Best Instant Ramen

Dec 06, 2023

We slurped 12 soupy ramens to find the ones worthy of your pantry, office cubicle, or dorm

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Dollar for dollar—or rather, cent for cent—there's likely no better value meal than instant ramen, which can satisfyingly fill your belly for under a buck. Ask any cash-strapped college student; they don't even need to be an econ major.

I’m not here to argue the nutritional aspects—or lack thereof—of this occasional treat. We know too much sodium is bad (processed foods have many sneaky sources of sodium beyond salt), we know we need to eat more veggies and whole grains, and we know ultraprocessed foods are the absolute worst, but we also know that sometimes instant ramen is the only ticket.

Nissin Foods USA, the producer of Top Ramen and Cup Noodles, reported a 41 percent year-over-year sales increase in 2022. And according to the World Instant Noodles Association, Americans ate almost 5 billion servings of instant noodles in 2021. The U.S. ranks sixth for global demand (the highest outside of Asia). Our favorite flavor? Chicken.

But it might taste different today if you haven't indulged in instant ramen in a while. We’re seeing brands launch air-dried noodles to replace deep-fried ones and even organic options. And in 2016, Cup Noodles reduced sodium, removed added MSG, and removed artificial flavors. It's no longer the Cup O’Noodles we knew and fell in love with in the ’70s (the company removed the O’ from the product's name in 1993), but is the reformulated recipe just as tasty . . . or even better?

We put Cup Noodles, along with other popular instant ramen brands, including Maruchan and Nongshim, to a taste test. (See how we evaluated instant ramen, below.)

The price for the individual packs of ramen we reviewed range from 52 cents to $3.49. Some of the prices shown below are for a single pack, and some are for a multipack.

Maruchan ramen is a tasty lunch for less than a buck. You can't even buy a bottle of water from a vending machine for that. The broth has a nice, chicken-y aroma with an equally enticing flavor that's just salty enough. It has a schmaltzy fattiness that coats my lips, fooling me into thinking I’m slurping down a pricier bowl of matzo ball soup. This is the instant ramen broth you’ll drink after the noodles are all gone. The pea-carrot-corn trifecta makes it feel like a meal, but the vegetables look less presentable than the Cup Noodles below. The carrots are ragged, and the corn kernels are brown and wrinkly. The bouncy noodles hold up, though, even after several minutes of eating.

The broth is bright yellow and oddly foamy, with flecks of green herbs. Similar to the Maruchan above, this broth has a fattiness that coats the lips, but it's not quite as good. However, shelling out a few dimes more gets you a noodle and corn upgrade. The noodles have bounce and a bite, an almost al dente quality. The corn kernels are well-hydrated, sweet, and slightly snappy, which contrasts nicely with the salty soup.

Cup Noodles was evaluator Brianna Amézquita's go-to ramen in college. "The broth looks bright, bold, and well-seasoned," she says. "It's perfectly cooked after only three minutes, and the food bits give it flavor. I am still excited to take a bite!"

Healthy ramen is an oxymoron, and all the tasters were skeptical of this relatively pricey instant ramen that has found its way into Whole Foods Market. To be fair, the word "healthy" never appears on its packaging, but "craft," "scratch," and "organic" lead us to believe it's a high-quality product, and the clean ingredients list makes us believe it's better for you.

When you open the package, your first thought might be, where's the rest? The amount of noodles is comically scant. Yet it takes twice as long as most instant ramen to soften. The noodles, which have been steamed as opposed to the typical flash-fried, clump together a little, but they have a nice bite. The broth is a legit chicken broth with flecks of herbs and onion. (One taster noticed a pronounced mushroom flavor, too.)

Because it's comparatively healthy-ish, the sodium level is on the low end. "But we’re talking about ramen here, which makes me feel like it's almost . . . too low," says evaluator Catherine Roberts, a CR health and food reporter. "I realize when one packet of ramen contains half your recommended sodium for the day, it's a problem, but this feels like it's gone too far in the other direction. Overall I’d say it's rather boring; pretty much what I would expect from ramen made by a guy named Mike."

Aileen McCluskey, a CR content operations coordinator, notes that while this ramen is still not actually healthy, it feels like they took away the things that make instant ramen appealing as a trashy snack, like the bobbing food bits.

