Another day, another instant ramen lunch. This time, it’s Ottogi kimchi ramen. Instant ramen is just so goddam easy and warming on cold days – and kimchi noodles? Well that’s ticking all my boxes because I love kimchi! Usually, we like to jazz up our instant noodles with things like eggs, mushrooms, kimchi, spring onions, sesame… the list is endless and you can turn them into a really wonderful meal. But, for the purposes of my noodle reviewooodle series, I’m keeping things simple. Cooking each pack of ramen as per the instructions and eating as it comes.
So, today’s offering is Ottogi kimchi ramen.
As I’ve said previously, Ottogi is a huge Korean food brand and they have a lot of ramen flavours for me to get through. This is probably one of their best known and is a perfect base for pimping up. You could improve this massively by adding to it. For a fully pimped affair, I suggest taking a look at this shin ramyun bowl.
To be honest, this was a little disappointing. Firstly, the pack suggests 550ml of water which in my opinion is waaaaay too much. This was like a thin soup, nothing broth-y about it. The flavour was also pretty washed out so I’d recommend using less water by perhaps 100ml to give it a stronger kimchi broth flavour.
Ease of making? It has to score highly because there is nothing to it. Just boiling water, one sachet of seasoning and the freeze dried noodles. That’s it. And the noodles were good, slightly thicker and chewier than in the Ottogi sesame ramen, which is surprising as they’re from the same brand.
There are loads of kimchi instant ramen on the market so I’m looking forward some different ones and reporting back. Really, the only positive I could find here was that the small bits of kimchi within the seasoning packet did rehydrate and add some pops of flavour when you ate them. I’m convinced there must be some better kimchi noodles out there so will keep hunting and report back soon.
Scores on the doors:
- Flavour – 3/10
- Texture – 6/10
- Ease of making – 10/10
Total: 19/30
Buy again? No
We got this Ottogi kimchi ramen from Oriental Mart online. At Feb 2021, it cost 89 pence!
thats a good review honestly and quite same with what was i thinking.
i actually bought one today, i wished i saw your review before i bought it and ate it.