Having seen a few episodes of Hot Ones (notably Jennifer Lawrence’s now-iconic “What do you mean??” meltdown) I decided to grab some of these from the Woolworth’s endcap where they were shown off. I assume they are a new collab, as I’d never seen them before, and this is definitely the kind of thing I like. Perfect for quick snacks on busy work days or if I’m still hungry after dinner.

I chose to try the Garlic Chilli instant noodles first, so I could get a good baseline on the heat before moving onto hotter ones, just like in the interviews.

Hot Ones: Garlic Chili Noodles Review

Upon opening the packet, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this came with a sauce packet, as well as an extra chilli and a tiny vegetable sachet. Instant noodles always seem to have very minimal vegetables. It makes me wonder if this is purely to help classify the food in a certain way, like the urban legend of why McDonald’s puts pickles on their burgers.

Whilst only a medium heat, this has immediately brought a tear to one of my eyes. I think blowing air into the tub may have triggered that, as this doesn’t normally happen, and it’s definitely not hot enough to impact me like that. The heat level is definitely hotter than most of the other supermarket brands of instant noodles, that’s for sure. The mix of heat and garlic is incredibly satisfying.

I drank the leftover soup at the end, and now my lips are burning, and I have a slight itch in my scalp, something that happens when I eat spicy things. I’m pretty satisfied. I’m going to have to go back and see if these are still on sale soon and stock up!

Hot Ones: Smoky Chili Instant Noodles Review

I later went back to the supermarket to buy more of these and found they only had the Smoky Chili left… I grabbed all 4-5 remaining packets. I think the fact that garlic sold out first is an indication of which one is the more popular overall. But I definitely like both.

This class itself is the Hot Heat level, and even the smell of the sauce got my taste buds going. A coworker said it smelled good when it was sitting to soak in the flavours. Drinking the broth made my nose run, and sweat appeared on my forehead. These are important signals to indicate a job well done when eating spicy food.

Overall

I think the smoky taste is great, and I think I prefer garlic flavour to smoke flavour. Both of these Hot Ones instant noodles flavours I tried are certainly above average for this type of product. If you see them at the supermarket, definitely get it, and if it’s on sale, certainly stock up like I did! It’s not a guarantee that Sean Evans will be asking you deep-cut questions while you eat these, but the high spice-level definitely gave me a sense of what being on the show would be like.