Where should I start? My friend from Japan sent them to me. Which one should I try first?

18 comments

1. They sell them where I’m from, and they’re all good tbh

2. Three great tonkatsu ramen! I prefer the Kumamoto

3. Kurume and Hakata is pretty famous for their style of noodle! Yuzu Shoyu from Tokyo also looks good 😋

4. I haven’t had any of these but I’d imagine they’re all pretty good.

   Edit – I don’t know why this got downvoted, but I mean this style of instant ramen where the noodles are straight like this rather than in a block are usually pretty good, they tend to be more premium and I’m pretty sure are always air-dried. While I haven’t had the flavors shown here specially, I have had another Menraku like this and enjoyed it. I haven’t had anything from Itsuki yet, but I have heard good things about them. Hence, even though I haven’t tried these specific varieties, I do think these are probably good from my own limited experience with Menraku and what I’ve heard about Itsuki.

5. Bottom right

6. These are really good instant ramen! My partner and I sometimes make these for dinner with some marinated eggs and slow-cooked fatty pork.

   It’s about 75% of the way there to a somewhat decent restaurant quality ramen, which is great for how convenient it is.

7. If this was me I’d start with too left. Hokkaido yuzu shio ramen.

8. I bought four of these types of ramen this past weekend at a SoCal Tokyo Central (shoyu, miso, shio, and yuzushio flavored). So far I’ve only tried the miso one and it was pretty good. Three of the packets say on the bottom “We do not use meat ingredient at all. We use EGG FREE NOODLES!” and the 4th one (yuzushio) just says “Animal Free”.

9. What if you tried them all at once?

10. The yuzu shoyu is my favorite. Can find them at some Asian grocers.

11. Hakata Tonkotsu of course!

12. I’ve never tried the Menraku brand but personally (and I’ll probably get downvoted to oblivion for this) I’m not a fan of any of the Itsuki branded ones as I think their soups are lacking depth and umami and aren’t very good.

    Tastes vary though and maybe you’ll like them, esp if you tweak the soups a bit like by (depending on the soup) adding some dashi, sesame oil, spices, raw or fried garlic etc.

13. top row, the one that says “TOKYO” in the top corner. this put me onto authentic japanese ramen for life

14. I personally like kurume and hakata tonkotsu from Itsuki

15. Everything everywhere all at once

16. Oh! I’ve had the seafood tonkotsu one. It was REALLY good! I’m envious of you for getting so many. I haven’t seen them for sale here for a while

17. Post like this that show multiple types of ramen let me know that I have a lot to learn about ramen. And I am more than okay with that.

    Now I need to find that yuzu shio ramen.!

18. I once accidentally bought the yuzushoyu ramen, they sent me the wrong one when I wanted a different kind of shoyu.

    It was one of the worst ramens I’ve ever tasted. I usually like a bit of yuzu in certain foods (love chili-yuzu paste), but it just didn’t work. It tasted like they took a shoyu tare and boiled a bunch of lemon rinds in it, and then squeezed a bunch of lemons into the broth. It was sooo bad and usually I love that brand.

    So ya, start with anything other than that lol.