Product information
About
Ichiran's own take-home box: five servings of fine, straight Hakata noodles, a liquid tonkotsu sachet for each, and five sachets of the red chilli powder. Tonkotsu means pork bones, simmered down: the broth comes out rich but clean rather than heavy, and properly salty; most of that salt sits in the soup sachet rather than the noodles. The chilli is a dial you turn up rather than a heat that arrives. Buy it if you're after a tonkotsu bowl at home, and especially if you queued at one of Ichiran's ramen shops in Japan and have been chasing that bowl since.
In Japan this sits in the souvenir aisle rather than the pantry, and it's priced like it: nearly three times a supermarket packet, and still less than a bowl in a ramen shop.
The pack reads 一蘭ラーメン 博多細麺ストレート (ichiran ra-men hakata hoso-men sutoreeto).
What you're getting
- It gets close to a bowl in the shop, and it is not the same. Enjoy it for what it is: the best bowl you can make at home, rather than Fukuoka in a saucepan.
- Very fine, dead-straight noodles. They are dry, not the fried kind, and they keep in the cupboard; you pick the firmness rather than the packet picking it for you.
- You never drain them. The water the noodles cook in becomes the broth: cut the heat, stir the soup sachet into the same pot, pour the lot into a bowl. One pan, about five minutes.
- Nothing on top: no chashu (sliced pork), no egg, no spring onion. Sliced spring onion and a soft-boiled egg get you most of the way there, and both are an ordinary supermarket trip.
- This is the thin straight one. Ichiran sells a curly-noodle pack and a plant-based box in Australia too, under near-identical names, so check the front before you open it: the right one says "Hakata-style Thin Straight Noodles" in English, the only English on the front.
- Allergens: contains wheat and soy, and the maker says the same plant also runs buckwheat and yam products. Read the pack's own label before you rely on ours.
- Also on the label: it is a pork-bone broth and the maker declares chicken, so there is meat in it. The pork is the broth itself, not a topping, so it cannot be left out.
It is a stovetop job rather than a cup: you need a saucepan and 450 mL of water per serving, and the soup sachet is a liquid concentrate, not a powder. The red sachet is properly hot.
Ingredients
Noodles (wheat flour (domestically produced), vegetable protein, salt), soup (pork extract, processed lard, flavor oil, protein hydrolyzate, reduced starch syrup, soy sauce, salt, brewed vinegar, seasoning paste, spices, seasoning powder, sugar), seasonings (chili powder, pepper powder)
seasonings (amino acids, etc.), kansui (alkaline noodle salts), alcohol, thickener (modified starch), caramel color, oxidized starch, pH adjuster, antioxidant (vitamin E), (contains wheat, soybeans, chicken, pork)
For your safety, please check both the information on this page and the printed label on the pack. If anything is unclear or the information differs, please contact us before consuming the product.
Allergens
- Contains
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- Wheat
- Soy
- May contain
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- Buckwheat
- Yam
Not ingredients — these are made or handled on the same equipment as this product, so traces are possible. We list every shared-equipment allergen stated on the pack or by the maker.
- Dietary notes
-
The broth is built on pork extract and pork fat, so the pork is the soup itself rather than a topping and there is no way to leave it out. The maker also declares chicken in the box. It is not vegetarian, halal or kosher.
For your safety, please check both the information on this page and the printed label on the pack. If anything is unclear or the information differs, please contact us before consuming the product.
Nutrition
| Per serving (129 g) | Per 100 g | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 1854 kJ (443 kcal) | 1437 kJ (343 kcal) |
| Protein | 16.5 g | 12.8 g |
| Fat | 16.3 g | 12.6 g |
| Carbohydrate | 57.7 g | 44.7 g |
| Sodium | 2795 mg | 2167 mg |
From the Japanese pack's nutrition panel, marked estimated (推定値) by the maker — not the Australian nutrition information panel. The Japanese pack gives no saturated fat or sugars figure. The per-100 g column, the kJ figures and sodium (from the pack's salt equivalent, 食塩相当量, ÷ 2.54) are our calculation.
Details
- Maker
- Ichiran · Fukuoka
- Made in
- Japan
- Net contents
- One box, 645 g: five servings of 129 g each, every serving a noodle bundle, a liquid soup sachet and a red-powder sachet
Our guide
How to eat it
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Bring 450 mL to the boil for one serving. If it tastes thin, use a little less.
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Two minutes for firm, two and a half for standard, four for soft.
