Trader Joe’s Thai Noodle Bowls come in three flavors, Garlic Sauce, Red Curry, and Peanut Satay, and I’m diving into all of them in this review. I’ve tried other Trader Joe’s instant noodle products before, like their Squiggly Taiwanese noodles and ramen cups, but those weren’t particularly impressive. Trader Joe’s usually rebrands products from established manufacturers, but I’m not sure who made these bowls. Each is sold exclusively at Trader Joe’s for about $2.50, although third-party sellers on Amazon list them for a steep markup.
Read more: Noodle Journey Episode 130: Trader Joe’s Thai Noodle Bowls (Garlic Sauce, Red Curry & Peanut Satay)Sodium levels here are unusually low for instant noodles. Garlic Sauce clocks in at 800mg, Red Curry at 590mg, and Peanut Satay at 670mg. All use shelf-stable fresh noodles rather than fried or air-dried. Every bowl is microwave-only and comes with a generous sauce packet. All three also contain fish sauce, meaning none are vegan.
Garlic Sauce:
The sauce packet lists garlic, chili peppers, onions, coconut, scallions, soy sauce, and fish sauce. Sugar content is 9g. When cooked, the noodles clumped together and needed heavy stirring to separate.
Noodles:
Soft, thicker than udon but without much character. Decent if eaten quickly, but prone to turning mushy.
• 6/10
Spiciness:
Mild, with just a trace of chili pepper heat.
• 1.5/10
Overall:
The garlic is overwhelming and in the worst way possible. Instead of fresh or roasted garlic depth, it hits with the same harsh, acidic tang you get from jarred garlic or garlic paste left sitting in your fridge for too long. As a self-proclaimed garlic fan, this manages to land in a category I can only describe as atrocious. The sauce has an unpleasant texture and the smell lingers in a way that makes it even harder to stomach. Any faint sweetness from the coconut or peppery edge from the red bits can’t cut through the processed flavor. It honestly boggles my mind that a product like this passed testing and made it to store shelves. How many people signed off on this thinking it was acceptable? This isn’t just bad, it’s one of the worst products I’ve ever reviewed.
• 0/10
Red Curry:
This bowl uses a curry paste base with coconut milk, peas, and bamboo shoots. Fish sauce is in here instead of shrimp paste, keeping it non-vegan. Sugar content is 10g.
Noodles:
Same as the Garlic Sauce variety. Serviceable but not great.
• 6/10
Spiciness:
Noticeably tingly with chili heat, similar to American Thai takeout.
• 3/10
Overall:
A massive step up from the Garlic Sauce disaster. The curry flavor here is warm, fragrant, and layered, with coconut sweetness and lime zest keeping it bright. It smells and tastes like a Thai takeout curry, which is exactly what you’d hope for in this format. The peas rehydrated well, not mealy, and the bamboo shoots had a nice crunch that gave the bowl some needed texture against the soft noodles. The sauce consistency was surprisingly good, thick enough to cling without being gluey. If anything, it skews a little too sweet and could have benefited from more salt or MSG to sharpen the flavors. Still, for a $2.50 product, it delivers something reasonably authentic. Anyone who likes red curry will probably find this comforting and familiar, even if it doesn’t fully capture the depth of restaurant-made versions. It’s not a must-buy, but it’s solid enough that I’d call it the best of the three.
• 6.5/10
Peanut Satay:
Sauce includes coconut milk, peanuts, chili peppers, lemongrass, curry spices, tamarind, garlic, and fish sauce. Carrots are present, but mung beans listed on the packaging were absent. Sugar content is highest here at 13g.
Noodles:
Identical to the others: soft, acceptable, but uninspiring.
• 6/10
Spiciness:
Comparable to the Red Curry, with a mild chili zip.
• 3/10
Overall:
This one lands in the middle of the pack for me. The sauce has a nutty sweetness up front from the peanuts and coconut milk, rounded out by a tart note from tamarind and a bit of sourness from lemongrass. There’s a gentle curry backbone keeping it savory, but overall it leans a bit sweeter than I’d like. The texture fares better, with chunks of soft carrots and crunchy peanut bits giving the bowl more dimension, though the mung beans promised on the packaging never showed up. What’s here is decent, but it feels like a simplified take on satay rather than something that truly captures its balance of savory and spicy. I didn’t get much garlic or fish sauce, which is probably for the best, but the sweetness holds it back from being more than “pretty good.” If you enjoy peanut sauce in general, you’ll find this acceptable, but it probably won’t wow you.
• 6/10
Taken together, these bowls are a mixed bag. The noodles in all three are consistent but forgettable. The Garlic Sauce bowl is a complete failure, the Red Curry bowl is passable and the one I’d most recommend, and the Peanut Satay bowl is fine but unremarkable. For the same money, there are far better noodle options out there, but if you’re at Trader Joe’s and curious, Red Curry is the safest bet.
Notes since filming:
The garlic sauce was the first 0 score I’d ever given on the channel in 130 episodes. That’s how absolutely vile I found it.
