Doll Hello Kitty Dim Sum Japanese prawn flavour instant noodle review
I was immediately struck by the Kawaii pink cuteness of this dinky pot noodle product in the Vietnamese grocery shop Lai and Loi in Deptford High Street. I had never seen a Hello Kitty instant noodle product, and I had to have it!
Hello Kitty, or Kitty White, was created in 1974 by Japanese artist Yuko Shimizu (although Yuko Yamaguchi took over the Kitty designs in 1980). She is still Sanrio’s most popular character, half a century later. I was surprised to discover Kitty is meant to be British, and was named after Alice’s Kitty in the Alice In Wonderland books. But the distinctive cat with her big red bow was based on Yuko’s childhood pet, with Shimizu saying “when I was a child, I got a small white kitten from my father for a birthday present”. Kitty is such an icon she’s a UNICEF ambassador and was named UNICEF’s Special Friend of Children.
While I am not a Hello Kitty obsessive, I do have some Hello Kitty products bought on my travels to Japan. She might seem a little bit childish and girly, but there’s something about having grown up seeing her on so many products which means she’s special to me.
Doll is a Hong Kong based noodle brand, part of Winner Food Products Limited. They have been manufacturing instant noodles since 1969. The company also make frozen dim sum and other catering Chinese food products. Their first Doll bowl noodle was made in 1983 and they were bought up by the Nissin (Cup Noodle) company in 1989.
The product
Made by Doll brand, I bought a small cardboard cup/pot of noodles, which are around a half or a third of the size of a standard Cup Noodle. The dried weight was 37g. The packet describes the product as “dim sum noodle Japanese shrimp flavour”. There is so much cuteness to this pack, with drawings of Kitty along the side, with pink prawns and noodles.
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There are other flavours available in this range including a Tonkotsu flavour, Japanese Soy sauce flavour, and POMPOMPURIN Braised Beef Flavour.
This product is not suitable for vegetarians, vegans, or those following a halal or kosher diet; there are egg, fish extracts, prawn extracts, squid extract, and shrimp paste in the product.
What’s Inside
There is a small cake of wheat noodles in the bottom. The ingredients indicate the noodles have had some flavourings added such as soy, garlic, and other flavourings.
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There are three little packets - soup base, dried veggies, and sauce.
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In the little dried vegetable packet there were tiny little Hello Kitty faces, as there are a number of Kitty Kamaboko. These are little pressed dried surimi fish cakes, made of pollock fish. The dried vegetables are carrot, green/spring onion and sweetcorn.
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The seasoning has prawn and fish extract and dried shrimp paste, plus onion powder, garlic powder and flavourings.
But the little surprise here is a Hello Kitty sticker, which now has pride of place on the cover of my diary!
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What does it taste like
The noodles are quite narrow, which means you do need to stick to the 2 minute “cooking time”, and significantly exceeding this will result in soggy noodles (unless that’s your thing!). They had some bite after 2 minutes, but I felt they were a bit too soft for me. I like a bite to my ramen.
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The broth had some good umami flavours, but smelt “fishy”. The shrimp paste used in the seasoning made the soup taste a bit more Thai than Chinese dim sum or Japanese prawns.
This is pretty good instant noodle product, but seems that the Hello Kitty branding has resulted in a higher price point than the quality of the food warrants. I paid £1.75 from a small independent shop, I have seen £1.55 or £1.48 online. Doll brand’s pots of noodles sell for £1.99 for 100g+ packs, so my £1.75 for 37g is steep, taking into account the adorable Hello Kitty sticker thrown in.
I use Gingey Bites’ rating system for my noodles. For Alex’s scoring method and an index of all of her instant noodle reviews, please see: https://gingeybites.com/guide-to-instant-noodles
My ratings:
Texture 6/10
Flavour 7/10
Ease of making 10/10
Would I buy them again: No – but I would try other Doll brand noodle products
Silvana Franco shares 5 ideas to turn instant ramen into a simple midweek meal: https://archive.md/7dHbF
If you follow my instant noodle reviews, you will know I love to add ingredients and flavours to instant noodles. Here, at Kavey Eats blog (run by the brilliant food, travel and cooking enthusiast Kavita – AKA Kavey) is a new spin on modifying Korean instant noodles from Su Scott’s new cookbook Pocha: https://www.kaveyeats.com/tomato-kimchi-ramyun-instant-noodle
For my previous Instant noodle reviews please see:
You can read my review of Itsu’s Chick N Ramen noodles here: https://snigskitchen.blogspot.com/2025/03/itsu-chick-n-ramen-instant-noodle-review.html
You can read my review of Nissin x Shoryu “Ramen Masters” Cup Noodle: https://snigskitchen.blogspot.com/2024/01/nissin-x-shoryu-ramen-masters-cup.html
You can read my review of Maruchan spicy chicken and prawn noodles here: https://snigskitchen.blogspot.com/2024/05/maruchan-spicy-chicken-and-prawn.html
You can read my review of Nongshim brand’s “Chapagetti” noodles here: https://snigskitchen.blogspot.com/2024/09/nongshim-chapagetti-noodle-review.html
This review represents the genuine opinions of Snigdha, who has received no incentive to write this review, and who purchased the product with her own money.
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