Nissin Donbei Kitsune Udon Extra Large — Fried Tofu, 131g

Instant udon in the extra-large cup: 131 g against the standard Donbei's 96 g, and 102 g of that is noodles. Thick flat wheat udon in a dark bonito-and-soy broth, with a big slab of sweet seasoned fried tofu and slices of fish cake on top. The tofu is seasoned with soy and comes out sweet, so you get sweet tofu against a savoury broth. That contrast is what makes it kitsune udon.

日清のどん兵衛 特盛きつねうどん, the Japanese name across the cup, so you can match it to the one you remember.

Donbei is Japan's everyday udon rather than a specialty one: the standard supermarket and convenience-store cup, with Nissin's premium udon lines sitting above it. It is also Japan's best-selling brand of instant cup udon and buckwheat soba by sales value across 2025: that standing belongs to the brand across all its sizes. This is the East-Japan version, marked with an (E) below the barcode: a darker soy broth led by bonito, where the West cup goes lighter, with kombu kelp alongside the bonito.

What you're getting

• Thick, flat wheat udon, heavier and softer than the curly noodle in a ramen cup, which is why it wants five minutes rather than three. It goes down smoothly rather than fighting back.
• A big slab of seasoned fried tofu. It is seasoned in its own right rather than just soaking up the soup, so it tastes of something different from the broth around it: you taste sugar in the tofu itself, and that is right, not a mistake.
• A dark soy broth built on dried bonito, bonito is a fish, dried hard and shaved into flakes, and there are two kinds of it in here, with kamaboko fish cake and spring onion in the cup. It is a fish-stock flavour rather than a meat-stock one.
• It is a lot of food. A 131 g cup where Japan's standard Donbei is 96 g and the export cup we also stock is 82 g: this size exists because the ordinary one does not fill people up. Treat it as a meal, and a salty one.
• Two sachets: a powder soup and a shichimi chilli blend, joined together under the lid.
• Allergens: contains fish, wheat, gluten, milk, soy and sesame. Japan's chart has no general fish category, so the bonito and kamaboko fish cake sit in the pack's ingredient list rather than its allergen box: check the ingredients, not the chart; ours is the fuller list.

It contains fish. The broth is built on dried bonito and fish powder, there is kamaboko fish cake in the cup, and the Japanese pack declares mackerel. Treat it as a fish product: if fish is a problem for you, this one is not for you.

It is not vegetarian, whatever you may have read, many of the English recipes you will find for kitsune udon are vegan versions, and this is not one of them. The broth is built on fish and there is fish cake in the cup. It also contains gelatine, and Nissin does not publish what that gelatine is made from, so it cannot be treated as halal or kosher either.

"Kitsune" means fox, and there is no fox in it. It is simply the Japanese name for udon topped with fried tofu. And this is udon, not ramen: a fatter, softer wheat noodle in a soy broth built on dashi, the bonito-and-kelp stock, rather than a curly noodle in a rich soup.

The powder sachet goes in before the water, not after, and the shichimi is sprinkled on at the very end once it has steeped, the opposite way round from what most people expect. Never microwave the cup: the lid is foil.