Costco Ajinomoto Tokyo Style Shoyu Ramen with Chicken Review

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).