I consider Mike's ramen a suitable snack-sized ramen to sip on a sick day. It's healthy enough that it won't make me feel sicker—as in, it's the least processed of the bunch, with no ingredients I can't pronounce—and the broth has a rich mouthfeel and mild-mannered flavor that's comforting. The proportion of soup to noodles is way soupier than the others, which is also ideal when under the weather. Plus, it doesn't salt-slap you, so it feels acceptable to slurp this stuff down and count it toward "staying hydrated."

You’d think this is the same noodles as the Cup Noodles above by the same brand, but this one is labeled Cup Noodle (singular), and apparently, that "S" makes all the difference. The noodles in this cup are weak, limp, and lifeless. "They seem in danger of dissolving into the broth," Catherine says. However, the food bits are so well done that we can overlook the subpar noodles. Dried shrimp, pork sausage, and egg bits hydrate beautifully in this soup—all offering slightly different textural experiences. The broth is a savory and slurpable mix of pork, chicken, and shrimp that tasters say smells fishy but fresh and enticing.

This one takes a little longer than most to cook, 4½ minutes, but the instructions give you a range of cooking times in case you’d prefer softer or harder noodles. The package says it's two servings, but the portion only looks slightly larger than many others. "Just looking at that sodium count for the whole packet kind of hurts my eyes," Catherine says.

The beef broth is fiery red and spicy enough to make us sweat. The heat forces you to slow down, but the fat, bouncy noodles don't become waterlogged or lose their bite as they sit and wait for your taste buds to calm down. There are bits of shiitake mushrooms, carrots, green onions, and soy protein that tastes like beef. All the food bits tasted great; we just wish there were more than one or two pieces of each.

"Considering the spice level and the size of this one, it's probably not the first one I’d reach for when I just want a quick snack," Catherine says. "It feels like you need to be more deliberate about picking this one, but it's delicious when you do."

Place Hello Kitty on any packaging, and we are there for it. "I’m dying to find out what kind of ramen this adorable noncat has to offer me," Catherine says.

"This packaging is adorable, and I would buy it just based on how cute it is," Aileen says.

But the Hello Kitty chicken-flavored noodle soup not only wows us on the surface but also impresses us with the ramen. The broth smells lovely, light, and fragrant of curried chicken broth. "The curry flavor is really nice and a good change from some of the other less complex flavors of a few of the other ramens," Catherine says. "I also love the slight peppery heat this has at the back."

The air-dried noodles are thin and silky, almost like vermicelli. The carrots look unevenly cut but have a bite to them like fresh carrots do. The lower salt level is almost refreshing. It's not calling out for more, yet it has less than half the sodium content of several other ramens here.

Each of the tasters had one of their top three picks cut from the final list. Instant ramen is a type of pantry provision that is affected by personal preferences and nostalgia. It's the reason we weren't able to crown an editor's choice like we normally would. So while one person might gobble down a bowl of one brand's ramen, another person might let it languish rather than take another bite.

It pains me to place the Mama here, as this Thai ramen was the noodles of my youth. (Well, the back of my pantry is still lined with packets of Mama today.) I grew up on the tom yum and pork flavors, and this was my first time trying the chicken, which I’ll admit is not Mama's best. Catherine's review sums it up best:

"I enjoy the packaging and am tickled by the illustration of a soup with a whole chicken leg resting in the bowl. This definitely has a deeper aroma, and it gives the impression of roast chicken, which is more specific than I’ve gotten from the others. The noodles are bouncy and have a good bite that holds up well in the broth. It feels really salty, but that's mitigated by a pleasant spiciness. It's not especially hot, so if you’re spice-averse, you don't need to shy away for that reason. I get some sense of chicken from this, but it's definitely not the main flavor. Overall, it just isn't interesting or tasty enough to justify that sodium content. The noodles are the best thing about this ramen."

These noodles are bouncy and chewy. The broth has a beefy seaweed aroma and has a kick to it despite being the mild version. It's not screaming salty to me, even though this ramen has the highest amount of sodium of the bunch. In addition to seaweed flakes, there's something that looks like beef bits (but is likely the textured vegetable protein on the ingredients list) that I think tastes spongy and flavorless. Aileen wasn't initially impressed, but her opinion changed the longer the ramen sat. "After a few minutes, the spice and flavors seem amplified, and the noodles stay firm," she says. "It went from a pretty boring but perfectly acceptable instant ramen to something I was really enjoying."

