I did not enjoy that last Nissin x Bachan’s flavor very much. Is it possible I’ve saved the best for last? Nissin Top Ramen Beef Flavor with Bachan’s Roasted Garlic Barbecue Sauce is the flavor that appeals to me most of these three Nissin x Bachan’s collaborations, mainly because I love garlic so, so much. Despite that, I’ve never bought this roasted garlic sauce flavor from Bachan’s before, mainly because I’ve never seen it in any of my nearby grocery stores. I do love a new experience with garlic, so let’s see how this goes.
The Verdict:
| Product: | Nissin Top Ramen Beef Flavor with Bachan’s Roasted Garlic Barbecue Sauce |
| Origin: | Japan (Manufactured in the USA) |
| Noodle Quality: | 6.5/10 |
| Spice Level: | 0/10 |
| Overall Score: | 7/10 |
This is a limited-time flavor exclusive to Walmart, priced at $1.47 at the time of this review. Head to your nearest Walmart store if you want to buy this or the other two flavors.
Inside the bowl, we’ve got normal Top Ramen wheat noodles, a soup pouch, vegetable pouch, and barbecue sauce pouch. The soup powder is once again a standard beef broth powder, with beef fat, egg white, garlic powder, onion powder, and soy. The vegetables are corn, green onion, leek, and red bell pepper. And the sauce pouch is the Bachan’s Roasted Garlic sauce, with soy sauce, cane sugar, roasted garlic, non-roasted garlic, mirin, tomato paste, ginger, green onion, rice vinegar, salt, and sesame oil. The sodium is the same as the other two flavors, 1890mg.
Noodles:
I’m running out of ways to describe these Top Ramen noodles. They are perfectly fine for what they are.
- 6.5/10
Spiciness:
No spiciness at all here.
- 0/10
Overall:
When I opened up the sauce packet, I got a nice aroma of mellow garlic. I also had a quick taste of the sauce on its own, and while it did have the same sweet and savory backbone of Bachan’s sauce, the additional garlic was apparent, albeit a little more muted than I would have liked. The problem came when I combined the sauce with the broth and ended up with essentially the same flavor as the first Top Ramen Beef with Bachan’s Original Sauce I reviewed. And while that’s not necessarily a bad thing (I did, after all, give that Original flavor a 7/10 overall), I was really hoping for something different this time. Despite having two separate garlic ingredients listed in the sauce, I found the garlic flavor to be completely lost among the beef flavor, the ginger, and the other sauce ingredients once this was all mixed together. It’s simultaneously tasty and disappointing because it doesn’t deliver on the flavor it should have delivered. If I have to literally swish a spoonful of broth around in my mouth looking for garlic flavor the same way a sommelier looks for flavor notes in a sip of wine, then there’s just not enough garlic in the recipe to warrant this being called “garlic flavored.” I did drink all of the broth just to see if the sauce had maybe settled at the bottom despite all my stirring, but nope. So the score for this is begrudgingly a wash with that of the Original sauce bowl – I think it tastes good, but I also think it fails at differentiating itself in the way it should have.
- 7/10
Continuing the Journey
- Missed the other two Nissin x Bachan’s reviews? Check out Nissin Top Ramen Beef Flavor with Bachan’s Original Barbecue Sauce and Nissin Top Ramen Beef Flavor with Bachan’s Sweet & Spicy Barbecue Sauce.
- For a heavier dose of garlic flavor from a premium Japanese brand, you’ll want to try Marutai Kumamoto Kuromayu Tonkotsu Ramen.
- If you’re looking for more protein from your Nissin ramen, check out Nissin Cup Noodles Protein Rich & Savory Beef Flavor.