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Never drain the noodles. Turn the heat off and stir the soup into that water.
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Pour it into a bowl, then add the red powder a pinch at a time: it is hot.
Good to know
- The last of the broth is worth keeping: tip a scoop of hot rice into it while it's still hot and you get a second small bowl out of the same sachet.
- Keep the box somewhere cool and dry, out of the sun. All five noodle bundles sit in one bag, so once it's open, seal it and keep it in the fridge.
In their own words
What Japanese buyers say
What do the numbers mean?
Counts of how many reviews mentioned each thing, not a score. One review can mention several. Every quote is our translation, with the original Japanese beneath it.
- What they like
It's delicious, but it is absolutely not the same as the shop. Still, there's no Ichiran near me, so this is plenty.
美味しいですが、全く店と同じではないです。ただ、家の近くに一蘭がないのでこれで充分です。
from yahoo
- What they grumble about
I'd imagined the restaurant's taste, so I was let down. The smell was the same as the shop, but the taste was more of a 'hmm'.
お店の味を想像していたので残念でした。匂いはお店と同じでしたが味はうーん。という感じです
mentioned in 7 of 59 reviews we readfrom yahoo
- What they like
It's tonkotsu, yet the soup isn't heavy — clean-tasting, and still full of savour.
とんこつなのに、スープが重たくなく、さっぱりしているのにうまみがしっかり
mentioned in 3 of 59 reviews we readfrom yahoo
- What they grumble about
At the stated volume it comes out thin; just under 350 mL is safer.
水は書かれてる分量だと薄くなるので350弱が無難。
from yahoo
Our tip: The maker's figure is 450 mL a serving. Measure it the first time, then go down towards 350 mL on the next bowl if you want it stronger — you cannot take water back out once it is in.
- Good to know
Does your box have a white sachet, a green sachet and a red sachet to go with the noodles? If so, it's vegan.
from ozbargain
Our tip: That is how you spot the vegan box, which is a different product. This one is the pork-bone broth.
- What they like
For an instant product this is astonishing — pricey, but nothing replaces it.
インスタント的な物でコレは凄い、割高だが代わりが居ない。
mentioned in 5 of 59 reviews we readfrom yahoo
- What they grumble about
All five servings come packed in together, so once you open the bag you have to get through the rest before it goes stale.
麺が5食分すべて一緒に入っているので一回開けたら他も早く食べなければいけなくなる。
from yahoo
- What they like
The red secret powder especially lifts both the heat and the umami — it's the best part.
特に赤い秘伝の粉は辛味と旨味がアップして、最高です。
mentioned in 5 of 59 reviews we readfrom yahoo
- What they grumble about
The powder is spicy to the point you'd think it was some ethnic dish.
粉がエスニック料理かってくらい辛い
mentioned in 3 of 59 reviews we readfrom yahoo
Our tip: It comes as its own sachet, so the dose is yours — add half, taste it, then decide.
- What they like
The ultra-fine noodles, which feel so good as you slurp them, struck me as especially tasty.
すする時に口触りの良い極細の麺が特に美味しいと感じた。
from mognavi, a Japanese food and drink review site
- What they grumble about
The tonkotsu flavour came through lighter than I'd pictured — it was a bit underwhelming.
想像よりも豚骨感か薄く感じられイマイチでした
from yahoo
- What they like
There's a branch near me, but it's always queued and a bowl there isn't cheap — so I buy this to eat it easily at home instead.
家の近くに店舗がありますが、常に行列、1杯の価格も高いので、安価で気楽に食べられるよう購入
mentioned in 7 of 59 reviews we readfrom yahoo
- What they grumble about
Adding the entire sachet would have made the soup way too spicy
from tokyoexcess
- What they like
it's surprisingly close. Of course, fresh ramen at the restaurant is superior — it's not possible for any shelf-stable version to taste identical
from themanual
Real quotes from the review sites named on the cards. We show no star rating from those sites.
The maker
Where it comes from
- Ichiran
- Fukuoka
- Founded 1993
At an Ichiran ramen shop you eat alone at a partitioned counter and order by ticking a paper sheet, from broth strength to noodle firmness; that same sheet is printed on the side of this box. The box is made by Ichiran itself, not a licensee, at its own factory in Itoshima, just west of Fukuoka city.
Product facts here are checked against the maker's own page: ichiranstore.com (opens in a new tab)
Often bought together
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Ichiran Ramen Hakata Tonkotsu Thin Straight Noodles 5 Serves
$39.89 AUD
You are on this one
