Costco carries a nice selection of Asian-themed foods in its refrigerated and frozen sections. As far as I know, this Ajinomoto Tokyo Style Shoyu Ramen with Chicken is the only pre-made version of ramen that they carry, and it’s been around for a few years. I first reviewed it back in 2019. If it’s been around for that long, it must be a decent version of the popular noodle/soup dish, right?
Costco carries a few other Ajinomoto products like the Ajinomoto Vegetable Yakisoba, Ajinomoto Chicken Yakitori with Japanese Style Fried Rice and the Ajinomoto Ling Ling Chicken & Vegetable Potstickers.
Location in Store
This is located in the Costco freezer section with the item number 1162180.
Taste
The bowls include ramen noodles, soy sauce broth, a few vegetables and a few pieces of chicken. I like everything about the ramen except for the chicken. I find the chicken super rubbery and very processed-tasting, not good at all.
The bowls are noodle-heavy and there aren’t many vegetables or chicken. I would prefer more vegetables in the ramen, but I don’t care about having more chicken because the chicken is pretty inedible. The vegetables in the ramen are green onion, carrots, corn kernels and red bell pepper, to be honest, the vegetables are so sparse and small in size you don’t really taste them.
The broth is extremely salty and tastes a lot like pure soy sauce mixed with some chicken broth but I love soy sauce so I like the broth. The noodles cook up perfectly in the microwave to a desired not too soft not too firm tenderness.
Overall the taste of the noodles and broth is enjoyable but I’m not sure I would purchase these again because of how expensive they are for what you get.
Cost
In 2019 the price was $18.99 Canadian for six bowls. In 2024 the cost is $23.99 Canadian. This seems pretty expensive to me and I definitely think you’re paying for the convenience and all the packaging.
Convenience
The ramen is really easy to make, you just pull off the plastic film, add water to the bowl and microwave the bowl with added water for four minutes. I think adding extra chicken, an egg, some extra vegetables or green onion would make this ramen a bit more flavorful and filling.
The ramen needs to be kept frozen and the best-before date is 18 months from when we purchased it. These are a convenient lunch or dinner and could also be brought to work since the ramen comes packaged in a sealed plastic bowl.
Nutrition
Calories
One bowl contains 410 calories, seven grams of fat, 63 grams of carbohydrates, two grams of fibre, eight grams of sugar, 20 grams of protein and a crazy 1700 milligrams of sodium. That’s basically your daily intake of sodium in one ramen bowl.
Ingredients
There are a lot of ingredients in the ramen that I dislike seeing like sugar, dextrose, corn syrup solids, canola oil, lard and additives like disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate. Obviously making homemade ramen will save you a ton of unnecessary, unhealthy ingredients.
Scoring
Taste: 6/10
Cost: 4/10
Convenience: 10/10
Nutrition: 3/10
Overall
Give it a try!
I like the noodles and the flavor of the broth, I do wish there were more vegetables and the chicken was a bit better quality. I probably won’t repurchase them because they’re so expensive for what you get.
Have you tried this Ajinomoto Tokyo Style Shoyu Ramen with Chicken? What did you think of it?
Please note that this review was not paid for or sponsored by any third party. This product was purchased by Costcuisine for the purpose of producing this review. The opinions in this review are strictly those of Costcuisine. Costcuisine is not affiliated with Costco or any of its suppliers. In the event that Costcuisine receives compensation for a post from the manufacturer of a product or some other third party, the arrangement will be clearly disclosed (including where the manufacturer of a product provides Costcuisine with a free sample of the product).
We have been buying Ajinomoto Tokyo Style Ramen with Chicken for years
from Costco and it “was” one of our favourites. Just bought a box the other day and should have noticed the picture on the box now shows
“chunks” of chicken rather than the previous “sliced” chicken. We were very disappointed in this new version. Fatty, tasteless chicken chunks, instead of the previous sliced, smoked chicken and the broth(which was the key to this product) is now tasteless with an overture of soya sauce. The price has not gone down but the quality sure has. We will not be buying this product again and Costco should discontinuw stocking it.
Yes I actually updated the review in April 2024 but had done it before and the chicken has changed.
Yes, ever since they changed the chicken something in these bowls causes me gastric distress and the unpleasantness that goes with it is just not worth it.
I just discovered these this summer and I LOVE them! They are my go-to autumn comfort food after work when the daylight is fast disappearing. I disagree with two things in your review. The first is the chicken. I HATE rubbery, grissley, fatty meat. I threw out a whole formed ham a month ago because I just couldn’t eat it. So I’ve been super happy that I’ve never yet had a bad cube of chicken in these bowls. The second thing I disagree on is the price. Perhaps you don’t realize this but a similar dried bowl of ramen with no meat and just powder stock flavouring costs over $2 at my local grocery stores. So if you include the meat and the fact that these have more flavour than just ‘salt’, I think $4 for a large bowl of filling noodles and chicken is very fair. It’s probably the cheapest lunch/dinner I have lately.
Also, just a note that although we find these ramen noodles to be high in sodium (which they are), in Japan people usually don’t slurp up ever drop of broth when they eat noodles. It’s there almost like a sauce, so yes if North Americans choose to drink the whole thing then that’s their problem! LOL
I am SO, SO disappointed with the change to the chicken in these bowls. They were my favorite go-to choice for a quick lunch until they changed the nice, sliced chicken breast meat to a gross block of chicken loaf! It’s really an off-putting spongey texture, and the flavor is just fake. I won’t buy this again until they bring back the real chicken breast slices.
I agree completely! I used to eat these bowls frequently for lunch but since the changes to the chicken and in my opinion the texture of the noodles as well, they are nearly inedible. And still quite pricey!
Does any one know what kind of gelatine is used in Ramen bowl?