When I close my eyes and think of instant noodles, I’m brought back to afternoon tea at my grandparents’ public housing flat. I imagine my yeye (grandfather) pouring the herbal pork bone broth my grandmother had made the previous night into the noodle-packed styrofoam cup. It was the ultimate comfort food.
But for this taste test comfort wasn’t the end goal. Instead I gathered 21 brands of instant chicken noodles that could satisfy hungry office workers on a deadline. The criteria: it needed to be a hot lunch you could make with only boiling water – and it needed to be quick.
I served my colleagues a tasting menu of instant noodles at their desks. I only included cup noodles that were chicken flavoured (sorry, Indomie Mi Goreng, you will always have a place in my heart) and tasters were asked to rank the noodles based on aroma, texture and flavour.
Instant noodles are really a blank canvas. It’s what you add to them that makes them a meal – some eggs, maybe kimchi or fresh veg, even actual shredded chicken. My tasters had none of these add-ons, though some of the packets came with dehydrated herbs and vegetables.
Overall, we found that a delicious smell didn’t equate to a delicious feed, and that mushroom is a divisive flavour. Nothing on this list was truly disgusting nor was anything a wonder for the taste buds – all the options were truly mid.
Best overall
Lian Pho Ga Vietnamese Style Instant Rice Noodles, 70g, $2.80 ($3.57 per 100g), available at major supermarkets
Score: 7.6/10
Rice noodles aren’t common in instant cup noodles but even at a restaurant pho is usually served fairly instantly so it stands to reason that it would translate well. While the instant pho broth was almost universally enjoyed by the testers, the rice noodles were sometimes too delicate, though some found them “eminently slurpable”. As the images on the packaging suggest, it would be immensely improved by the usual suspects that are served with pho: onion, herbs and lemon. With those additions, it could be considered “not from a cup” or “legit cooked”, according to our tasters.
Best value
Choice Chicken Flavoured Noodle Cup, 70g, $1 ($1.41 per 100g), available from Aldi
Score: 5.5/10
“Pretty average run-of-the-mill noodle,” wrote one tester, summing this one up well, as did another comment: “Like a Justin Bieber song.” Some thought it was both “salty and bland”, though the sodium content was near the middle of the bunch. If you had only a single gold coin for lunch, this wouldn’t be a sad way to spend it.
The rest
Suimin Chicken Noodle Cup, 70g, $2.40 ($3.43 per 100g), available at major supermarkets
Score: 7.2/10
This product was given full marks by a taster who described it as “finger-licking good”. He wasn’t the only one to describe it that way. The taste and aroma made it seem as though you were walking by a KFC, though a few commented they thought it smelled like beef. Tasters who scored this one highly said they liked its smoky aromatic notes.
Samyang Buldak Hot Chicken Flavour Ramen Cup, 70g, $2.50 ($3.57 per 100g), available at major supermarkets
Score: 6.6/10
Famous for being spicy, this was a “nostril and palate burner”, according to reviewers. Overall, we found the spicier cups had thicker, chewier noodles, which divided our tasters, but they were all united in the burn left behind by the “fire-engine-red soup”.
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Nissin Chicken Noodle Cup, 73g, $2.80 ($3.43 per 100g), available at major supermarkets
Score: 6.3/10
No list about instant noodles is complete without Nissin. Its founder, Momofuku Ando, a Taiwanese Japanese businessman, invented the first modern instant noodles in 1958. So how does the OG stack up? Testers commented on its aroma, which comes in strong with wafts of umami, but they also wrote that it was “missing punch”. This product had probably the most extras in the packet, including corn and carrot but that didn’t boost its score.
Kang Shi Fu Soup Noodle Mushroom Chicken Flavour, 104g, $1.99 ($1.91 per 100g), available at select grocers
Score: 6/10
Mushroom is not a unifying flavour. Many found this one woody and earthy but whether those attributes were seen as positive really varied. Considering there is no chicken in this product it’s unsurprising then that one person said it “smells overwhelmingly like mushroom”.
Yoodles Brown Rice Noodles Chicken Flavour, 70g, $2.30 ($3.29 per 100g), available at Woolworths
Score: 5.7/10
“Inoffensive” is how one taster described this gluten-free and vegan option. It wasn’t particularly loved by anyone, though one taster said it was “like the ones mum used to make”. Like most rice noodles, these ones rehydrated quickly but, unless they were eaten just as fast, they disintegrated into the soup.
Ve Wong Instant Noodle Chicken Sesame Flavour, 85g, $2.49 ($2.90 per 100g), available at select grocers
Score: 5.6/10
The smell of the sesame oil made me hungry as I was preparing this one. It was one of the few that didn’t include any dehydrated vegetables – not that any of our tasters noticed. It had a generous amount of fragrant oil and Chinese cooking wine, a divisive flavour among our tasters. One noted it “smells and tastes like genuine chicken broth”, which made some suspicious, but it was the texture of the noodles – too thin – that lost it marks from many of them.
Nongshim Shin Ramyun Spicy Chicken Bowl, 114g, $3.75 ($3.29 per 100g), available at Woolworths and select grocers
Score: 5.5/10
As spicy as it is divisive, Nongshim’s cup is a staple in many pantries. Our bravest tasters said it was “spicy but not debilitating”, noting that it tasted a bit like the Mexican spice mix Tajin. Another said the spice “blew my socks off”. While the quintessential chicken smell was there, not many could taste it.
Sunrice Yum Asian Style Chicken Instant Noodles, 62g, $3 ($4.84 per 100g), available at major supermarkets
Score: 4.3/10
The aroma of this cup received near universal approval but it fell over when it came to the eating. The noodles are gluten-free, vegetarian and organic, with one of the lowest sodium levels of the list, but their taste and texture underwhelmed our testers. The flavour was a pass for most, with one tester reminded “oddly of soap and celery”. While other rice noodles we tested rehydrated quickly in boiling water, these took longer and even then it was “like chewing pipe cleaners”, according to one tester.
Products cut for brevity
Urban Eats Thai Style BBQ Chicken Noodle Bowl 6.4/10
Maggi 2 Minute Noodles Chicken 6.1/10
Fantastic Chicken Noodles Cup 6.1/10
Yum Yum Instant Noodles Chicken 6/10
Coles I’m Free From Gluten Free Brown Rice Noodle Cups Chicken 5.8/10
Nissin Chu Qian Yi Ding Chicken Bowl 5.5/10
Coles Chicken Instant Noodles 5.4/10
Suimin K Pow Korean-Style Spicy Noodles Flaming Cheesy Chicken 5.4/10
Simplee Instant Cup Chicken Noodles 5/10
Paldo Dosirac Instant Noodle Chicken Flavour 4.9/10
Fantastic Noodles Cup Gluten Free Chicken 4.9/10