dr noodle shiitake spinach ramen
And now, for something slightly different…

I’m a real snob when it comes to ramen: I believe that only “true” Japanese ramen, instant or otherwise, should be considered “ramen.” Korean “ramyun”? Not ramen. Chinese “la mien”? Nope. Try again. Not ramen. So what’s wrong with this picture?
1. The brand is called “Dr. Noodle.” Come on! That’s like saying “Mister California Roll” sounds like an authentic sushi restaurant!
2. Shiitake spinach flavor…shiitake and spinach?? Not exactly a traditional ramen flavor.
3. The words “non fried” smack in the middle of the package. (Shaking my head…I’m just not big on “healthy” foods…)

So why in the world am I doing this review? Why else do I do things I don’t normally do…my wife…likes it…
dr noodle shiitake spinach ramen
Dr. Noodle is a brand of instant noodles from Taiwan’s Sing-Lin Foods, which has many many different flavors of “steam ramen.” (For the record, my wife’s favorite is the Beef Tomato flavor) For the health-conscious noodle fan, steamed ramen has almost no fat compared to the typical “fried” instant ramen. It does have MSG though, so it’s not all good news.

The noodles were pretty good, though nothing like “real” ramen noodles. These noodles were flat noodles typical of Chinese instant noodles, with a nice chewy texture. The soup was flavorful, and again, nothing like Japanese ramen soup. There’re little bits of shiitake mushrooms, a few scattered pieces of carrots for good measure, and lots of coriander (cilantro). The soup tastes almost like a very light chicken soup (though, being vegetarian, there’s obviously no chicken stock used) with a hint of mushroom flavor.

Overall, this was a very decent pack of instant noodles, with a light flavor. If you’re looking for some different than Japanese instant ramen and/or something relatively healthier, give this a try. I’m not going to give this a rating because it’s not “real ramen,” but if I did, it’d be around a 6 or 7.

And for the people who’ve been asking me for nutritional info on the noodles I review, here you go!
dr noodle noodle facts

5 thoughts on “ramen rating: dr noodle shiitake spinach”

  1. i triend this brand 2 times and this brand makes good instant noodles in my opinion…but their *ramen* is completely chinese sytle & flavored, not japanese ramen style…..

  2. Though not related to the above post —

    I have to say that I love reading this site only because it’s very relevant to me. I’m a student a UC Irvine and the first time I saw this site, I thought, “The writer must live super close to here because lots of the reviews are for places I’ve been to!” I think that is one of the main reasons that I love this blog.

    As a college student who eats out [way too much], I love hearing about other places near me that I can try out.

    Keep up the good work!

  3. Hey edjusted, where have you been? I thought for sure you’d jump all over the Vanilla Ice Cream ramen news that’s been circulating. I hope Dr. Noodle didn’t get to you.

  4. This sounds almost as bad as the seafood-flavored ramen I tried one night because the 7-11 was out of all other flavors!

Leave a Reply to Dave Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.