noodles have not used previously. I didn't follow the instructions - I just poured on boiling water, stirred and waited. No need for extra boiling. The taste is savoury with onion and tomato notes, then comes in some lime. It's sweet, yet warm and spicy with growing heat that never quite burns. Noodles are soggy and floury even though not cooked as per the recipe. I've joked about Super Noodles are crap for years, but to be honest they are growing on me. You get a decent portion, and even though it's more noodle than flavouring, and the noodles are bland and floury (air-dried rather than deep-fried as Asian noodles are), and sometimes - as here, the flavouring is OK. The touch of lime is a nice touch - quite modern that. No lime in the ingredients, but they do use lemon and citric acid, so that's how they're getting it.

I'm not going to lie. This was OK.

Date: Jan, 2016  Score: 4

Cooked per the instructions and the result was a stodgy mess. It's savoury and has warmth, but it's stodge. Quite edible, but ready my previous experience, it seems it's better just to pour on the boiling water and wait.

Date: July 2017  Score: 3

Super Noodles are crap

The best (and worse) Chicken flavour instant noodles

Batchelors Super Noodles Taste Adventures Aromatic Thai Green Curry

A new series from Super Noodles: Taste Adventures. Picked this up on offer, and I have to say it's not bad for a Super Noodle, though not that good in general. The instructions have you boiling it for a long time in order to get a kind of sludge. Not sure why you'd want to do that, and if were ever to eat this again I would simply prepare the classic way. The flavouring is mostly chilli, but while spicy it isn't savage, and does have a feel for Thai Green Curry.

Edible.

Score: 3

Super Noodles are crap

Best curry flavour instant noodles

HomeBargains Chef Huo Eastern Range Express Noodle Bowl Spicy Kung Pao

A bit better than the Sesame Teriyaki because of the spicy warmth and added flavour, but still tasting mostly of plastic and chemicals.


Score: 2

HomeBargains Chef Huo Eastern Range Express Noodle Bowl Sesame Teriyaki

Never again. Tasted like plastic and chemicals. Yugh.

Score: 1

Micro Noodles Chicken Flavour

Ugly looking pot which creates an ugly looking and not tasty mess. The noodles are the main flavour, and they are small and jelly like - a bit like buckwheat or pearl barley. The MSG flavouring barely makes an impact. Chicken? Escaped the roost I think.

The brand is owned by Unilever. It doesn't say where they are made - I assume the Pot Noodle mine in Wales, as Pot Noodle is another Unilever brand.

This is not nice. Worse even than Super Noodles - and that's really saying something!


Date: Feb 2014   Score: 1

59p for a 100g pot, from Home Bargains. Veggie.

This is even worse than the curry one. Really bland and stodgy. Best avoided.

Made by Unilever, who own the Knorr brand, but this product is unbranded.

Date: Jan 2016   Score: 2

The best (and worse) Chicken flavour instant noodles

Micro Noodles Curry Flavour

59p for a 100g pot, from Home Bargains. The idea is to make them in the microwave, but it doesn't work as they suggest. It's more effective to pour on boiling water and then cook for three minutes in the microwave, than to pour on cold water. The printing on the pot is very cheap and blurry - rather like a pirate video case in the '90s. There is a fill line printed on the outside, but it's hard to see when looking inside. But, even so, if you fill to the line the water gets absorbed and you end up with a very dry sticky mess. Best to use more than suggested. And then at the end it's too lightly flavoured, so it's mostly pasta you taste. Put in some onion salt and it tastes better. But, pretty crap product really. Veggie.

Made by Unilever, who own the Knorr brand, but this product is unbranded. Doesn't say where they are made. The noodles are not deep fried, so it's unlikely to be Asia - probably somewhere in Europe.

Score:2

Best curry flavour instant noodles