Today’s entry in my big pile of Buldak noodles is a newer, limited-time bowl product with one of the weirdest names that I’ve ever seen: Samyang Buldak Hotter Than My Ex. Maybe this has caught your attention if you’ve seen it online; there seems to be a lot of confusion as to what this product is supposed to be, so I figured, why not? Let’s do a review of it.
The Verdict:
| Product: | Samyang Buldak Hotter Than My Ex |
| Origin: | South Korea (Export to the USA) |
| Noodle Quality: | 6/10 |
| Spice Level: | 8/10 |
| Overall Score: | 7/10 |
So, “Hotter Than My Ex”… I don’t know what to think of this product name, especially considering it doesn’t really tell you what it tastes like, just that it’s hot. What this actually is, is a collaboration between Samyang and the K-pop group BOYNEXTDOOR. They took one of their songs called “Earth Wind & Fire,” remixed it, and they’re calling the new remix version “Hotter Than My Ex” as part of a marketing promotion. If you scan the QR code hidden in the “B” on the lid of the bowl, you can get all the information about the collaboration, you can download the song for free, and you can watch the video on YouTube. I listened to the song before this review, and I don’t think it’s that great as far as K-pop goes, but it is admittedly catchy. Your opinion may differ. But what flavor is Hotter Than My Ex? Because it’s not entirely clear from the ad campaign, and I’ve seen some people ask about this because they don’t know what it is. I think it might just be the regular Buldak flavor in a fancy new bowl, judging by the word “original” sitting on the lid of the bowl, but the ads do suggest that it could be a different spice level than the original recipe. We’re just going to find out together. If nothing else, I’ve never reviewed the original Buldak Big Bowl, only the pack, so either way, this will be something I’ve never reviewed before.
The music video for the song does show this flavor available in packs and bowls (there’s a scene where one of the band members is literally getting showered with noodle packs, which is strange) but I’ve only ever seen the bowl version for sale, so I don’t think the packs exist. I think they were just made for the video. Also noteworthy: I think this might be the first Buldak product in the USA without Hochi the chicken on the package. We’ve just got the new mascot, Peppo, who looks, you know, pissed off and, I guess, heartbroken. If you want to buy this bowl, get yourself to the TikTok Shop or Walmart.com and buy it before it goes away. This was launched for Valentine’s Day of 2026, so it’s not going to be around forever, but it is still available at the time of this review for under $3 per bowl.
Under the lid, we’ve got Buldak bowl noodles made from wheat flour, potato starch, and palm oil. We’ve got a sauce packet, and we’ve got a flake packet. Now, the sauce ingredients don’t look like anything really different from normal Buldak sauce, although they are in a different order of prominence than they were the last time I had the original flavor, which means a recipe change has happened in the last almost four years. In the sauce is artificial chicken powder, garlic powder, soy sauce, corn syrup, sugar, chili pepper, onion powder, MSG, black pepper, and curry powder. The flakes are sesame seeds and dried seaweed. The sodium for the whole bowl is a fairly reasonable 960 milligrams, and I say “fairly reasonable” because anything under 1,000 mg in the instant noodle world is honestly considered lower sodium.
Once everything was put together, I was 99% certain now that this flavor is just original Buldak flavor. On the off-chance that you are reading this review and you’ve never had Buldak sauce before, it’s got a sweet, smoky red pepper sauce aroma. I love the way it smells, but for some people, there is a chemical aspect that they get out of it. I don’t personally smell or taste that, but just a fair warning.
Noodles:
God, there are times that I forget how spicy Buldak sauce really is, but let’s start with the noodle score first. The last time I had Buldak bowl noodles was back in Episode 209 for the Buldak Sweet review. I followed the microwave directions at that time, and I did not like the way the noodles came out; they were soft, soggy, and they lacked a lot of the chewiness that I love about the pack noodles. Now, this bowl doesn’t have microwave instructions, only steeping instructions, and so I didn’t have a choice but to steep them, but that turned out to be a good thing. These still aren’t as good as the pack noodles, but steeping these worked way better for cooking them than the microwave did. They’re still a little thin, almost flat, but they have a better al dente bite than they did coming out of the microwave. Not great, but better.
• 6/10
Spiciness:
It is Buldak, and it’s literally got the word “hotter” in the product name, so you know this is going to be very hot. Sure enough, it is. This is absolutely the same, or very nearly the same, formulation as the original sauce in the black pack. My lips are burning, and I am salivating. The sauce is just objectively hot. If you are used to incredibly spicy foods, then sure, this will be easy for you to eat, but if you’ve never had Buldak before, beware of the sauce. This is high on my spice scale if you use the full sauce packet – and you should use the full packet, because all the flavor is in the sauce packet along with the heat. Anything less than that, and you risk it being bland or having the noodles be unevenly coated.
• 8/10
Overall:
This is standard Buldak sauce, which means it is sweet, slightly smoky, umami, peppery, and has a very light touch of curry spices on the back end, which is mainly cumin. Even if the recipe has changed a little bit, it’s not in any noticeable way that I can perceive; it’s pretty much the same flavor that I fell in love with almost four years ago now, and I still think it’s great. People accuse Buldak of being spicy for spicy’s sake. Yeah, that’s probably true, but it does have a lot of flavor underneath all that spice. When I first tried Buldak, I was already spice-training myself to be able to eat super spicy food. At that time, original Buldak was about the top of my spice tolerance, and so I love the flavor behind the spice, but I do acknowledge that there are some people out there who don’t taste the flavor of the sauce because the heat is too overwhelming. That’s okay; if you’re one of those people, being spice-intolerant is nothing to be ashamed of, nor should you force yourself to eat something that you can’t taste or don’t like the taste of. I don’t find the heat overwhelming the flavor, but I do think that anything spicier than this, like 2X or 3X, does start to get into gimmicky spice territory.
All of this is to say Hotter Than My Ex is not a new flavor; it’s just the same old flavor in a new package, but it is a good flavor, tried and true. If the bowl noodles were as good as the pack noodles, this would be an 8 out of 10, but in this form, I am personally knocking a point off, but maybe add an extra half point to my score if you’re a fan of the K-pop group BOYNEXTDOOR. Hopefully, this clears up all the confusion about this flavor. Unfortunately, this bowl, while it is limited edition, does not contain a new Buldak recipe; it was just the current recipe of the original flavored sauce with some extra marketing behind it. If you like that marketing, by all means, buy this bowl before it goes away. If you don’t care about the promotional tie-in aspect, you Buldak fanatics who need to try every single flavor are not missing out on anything by not buying this bowl, I promise you.
• 7/10
