This review is one of a pair of review of Sanyo Foods Famous Restaurant Series of instant ramen bowls. Sanyo Foods Junren Sapporo Miso Ramen is being reviewed here while the other review is for the Keika Kumamoto Instant Tonkotsu ramen.
Junren is a popular miso ramen restaurant in the city of Sapporo, Hokkaido that has been in business since 1964. It and Sumire, another famous ramen restaurant, were part of the second wave of Sapporo style miso ramen restaurants that opened after Aji no Sanpei invented the style in 1953. Junren's version of the soup includes a layer of pork lard in the soup that gives it more body and richness than regular miso ramen. All Sapporo miso ramen is rich and full bodied in flavour, something that is good for the snowy winters in Hokkaido!
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| Lid of the ramen bowl. There's nothing too fancy about design. The restaurant's name is in big bright yellow characters above a black background with a good portion of a tasty looking bowl of instant noodles occupying more than half of the lid. A spoon on the right shows the nice thick looking soup. |
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| 3/4 view of the bowl. This ramen was first released in 2022. |
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| Opening the bowl reveals a noodle block and 4 sachets. |
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| Dried noodle block, not fried. |
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| Ingredients and manufacturing information. |
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| Contect information and warnings. Don't microwave the bowl or use heat on it. |
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| Cooking directions. Only put in the dry ingredients first. All oils and liquids are added after the noodles have rehydrated. |
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| Nutritional information. Most of the fat in this bowl doesn't come from fried noodles, but the sauce and oil packets. |
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| Seasoning oil, add in just before serving. |
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| Dry ingredients. Menma, green onions, minced meat. |
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| Liquid miso soup base, add in just before serving. |
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| Powdered miso soup base. |
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| The bowl with the powdered soup and dried toppings. |
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| After letting the noodles rehydrate in boiling water (added to the fill line) for five minutes. I then added all the liquid soup / oil sachets. |
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| You give it a good stir to mix everything in. There is a layer of oil on the top of the soup for flavour. |
Sapporo style miso ramen is typically a robust soup with the boldness of miso and then there are often stir-fried vegetable toppings. In this case, there was just menma and green onion with some ground meat nuggets. The soup didn't disappoint for flavour.
When I first opened the miso paste packet there was a pungent smell letting me know that there was going to be flavour. You could smell the miso, that somewhat earthy smell that is full of umami. Both the miso paste and flavour oil mixed into the soup well.
A meaty smell characterized the final soup with a chickeny aroma (along with pork?) in addition to another seasoning or fermented smell from the miso. It was a strong tasting miso soup with a bit of a funky undertone. I found the noodles nice and firm, the soup salty, and if you like miso you will like this soup. The menma was crunchy too and the meat nuggets had a a ground meat texture. This ramen is a winner if you see it in the store!
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| Closeup of the noodles, a piece of menma and a meat nugget. |
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