There is a lot of great East Asian food on offer and we came home laden with kimchi, banchan items, frozen Korean fried chicken and more. And as well as those, don’t even get me started on the frozen pulled pork burritos – heavenly.
I’m going to include this frozen chicken ramen in my instant noodle guide because although it’s not dried, I still consider it still pretty instant. Just 8 minutes in the microwave and you’ve got a steaming bowl of ramen in front of you. Amazing.
What’s in the box?
Firstly, you need a good amount of freezer space for this. It’s a large box with four portions, each in their own bowl with a lid. Not great from an environmental pov although it’s all recyclable.
Opening the bowl, I was pleasantly surprised. Neatly packed noodles and toppings (spring onion, sweetcorn, bok choi, red pepper, carrot, shitake mushrooms and chicken) plus two sachets – soy sauce and chilli oil. I don’t think you’d usually find carrot and peppers in a chicken ramen but it was tasty.
Cooking it up
So easy. Add 300 ml of water, pop the lid loosely back on and microwave for 8 minutes. Then add the soy sauce and chilli oil and you’re done.
The taste test
While I’d always prefer to tuck into a fresh bowl in the heart of Tokyo (wouldn’t we all?), sometimes life calls for a quick fix much (much) closer to home.
The noodles were proper ramen noodles, complete with that springy chew they should have. The broth wasn’t as rich as I’d want but i mean, let’s give credit where it’s due – this is a microwave bowl, not restaurant quality. And whilst the chicken looked nothing like the big juicy slices on the box, it was plentiful and pretty tasty. The other toppings added a bit of texture and all held up well from freezer to table.
Word of warning – the chilli oil is a kicker so if you’re not keen on spice, go steady or skip it entirely.
Scores on the doors:
- Flavour – 7/10
- Texture – 9/10
- Ease of making – 9/10
Total: 25/30
Buy again? YES definitely!
This is my first time trying frozen ramen. In fact, I don’t think I’ve come across it before. Tokyo Kitchen I’ve discovered is just a PR brand created for the suppliers of Costco so I have no ability to vouch for its authenticity but I can say that it really delivers. Sure, it’s not quite the same as slurping noodles at a counter in Japan but for a lazy weekday or late-night craving, it’s a fantastic option.
If you’ve tried it, I’d love to hear your thoughts. My friend Lia from Korean Kitchen Cardiff mentioned that they do a wonton soup so I’ll be grabbing a box of that next time.
Just tried this after our first ever visit to Costco yesterday evening. I was so impressed with the ramen, I decided to have a quick internet search to try to find the origin of the Tokyo Kitchen ramen. That’s when I found your review. Completely agree with you. 👍🏻
Hi Rob, thanks for stopping by 🙂
We have one left in the freezer, I might have it for lunch today. It’s a shame the brand isn’t anything more interesting with heritage but they’re doing a good job of making instant ramen feel like something fresh and dare I say it.. healthy?
Have you found any other good Costco items I should be trying?
Firstly I would like to mention that I have travelled to Japan many times and other parts of Asia, slurped many a bowl of ramen in my time in Japan and other places, so like to think I’m pretty good on what to expect from a bowl ! Bought these from Costco today and thought I’d try it as I had some lovely pork and chive dumplings for my lunch. Opening the bowl, was amazed, literally looked like a frozen bowl of half decent ramen minus the broth. Anyway, added the water. Chucked in the ol’ microwave and waited 8 mins. Took it out, added all the chilli oil and soy sauce, gave it stir and there you have it. A pretty good looking bowl of ramen from the freezer ! Awesome ! Texture was pretty bang on, flavour was nice, for me, even with all the chilli oil and soy, a bit of a lacklustre broth but still pretty good. Overall I’d give it a 7 for flavour / texture and a 9 for being essentially a ready meal. Personally wish it had some char Sui pork rather than chicken, but apart from that, very impressive and I’d buy again.
Thanks for your comment! The fact that its a frozen meal is pretty amazing isn’t it. Agree that the broth could have been deeper but for what it is, not bad at all! And, we gave it the same scores!