Nissin Karaage Lemon Flavor Cup Noodle / カップヌードルカラアゲレモン味

*Better buy some real karaage as sides for this cup noodle*

Nissin’s newest cup noodle idea combines the concepts of karaage fried chicken and cup noodles with a lemony twist. Most likely part of their late spring and early summer campaign, they are trying to entice their customers with a fresh approach and some extra fried chicken bits on top of their noodles. At least that’s the impression they want you to have at first glance. The bits on top aren’t actually made out of chicken, but rather what they call “mystery meat”. Yes, they really call it that themselves. The mystery is probably that it is made out of soy beans and vaguely tastes like chicken meat.

Content

Classic cup noodle, soup powder surrounding the noodles, topped with egg bits, the "mystery meat” chicken nugget style karage and some dehydrated green onion.

Preparation

Open lid, fill with boiling water to marking, close lid, wait three minutes.
There is no step two.

Review

if you want this to have anything to do with karage, you better buy some from a convenience store nearby. The chicken nugget style fried mystery meat bits are at best “probably meat” if you eat them with an open mind. Soggy, texture wise undistinguishable from the egg bits, they are coated in strong lemon flavor and artificial chicken aroma. But that’s all they bring to the table. The green onion and egg bits are Nissin cup noodle standard, just like the noodles themselves.

*Surprisingly rich soup for a cup noodle with chicken fat and ginger notes*

The only bright spot is the soup, which was much richer and flavorful than I had expected, with one caveat: it doesn’t taste like lemon at all. Seems like the only part that received any lemon flavor were the mystery chicken bits and that’s simply not enough. Overall not terrible, but very disappointing, won’t buy again, but will eat in a pinch.

3/10

But the karaage from Lawson was 10/10 as always. And if Lawson isn’t your favorite for convenience store fried chicken you are wrong and should be ashamed of yourself.