Nissin Soba Chili (Cup Noodles)

This is the cup version of Soba. It is made in a manner I've not encountered previously. Soba is a Japanese stir fried noodle meal, so Nissin want it to be as close to a stir fried product as possible. In this case they ask you to take out the flavouring powder, and pour on boiling water and leave for three minutes, then pour away all the hot water through holes in the lid (lots of warnings about burning your fingers!), then add the flavouring packets, stir and eat. The result is moist but not wet. There is a lot of onion flavour, so you do get an impression of fried food. A sort of soya sauce is also used as part of the flavouring. The chilli heat is moderate, so it informs and spices the food rather than dominates. Although mostly tasting of onion and soya sauce, and the noodles being a bit bland (this is made in German rather than Asia, so the noodles are likely to be air dried rather than deep fried), this is a tasty product that I enjoyed. Damn shame that being made in Germany, and despite the main food lumps being soya chunks, it contains pig fat. Why?

 

Date: May 2016  Score: 8

  

Now branded Cup Noodles, and with a warning to take care when pouring out the hot water. And, yippee, it doesn't contain pork. 

This is a tasty, savoury mood. Yes it relies on soy sauce and onion, but it works, and the chilli gives it a rousing kick, without being dominating. I like this. A lot.

Date: July 2021 Score: 9

Nifty Nissin noodles

Nongshim OoLongmen Beef Flavour

No instructions on the container anywhere - though there is a stamp that says do not microwave. Anyway, I poured on boiling water to what appears to be the fill level. This cooked quickly (I've been having a lot of UK packet noodles recently, and they need boiling water and five minutes in the microwave, and even then they are still a bit too firm) producing nice soft good quality noodles. The dried veg was nice. Again, hydrated quickly, and while they were clearly rehydrated dried veg, they added some texture and flavour to the whole thing. The powder, though, was a little disappointing. I'm not sure what the artificial beef flavour is, but this was a faint onion flavour. It wasn't unpleasant, but a little vague - more like dish water than beef.  However, overall I enjoyed these because the noodles were so nice, it was quick and easy to make, and the finished result wasn't over-spicy, over-flavoured, too artificial, and didn't leave me feeling a little dirty afterwards. I'd go for these again. Just put in a bit of garlic salt, and ping! we're good to go!

Ingredients

Score: 6


*The RamenRater

Nongshim

Beef flavoured

Batchelors Super Low Fat Noodles Chilli Chicken Flavour

The noodles are tough as old rope and not as edible. The flavouring is more like curry than chilli. Onion is the main flavouring. No dead chickens are used. Made in Germany.


Score: 2

Super Noodles are crap

The best (and worse) Chicken flavour instant noodles

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