The regular cup
Nissin Cup Noodle Chilli Tomato Regular — Japanese Ramen, 76g
$3.99
$5.25 per 100 gYou are looking at this one
The range
Which one do I need?
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The big cup
Nissin Cup Noodle Chilli Tomato BIG — Japanese Ramen Cup, 109g
$6.05
$5.55 per 100 g
Product information
About
A tomato soup with noodles in it: sweet and gently sour, spiced with cumin and oregano over a pork stock. Closer to a thin arrabbiata (the spicy tomato pasta sauce) than to anything else in a noodle cup. Despite the name it is barely hot. Between April and September 2022 this exact 76 g cup was the fifteenth best-selling cup noodle in Japan.
カップヌードル チリトマトヌードル, chiri tomato, the tomato one.
What you're getting
- Tomato first, chilli second. The soup leads on tomato sweetness and a clean acidity; the chilli is a warmth at the back rather than heat you have to brace for.
- Cumin and oregano do the real work. They are what make it taste unlike every other cup on the shelf, smoky and slightly Mexican rather than Italian, once you notice them.
- A firm, slightly flat noodle that the soup clings to, and five dried toppings loose in the cup: cabbage, corn, tomato, green beans, and the mince Japan calls nazoniku, "mystery meat", a joke Nissin leaned into for decades before confirming it is pork and soy protein.
- There is cheese in the soup powder. Both processed and natural cheese, which is why milk is declared, not something you would expect to find in a noodle cup.
- The honest caveat: for something called Chilli Tomato, there is not much chilli in it, enough to notice if you are genuinely heat-shy, nowhere near enough if you came looking for it.
- Allergens: contains wheat, egg, milk, sesame, soy, apple, and mollusc in the form of clam seasoning.
- Allergens, the two chart gaps: Japan's chart has no mollusc category, so clam sits in the pack's ingredient list rather than its allergen box. Australia's chart has no apple category either, so apple cannot appear in an allergen box here. Check the ingredients, not the chart; ours is the fuller list.
It also contains pork, and chicken hidden inside the seasoning where you would not think to look. This is the Japanese domestic cup. The Nissin cups Coles ranges are a locally supplied range in different flavours, which is most of why they cost less, and Coles ranges no chilli tomato at all. The lid is aluminium, so never microwave it in its own cup; Nissin warns of fire risk.
Ingredients
The maker's ingredient list, translated from the Japanese pack. Anything after the break is an additive — the Japanese label lists those separately.
Fried noodles (wheat flour (made in Japan), vegetable oil, salt, hydrolysed protein, pork extract, savoury seasoning), soup (tomato powder, sugars, hydrolysed protein, lard, spice seasoning, vegetable seasoning, pork seasoning, savoury seasoning, garlic seasoning, clam seasoning, salt, processed cheese, spices, natural cheese), toppings (processed pork mince with soy protein, cabbage, corn, processed tomato paste, green beans)
processed starch, flavour enhancers (amino acids etc.), flavouring, calcium carbonate, emulsifier, thickener (polysaccharides), kansui (alkaline noodle salts), monascus colour, spice extract, carotenoid colour, acidity regulator, caramel colour, antioxidant (vitamin E), magnesium carbonate, smoke flavour, vitamin B2, vitamin B1.
The printed label on the pack is always the authority on ingredients and allergens, not this page — please read it in full before you rely on our summary. If you are unsure about an ingredient, contact us.
Allergens
The maker declares:
- Allergens
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- Wheat
- Egg
- Milk
- Sesame
- Soy
- Apple
- Mollusc
- Dietary notes
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The soup carries pork fat, pork extract and pork seasoning. There is chicken in it as well, hidden inside the savoury seasoning rather than listed on its own line, so you will not find the word by reading the ingredients. There is also clam seasoning in the tomato base. It is not vegetarian, not halal and not kosher.
The printed label on the pack is always the authority on ingredients and allergens, not this page — please read it in full before you rely on our summary. If you are unsure about an ingredient, contact us.
Details
- Maker
- Nissin Food Products Co., Ltd.
- Made in
- Japan
- Net contents
- One cup: 76 g, of which 60 g is noodles
Our guide
How to eat it
- The Japanese finish for this cup is a bowl of tomato risotto: drop a slice of melting cheese in partway through, then stir leftover rice into what is left of the soup once the noodles are gone.
