Today’s review is the Maruchan Birria Beef Flavor Ramen Bowl, a product that has been out for a little while now and that I wanted to get to before moving on to some of Maruchan’s newer products. This flavor started showing up in grocery stores and on Amazon in the last year and a half or so.
The Verdict:
| Product: | Maruchan Birria Beef Flavor Ramen Bowl |
| Origin: | Japan (Manufactured in the USA) |
| Noodle Quality: | 5/10 |
| Spice Level: | 1.5/10 |
| Overall Score: | 3/10 |
From all appearances, Maruchan wants to capitalize on the growing popularity of birria ramen, which combines Mexican meat consommé with ramen noodles. Right now in the instant noodle realm, Tapatio makes a pretty compelling birria flavor that I reviewed back in episode 194, and Samyang makes an acceptable Buldak Birria that I enjoyed back in episode 212. Maruchan has a pretty high bar to clear here.
Inside the bowl, we’ve got wheat noodles, dried flakes, and a soup flavor packet. The dried flakes appear to be soy protein, not real beef flakes, along with onion, garlic, and cilantro. The broth packet contains salt, chili, soy sauce, MSG, beef extract, various spices, corn & wheat protein, and a lot of additives that I really don’t recognize.
Here’s a discrepancy that you need to know about if you have dietary restrictions. On Maruchan’s product page, there’s no beef listed in the ingredients (at the time of this review, at least), implying that this is artificially flavored. But the actual bowl that I have here, all the way at the end of the ingredients, says “beef extract.” That’s a big oversight because if a vegetarian were to order these based on the Maruchan website alone, they’d be in for a very unfortunate surprise. Not cool. There are people who don’t eat beef. Maruchan has to be transparent with this stuff, and I don’t understand how this made it through without being reflected on the webpage. Be warned if you’re vegetarian.
Also not cool is the sodium: this entire bowl contains 1,800 mg. That’s on the high side, so be warned about that too.
After steeping, I noticed right away that the aroma did not smell anything like birria. Birria is herby and spicy, and this smelled more like canned beef gravy. Not promising. What I will give Maruchan credit for is that the broth looked a little thick and had a nice consistency, so they got that part right, at least. It was somewhere between a soup and a gravy.
Noodles:
This is not my first time having Maruchan’s American bowl noodles, but it is the first time I’ve had them in a review capacity. They’re thin and flat, and they came out a little soft for my liking even after steeping for only three minutes. To their credit, they are missing the oily aftertaste that I get from Instant Lunch noodles, but that’s faint praise. They’re not inedible; they’re just meh.
- 5/10
Spiciness:
This is not going to knock your socks off with any kind of heat. It has the mild, unimpressive heat level that I would expect from a company trying to make a birria-flavored ramen bowl for a broad audience. When I think of birria, I think of more heat than this, and it is not delivering at all.
- 1.5/10
Overall:
Speaking of not delivering, this sure as shit doesn’t taste like any kind of birria I’ve ever had. Where I live, I have a pretty substantial amount of good, authentic Mexican food around me. That includes an amazing Mexican-Asian fusion restaurant that makes homemade birria ramen. I’ve had the real deal, and this ain’t it. That wonderful combination of spices, flavors, and general meaty goodness that I expect from birria is not here. This tastes like cheap canned beef gravy, just like it smelled. It has a weird sweetness to it, almost like you took that canned gravy and squirted ketchup into it. To its credit, it does have some actual beef flavor. There’s some kind of salty onion and tomato thing going on, but then the aftertaste is all sweet. That’s it. I don’t really taste anything else here. It’s in the realm of bland, and it’s very boring – two things that birria should not be. And not only does it taste nothing like real birria, I don’t think it’s good on its own merits. Also, a special shout-out to the soy protein beef flakes: they’re terrible. They rehydrated terribly, taste like nothing, don’t feel like actual beef, and contribute nothing of value to this bowl. I went into this review with low expectations, admittedly, and I was still disappointed. Mediocre noodles in a strangely flavored gravy. You could probably save this a little by adding your own spice blend and some hot sauce after the fact, which is why I’m not giving it a lower score. But as a base for a meal, I’m not feeling it. I could power my way through finishing this, but I just don’t want to.
- 3/10
Final Thoughts
This was a swing and a miss from Maruchan. I don’t find it completely, horribly inedible or anything, but it has massive flaws. The flavors are all wrong and inexcusably dull. Like, who is this even for? Anyone who buys this and has never eaten birria before might assume this is what birria tastes like, and that’s a crime against humanity as far as I’m concerned. If you have had real birria and buy this, you’re going to find that it tastes nothing like real birria. It’s a very confusing product. Unless you’re morbidly curious, I would advise you to skip this one if you see it on a supermarket shelf. Maruchan makes some decent products, but I wouldn’t say this is one of them. Stick to Tapatio for now if you want instant birria ramen rather than buying this and trying to doctor it up.
Continuing the Journey:
- For artificial beef flavor done right, try Kang Shi Fu Braised Artificial Beef Flavor Soup Noodle.
- Nissin Top Ramen Beef Flavor Bowl is a more conventional beef bowl with better noodles.
- For another American Maruchan noodle with mild heat, see Maruchan Instant Lunch Flamin’ Hot Chicken Ramen.
