Ichiran Ramen Kit Honest Review

Who doesn’t love Ichiran Ramen? Every time we go to Japan, we always eat Ichiran Ramen. It’s just super no-frills, very filling and incredibly tasty.

Of course, once you get back to the Philippines, you realize it’s impossible to get that same taste replicated here and you feel semi-sad. Well, Ichiran says, don’t be sad anymore – because they’ve come up with an Ichiran Ramen Kit so that we’ll never be without our Ichiran Ramen ever again.

So let’s put it to the test shall we? Does it really taste like Ichiran Ramen in Japan when a noob cook like me makes it?

Okay, first off – the Ichiran Ramen Kit comes in two options – serving for 2 or serving for 5. What you see in the photo is a serving for 5.

Inside you will find:

• 5 packs of noodles
• 5 packs of soup base (big red pack)
• 5 packs of spicy powder (small red pack)

As you can see, it’s literally soup and noodles only. So if you aren’t lazy, highly recommend you do additional prep as follows:

Prepare soft boiled egg

• Place the eggs in a pot and fill with water, until it covers the top of the eggs. Turn the heat to medium high and wait for it to boil. Pay attention!
• Once it starts to boil – time it and let it boil for 1 minute

• After the minute is up, cover the pan with a lid and take off the heat
• After 5 minutes, take out the eggs, drain the hot water and replace with cold water. Add ice if needed!!!
• I have found that the water ends up lukewarm afterwards, so you may want to drain and replace with cold water again midway. I keep it in cold water for at least 10 minutes
• After 10+ minutes, take out the eggs and peel

Prepare the chashu (pork belly)

• Thinly slice the pork belly slab, if it isn’t sliced yet. Place the pork in the water and let it boil until the pork is soft. Don’t throw the pork stock away, we’ll use it later
• Marinate the pork belly by adding soy sauce and garlic powder. Let it marinate while you cook the noodles

Cook the actual Ichiran Ramen

• Boil 6 cups of water. I think you can add even more! We found the soup quite salty.
• Add the noodles into the boiling water. Cook for 2 mins and 30 seconds. You can go beyond, but that’s the level of done-ness I like for my noodles

• Once noodles are cooked, add in the soup base (large red pack) and stir well. Once well mixed, transfer everything to a bowl. There is a tendency for the noodles to absorb the soup, so if you find that not enough soup remains, pour in your pork broth from earlier

• Split up the noodles and soup equally across five bowls, add the soft boiled egg and chashu on top

Overall, it definitely doesn’t taste like the Ichiran Ramen we’ve had in Japan! The noodles is really good though – just the right level of doneness. The soup… meh, maybe if I had added more water? But otherwise, it’s way too salty. The spicy powder is quite spicy by the way, so don’t dump them all in at once. Put a few pinches in first then taste test.