Ramen Bae Spicy Garlic Mix launched on February 1, 2024, after months of teasing, and I grabbed a pack the second it became available on their site. I’ve recommended Ramen Bae countless times on Reddit whenever people ask how to spruce up their noodles, and I’ve reviewed both their Classic Seafood & Vegetables Mix and their Veggie Mix in past reviews. Both were solid products worth your attention if you like the ingredients.
Read more: Noodle Journey Supplement Review: Ramen Bae Spicy Garlic MixThis new mix sells for $25.99 on Ramen Bae’s website for a 14 oz. bag, with about 20 servings per bag. They also recently lowered their free shipping threshold so that any of their mixes should now qualify. It may look small for the price, but they claim the contents are freeze-dried from roughly 3 lbs. of fresh ingredients. Based on my own personal experience, these mixes last longer than the serving estimate with pretty normal use.
The ingredient lineup is pretty varied: fish cake (narutomaki), roasted garlic slices, bean curd rolls, bok choy, cabbage, soy beef bits, dehydrated egg chunks, shiitake mushroom, carrots, and a mix of chili flakes with spicy fried garlic and onion. Ramen Bae packaged the chili flakes separately so you can control the spice level, though the fried garlic and onion are already mixed in. I think they missed an opportunity to make this vegan, since eggs and fish cakes limit its appeal slightly.
For testing, I paired the mix with Nissin Raoh Soy Sauce, since it’s a mild, topping-free noodle that wouldn’t interfere with my ability to grade this bag’s spice or flavor. After cooking, everything rehydrated well: the bean curds unfolded nicely, fish cakes plumped, and the soy beef bits rehydrated larger than I expected. However, the end result leaned heavy on those eggs, which already looked like too much.
Spiciness:
The fried garlic and onion bits aren’t spicy on their own. The chili flakes are where the real burn comes from, and they sit in the light-to-medium range depending on how much you add. For this review, it was a couple tablespoons of the main mix and about half a teaspoon of the chili flakes. Together, the broth picks up a noticeable medium zing, but it’s not long-lasting or overpowering.
• 1/10 (fried bits)
• 4/10 (chili flakes)
Overall:
There’s a lot to like here. The fried garlic and onion are flavorful, exactly like what you’d get from jars of fried shallots at an Asian market. The fish cakes are mildly sweet and chewy without being overly fishy. The soy beef is excellent; the pieces I got were big, with a convincing beefy flavor and texture despite being imitation, and it keeps the product pescatarian-friendly. The garlic chips, mushrooms, and other vegetables all rehydrate and taste right. But the dehydrated eggs are a disaster for me. They taste off, almost fishy, and don’t resemble eggs at all. They’re spongy, unpleasant, and far too plentiful in the mix, overwhelming everything else. Without the eggs, this would be an excellent topping blend worth a 9 or 10 score. With them, it’s dragged down significantly, and many people will avoid this product outright because of it. I still like the concept, and I’ll use the rest of my bag by picking out the eggs, but that’s not something I should have to do at this price point. If you want a spicy garlic mix-in without the eggs, the Veggie Mix plus your own chili flakes is a better option. Ramen Bae needs to either fix their egg sourcing or drop them entirely.
• 5/10 (would have been 9/10 without the egg issue)
Notes since filming:
I felt horrible giving this a 5/10 score, but I absolutely got a bad batch of those dehydrated eggs and I don’t compromise on my opinions on any review, even on a company I love as much as Ramen Bae. I never want to sour a potential relationship with any company, but I pride myself on honesty and integrity in my reviews, so that’s why this product was scored the way it was.
From everything I’ve seen on Facebook reviews, The Ramen Rater’s review, etc., my egg incident was largely isolated, so go ahead and buy this if it appeals to you.
Since filming this review, Ramen Bae has cut the amount of eggs per bag in half and has also removed the narutomaki (fish cakes). Assuming the egg issues are all ironed out, that would put this at a 9/10 for me as an overall score.
