On our ongoing mission to work our way through the whole noodle cup section of 186 Oriental in Bristol, we’ve been eating noodle cups several times a week from our office kitchen. Today, its a brand I’d not heard of before – Unif. This is a Chinese brand and they sell lots of instant ramen and noodle bowls. This is their artificial roasted beef noodle bowl. As with a lot of the noodle pots, the beef flavour is artificial meaning that as far as I can tell from the ingredients list, these are suitable for vegetarians.
Thoughts on this beef noodle bowl
Ok, so. Being brutally honest (otherwise, what’s the point?) I would say that these were not the best I’ve had. As far as noodle bowls go, I would recommend the JML range because of one stand out element – the noodles. And isn’t that what it’s all about? The noodles weren’t bad, they just weren’t great. They sit for 3 minutes in boiling water but even in that short time, they tasted quite soggy with no real bite to them, surprisingly! I prefer noodles with texture because they hold the soup better but also, who wants to eat mush?
The soup itself was tasty with a fairly decent ‘beef’ flavour although I couldn’t tell you whether that was roasted or not. The flaky bits of dehydrated veg were plentiful – with green onion, carrot and cabbage. Personally I prefer a bit of heat with my noodles so these weren’t my favourite. I found them a bit boring.
Making the noodles is easy!
Noodle bowls will always score highly for ease because you literally empty the sachets in, add boiling water and off you pop. I like these for their convenience and they do work well for office lunches, especially if your office (like mine) DOESN’T HAVE A MICROWAVE. (fuming).
In these ones there are three sachets – flavoured oil, seasoning powder and flakes. Be careful when you open the oil that it doesn’t drip all over your hands.. That’s pretty much the only bit that’s likely to trip you up.
Scores on the doors
- Flavour – 6/10
- Texture – 3/10
- Ease of making – 9/10
Total: 18/30
Buy again? No
This Unif roasted beef noodle bowl was from 186 Oriental on Park Street in Bristol but I’ve seen them online in plenty of places too. We paid £1.20 in July 2019 but I think they tend to be around £1.20-£1.50 depending on where you shop. For more instant noodle reviews, head to my Noodle Reviewooodle page!
