Nissin 7-11 Premium Nakiryu Instant Ramen Bowl Review

I bought a 7-11 Premium Nakiryu Instant Ramen Bowl on my last trip to Japan in December of 2022.  It is a premium instant noodle bowl you can pick up at any 7-11 convenience store over there as an exclusive part of their premium line of products.  I also picked up a Premium Gold Ippudo Bowl Instant Ramen Bowl that is reviewed here.

I reviewed a Nissin Nakiryu Cup Noodle back in 2017 and had been wondering just how good the 7-11 version was for more than a few years now.  I would have tried it back in 2020, but COVID hit and international travel shut down.  On my trip to Japan in December of 2022, I finally managed to try it.

Lid of the Nakiryu Noodle Bowl.  It looks like a big bowl of noodles with some ground pork with some nicely laid out noodles in a warm orangy-tan broth.  Looks like Dan Dan noodles.  The shop's name is prominently displayed in the middle in black letters with a white outline.  You can definitevely see what you are getting in this bowl!

Nakiryu is a Michelin starred ramen shop in Tokyo which is famous for their Dan Dan style ramen soup.  There are usually lineups to get inside, but you only have to wait for water to boil for this one! The packaging design on this ramen bowl just exudes a high-class vibe, setting the stage for what is contained within.  It just looks like a classy looking bowl of ramen noodles.  Dan Dan is a Chinese style of spicy noodle / soup that has lots of Szechwan peppercorns to give it a numbing heat that is also very flavourful when combined sesame, spices, and a rich broth.  It comes in different levels of spiciness of course, but it is usually a medium heat that most people will like, unless it says its really spicy.

3/4 view of the ramen bowl.  It is a bowl and not a cup!  The bowl itself is very shiny on the outside and reminds me of some nice dark brown lacquerware.

Cooking directions.  Add boiling water to the fill line and wait three minutes.  DO NOT ADD the sesame sauce packet until after the noodles are rehydrated as the noodles won't separate properly.

Allergens, manufacturing information, and warnings.

Nutritional information.  Lots of calories in this from the rich soup.

Ingredients.

Once you open the bowl, you can see a block of noodles and three pouches of soup bases and toppings.

The noodles are air dried and are thin, so they rehydrate quickly in 3 minutes after adding boiling water.

Red pouch has powdered soup base.

Green pouch has a liquid soup base with the spicy red pepper and soy / peppercorn base.

The a thick liquid sesame soup base.

You add in the powdered and liquid soup bases, keeping the sesame base out for now.  It looks messy, but the results taste pretty good.  Definitely follow the directions for mixing the soup!

After you add boiling water, the soup looks like this.

Close the lid, place the sesame pouch on the lid to warm it up and hold the lid down.

After three minutes, lift the lid, mix the soup well. It already looks like a tasty bowl of noodles, but you aren't done preparations yet.

The last step is to add the sesame liquid to the soup.  You are supposed to pour it over the surface evenly, like in a spiral.  You'll get more intense sesame flavour this way in your first few bites of soup.  After this, the stuff mixes anyways.

The soup was a fragrant, savoury soup that smelled tantalizingly good.  You could detect the scent of the Szechwan peppercorns and chilis in it. A taste of the soup revealed a rich soup base that was spicy and peanutty from the sesame.  I find that a sesame powder like this reminds me of peanuts, even though I don't believe there are any peanuts in this soup.  The heat level was mild to medium with lots of flavour.  The sesame harmonized nicely with the spice.  There was even a bit of tartness to the broth to cut the richness, melding the heat and enhancing the flavour.

I think the recipe is slightly different from the last time I tried the other cup in 2017 with more heat, tartness, and lingering numbness from peppercorns.  This was an absolutely delicious soup base where the heat built as you ate the noodles and drank the soup.  The noodles were firm too and broke with a good bite and chewed nicely, but were not too chewy.   The bits of ground pork were a very nice addition to a mouthful of noodles. The soup ended up having a nice orangy-tan in colour and just looked pretty appealing to the appetite.  Back in 2017 I said they should make that version a regular part of the Nissin lineup and that has happened via 7-11, so you can get a fix any time you want now.  If you are in Japan, definitely pick one up to try it or bring it back home to remind you of your time in Japan!  This is super tasty!

Closeup of the noodles and ground pork.

This was good to the last drop!

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