The Top Ramen was Brianna's top pick. "I like that the broth has a slight chicken smell, but it's not overpowering," she says. "The noodles are soft and thick, which seems more filling." Catherine says the broth smells strongly of leek (which is an ingredient) but tastes like real chicken soup. "I’m not sure that's what I want out of an instant ramen experience, but it's fairly tasty," she says. "However, its strange aftertaste is somewhat off-putting." Aileen and I couldn't get past the bland broth and too-soft, almost mushy, noodles. There is no bite to this ramen, and the noodles get even more bloated as they sit. Eating this just feels sad, like I need to eat it, not that I want to eat it.

There's something refreshing in a bright-green ramen package sitting among a sea of red, orange, and yellow. The finished dish has a mild aroma and appearance, with bouncy white noodles, pale broth, and just a few errant flecks of green herbs. I would describe it as delicate. The broth is tasty, with a slight sweetness and good chicken flavor, but salty to the point of burning my lips. Still, I liked the texture of the firm, glossy, and chewy noodles, so I cooked up a second batch, let it sit for a few minutes for the broth to infuse the noodles, drained out the soup, and enjoyed the well-seasoned noodles on their own.

This ramen looks appealing, with its glossy noodles and rich, brown broth that smells of soy sauce and beef stock. "The broth is extremely delicious," Catherine says. "It's rich and has a lot of depth for coming from a tiny packet of powder. But its sky-high sodium content makes me want to cry." Indeed, the Sapporo ramens are the only ones that made me step back and go whoa, that's salty! The noodles in the Original, in particular, begin to disintegrate after a few minutes, making them taste almost dusty.

The broth has a fresh, appetizing aroma, but the noodles are mushy, and the food bits are ragged and rubbery. The meaty soy protein pieces are dark and round and taste like little sponges. For something called spicy chicken, we didn't get much flavor or spice from it. Aileen said it started smelling and tasting like beef stew (beef extract is an ingredient) after sitting out, which was unexpected and off-putting.

To narrow our search, we prioritized the top-selling brands on Amazon and bought their chicken flavor and/or their original flavor. We got only soupy ramen, no dry ramen. There were a dozen contenders: eight chicken-flavored and four original.

Tasters included my editorial colleagues Catherine Roberts, a health and food reporter, and Aileen McCluskey, a content operations coordinator, plus myself. We all consider instant ramen while traveling, whether that's camping, on a road trip, or on an international flight. I also recruited a co-worker's daughter, Brianna Amézquita, who's semi-fresh out of college, for a young person's take.

Each taster prepared the ramen samples at home by following the boiled-water package instructions and evaluated each for appearance, aroma, flavor, texture, and convenience.

Across the board, the ramens that come in cups are more convenient. All you do is pour boiled water up to a line marked on the inside of the cup. One ramen packet we tried requires you to place the noodles and seasonings into a bowl, add a measured amount of boiled water, and cover it. The most inconvenient ones instruct you to boil the noodles and seasonings in a saucepan on a stovetop. They’re all quick and straightforward enough, but some instant ramens do require you to have some kitchen basics. All but one of our top picks come in a cup, but even that brand (Nongshim Shin Ramyun Noodle Soup) sells a cup variety, too.

Overall, there wasn't any instant ramen we regret tasting. They all have their pros and cons, but a handful definitely stood out from the rest.

This product evaluation is part of Consumer Reports’ Outside the Labs reviews program, which is separate from our laboratory testing and ratings (though some Outside the Labs reviews may incorporate limited testing data from CR's labs). Our Outside the Labs reviews are performed at home and in other native settings by individuals, including our journalists, with specialized subject matter experience or familiarity and are designed to offer another important perspective for consumers as they shop. While the products or services mentioned in this article might not currently be in CR's ratings, they could eventually be tested in our laboratories and rated according to an objective, scientific protocol.

Like all CR evaluations of products and services, our Outside the Labs reviews are independent and free from advertising. If you’d like to learn more about the criteria for our lab testing, please go to CR's Research & Testing page.

Perry Santanachote

Perry Santanachote is a multimedia content creator at Consumer Reports. She has been with CR since 2019, covering nothing in particular. Not having a beat allows her to work on whatever's trending—from parasite cleanses to pickleball paddles. Perry is a main producer of Outside the Labs content at CR, where she evaluates products in her tiny Manhattan apartment.