- Look down into the cup before you pour: the fill line is moulded into the inside wall, not printed on the outside. Fill to it, about 290 mL of boiling water, then leave it for the time printed on the lid.
- Never microwave it in its own cup: Nissin warns of fire risk from the aluminium lid, so tip it into a microwave-safe dish first.
- If you want it properly hot you will have to do that yourself, with chilli flakes or a few drops of Tabasco stirred in at the end.
In their own words
What Japanese buyers say
- What they like
I'm not good with tomato so I avoided it for ages, but the other day I got curious and tried it for the first time — it was really delicious!
トマトが得意じゃないのでずっと避けてましたが先日ふと味が気になってはじめて食べました！とても美味しかったです！
from monolog
- What they grumble about
But for something named Chilli Tomato, the chilli is lacking. No repeat for me.
でもチリトマトのネーミングなのに、チリが物足りない・・・リピートはなしだなぁ〜
from mognavi
- What they like
I like Seafood a lot and eat it often, but however much you like it, eating it frequently gets old. Same with the plain soy one. Chilli Tomato though doesn't get old — I think it's a good noodle.
シーフード味は、結構好きでよく食べるのですが、いくら好きでも頻繁に食べていると飽きてきてしまいます。ノーマルの醤油味もそうです。でも、チリトマトは飽きにくく、良いヌードルだなと思っています。
from monolog
- What they like
Even a child who dislikes tomato — Chilli Tomato is her favourite of all the Cup Noodles. Baffling!
トマトが苦手な子供でも、カップードルの中で1番好きなのがチリトマト。不思議です⁉︎
from monolog
- What they grumble about
Maybe my expectations were too high — I don't think I'll buy it again. The mild heat and tomato base taste like a watered-down arrabbiata turned into ramen.
期待値が大きすぎたためか、もう買わないかな。ピリ辛とトマトベースの味は、アラビアータを薄めてラーメンにした味です。
from mognavi
- What they like
The one I'd been curious about forever! It was hotter than I expected! The tomato isn't that strong — it's hot, but the soup is a moreish taste.
ずーっと気になってたやつ！！思ってたより辛かったー！！トマト感はそんな強くなくて辛いけど癖になる味なスープ。
from mognavi
- What they grumble about
It simply wasn't good. It's called tomato chilli but it's a case of "where's the tomato?", and the chilli only arrives about halfway through. The whole thing is thin. I'll never buy it again.
単純に美味しくなかったです。トマトチリなのにトマトはどこ？と言う感じで、チリは半分くらい食べるとやってきます。全体的に薄いです。２度と買いません。
from monolog
- What they like
Nissin's standard thin flat noodle — the soup clings to it well and it was delicious.
日清定番の細い平麺でスープがよく絡んで美味しかったです
from mognavi
- What they like
That gentle tomato acidity. This much is exactly right.
トマトの優しい酸味。コレくらいが丁度ええんよ。
from mognavi
- What they grumble about
The soup really is delicious. Sour and on the hot side — I think it's the best there is. The problem is the noodle. The noodle is bad.
本当にスープは美味しい。酸っぱくて辛めで、最高に美味しいと思っています。問題は麺です。麺が不味い。
from yahoo
- What they like
Tomato acidity and the flavour of hot spices. The spice is smoky, like scorched corn, so I thought it tasted rather like tacos.
トマトの酸味と辛い香辛料の風味。とうもろこしを焦がしたようなスモーキーなスパイスなのでタコスっぽい味だと思いました。
from mognavi
Real quotes from Japanese review sites (monolog, mognavi, yahoo), translated by us. We show no star rating from those sites.
The maker
Where it comes from
- Nissin Food Products Co., Ltd.
Nissin put the world's first cup-type instant noodle on sale on 18 September 1971, sold from a street stall outside Isetan in Shinjuku.
Chilli Tomato has been in the range since the early 1980s, one of the oldest flavours Nissin still makes. The wheat in the noodles is milled partly from Australian grain; the tomato powder comes from Spain and the tomato paste from Portugal.
Product facts here are checked against the maker's own page: nissin.com (opens in a new tab)
Often bought together
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Nissin Cup Noodle Chilli Tomato Regular — Japanese Ramen, 76g
$3.99
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