Detailed instant noodle reviews and ratings – watch, read, and discover your next favorite.
I’m wrapping up this year’s Marutai Marathon with something I’ve never reviewed on the channel before and, honestly, something I’ve never even eaten at a restaurant. This is Marutai Fukuoka Seafood & Pork Tsukemen, a dipping-style ramen that’s very different from the soup bowls I usually gravitate toward. This one marks my first real exposure to tsukemen in any form, so I'm going into this curious about both the eating experience and how well that style translates to an instant product.
Next in this year’s Marutai Marathon with a style of ramen I’ve never reviewed on the channel before, which is always exciting. This time around, it’s Marutai Yokohama Soy Sauce Tonkotsu Ramen, a product based on iekei-style ramen that originated in Yokohama. This is part of Marutai’s long-running Local Series, where they attempt to replicate famous regional ramen styles from across Japan, and it appears to be a newer entry in that lineup.
I’m moving on from the Marutai x Sapporo Ichiban collaboration products and into some of the newer Japanese Marutai releases that started showing up this past year, starting with something completely new to me: Marutai Chilled Chinese Noodles, also known as Hiyashi Chuka. This is my first time trying this style of dish, and while it’s currently December and absolutely freezing outside, this is a Marutai product and part of my annual countdown to Christmas tradition, so it still fits right in. The focus here is whether the base flavor itself is worth buying, which means I’m reviewing this exactly as it comes in the package, without adding any extra toppings.
I’m kicking off my annual December Marutai tradition with a Sapporo Ichiban x Marutai Tonkotsu Ramen mega-review! These are three collaboration products that, from what I can put together, are manufactured by Marutai with Sapporo Ichiban/Sanyo Foods acting as the North American distributor: Hakata-Style Original Tonkotsu, Kagoshima-Style Creamy Tonkotsu, and Kumamoto-Style Garlic Tonkotsu ramen. This whole holiday marathon started in my first year on YouTube when my wife bought me 12 Marutai varieties and I did a 12-days countdown, and now this is what December looks like on the channel and website. Marutai is my favorite instant ramen company, and I’m always excited to catch up on new releases.
I’m closing out this year’s Marutai marathon with one of the more unusual flavors I’ve come across from the brand: Marutai Shijimi Clam Soy Sauce Ramen. This one immediately caught my attention, not just because I love clams, but because Marutai is positioning this as a nutritionally dense ramen built around shijimi clams, which are often associated with vitamins and restorative broths in Japan. I’ve reviewed seafood-forward ramen before, but this is one of the few where clams are clearly meant to be the star rather than a background note.
Continuing on with my run of Marutai reviews this year is my third tonkotsu review in a row, and this one is a collaboration between Marutai and a long-running ramen shop in Fukuoka called Ganso Nagahama-ya. I reviewed several Marutai restaurant collaborations last year, and they ended up being some of the best instant ramen I’ve ever had from the brand, even if they were a bit more expensive than usual. This particular shop is known for a very traditional, no-frills tonkotsu style, and the goal here is clearly to replicate that experience as faithfully as possible in an instant format.
I’m continuing my annual December Marutai marathon with another tonkotsu variation (Marutai's specialty, one could argue), this time Marutai Soy Sauce Tonkotsu Ramen. In the last review, I covered a very straightforward yatai-style tonkotsu, and this one builds on that foundation by adding soy sauce as a central flavor element. On paper, this might sound redundant next to other Hakata-style soy sauce tonkotsu options Marutai already sells, but I still expected this to be both flavorful and well-executed based on their track record.
I’m kicking off 2024's Marutai December marathon with a flavor that’s been around for a while but is new to me: Marutai Yatai Tonkotsu Ramen. This is now the third year in a row that I’ve turned December into a bit of a tradition of revisiting my favorite Japanese instant ramen brand, and as long as Marutai keeps releasing new varieties, I’m happy to keep doing it. This particular tonkotsu isn’t part of Marutai’s usual lineup of regional variations. Instead, it’s meant to represent a more straightforward, food-stall-style tonkotsu experience.
I recently hit the milestone of 1,000 subscribers, and to celebrate, I’m finally compiling the first-ever Noodle Journey Top 10 Instant Noodles list. Over the course of this channel, I’ve reviewed a massive variety of noodles, but these ten are the absolute best-in-class for their categories, in my humble opinion. These are the varieties that blew me away when I tried them and that I keep stocked regularly in my pantry for when I’m not filming reviews. This list is in no particular order. These are simply the major varieties that are easily obtainable and represent the pinnacle of my own instant noodle universe in 2024.
This review of Marutai Original Ramen closes out my 2023 Marutai Marathon with the flavor that started it all. Released in 1959, this was Marutai’s very first stick ramen product and remains in production today. Unlike the regional or restaurant-supervised varieties I’ve reviewed so far, this one is from Marutai’s basic series and comes in simple packaging. It offers a light broth flavored with chicken, pork, soy, and sesame oil.