Detailed instant noodle reviews and ratings – watch, read, and discover your next favorite.
Welcome to the Hall of Shame, my first-ever Bottom 5 Instant Noodles list. After reviewing hundreds of products, I’ve suffered through the bland, the boring, and the downright offensive so you don't have to. Unless you are morbidly curious, you should stay away from these five varieties.
Time to continue my gluten-free noodle run with Lotus Foods Millet & Brown Rice Ramen with Red Miso Soup. It has been a while since I touched this brand because the white miso variety landed in my bottom five and the turmeric curry was only okay. The ingredient choices in the noodles were never the problem with this brand like you might think - it was always the flavor of the soup. I picked this one to review now because I recently saw it on a “healthiest ramen” list and I want to know if red miso, which is usually the most bold, funky of the miso varieties, finally gives Lotus Foods a broth with real character. Here's a quick primer on miso if you're unfamiliar: white is mild and sweet, yellow leans earthier, and red is the strongest and most pungent, the kind you often find in ramen shop miso soups.
Welcome back to another purple noodle review as I continue my quest to find something gluten-free that doesn’t taste like punishment. This is another Lotus Foods variety, their Purple Potato Rice Ramen with Turmeric Curry Soup. If you caught my review of their Forbidden Rice Ramen with White Miso Soup, you’ll recall I wasn’t exactly kind to the broth in that one. The noodles were fine, but the flavor was a total debacle. This one, at least on paper, looks more promising thanks to the addition of actual spices and the novelty of potato-based noodles.
By viewer request, this episode dives into the gluten-free aisle with Lotus Foods’ Forbidden Rice Ramen White Miso Soup. I don’t have any gluten sensitivity myself, but I picked up one of every rice-based variety Lotus Foods makes so I can include everyone in this noodle journey, starting with this one. It was available at Wegman’s for $1.89 at the time of this review, which is fairly reasonable for a 2.8 oz. package, especially considering it’s vegan and gluten-free.