[Korean Food] Hearty Cheese Cream Pasta (CU)

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Hello. Today’s new CU convenience store pasta menu is Hearty Cheese Cream Pasta. It’s the first pasta item in CU’s Hearty series, the standard lunchbox lineup that began a refresh in Q4 2025. It features a thick, creamy sauce loaded with cheese for a rich, velvety flavor, and crushed red pepper adds a touch of heat so it doesn’t feel overly heavy. The value for money was pretty solid, too. Let’s take a closer look at what it’s like.

Table of Contents

Hearty Cheese Cream Pasta price and highlights

This CU Hearty lineup is the standard lunchbox line that follows on from the Baek Jong-won lunchboxes and the Satisfaction Favorite lunchboxes. Overall, the new releases offer pretty good value, while also feeling like they’ve added a slight premium-marketing touch. This menu strongly emphasizes that it uses extra virgin olive oil, and its concept is “a thick, mildly spicy Hearty Cheese Cream Pasta carefully made with cheddar and Parmesan cheese and extra virgin olive oil.” The price is 5,200 won.

The total weight is 363g, with 572 kcal, and sodium is at 77% of the recommended daily intake. For the price, both the portion size and calories are quite decent. Since it includes cheese and cream, it’s definitely a bit higher in calories than a typical tomato pasta lunchbox. Sodium is a little on the high side as well. Cheeses used include cheddar and Parmesan. Since a cream-and-cheese combo can taste rich, you can also see that crushed red pepper is included.

Hearty Cheese Cream Pasta components

Let’s quickly check what’s inside. True to the name “cheese cream pasta,” there’s a generous layer of cream sauce at the bottom first. On top of that, there’s plenty of shredded cheese sprinkled over it. The pasta is barely visible.

Up close, you can see crushed red pepper under the cheese, and on top there are basic toppings like a bit of dried parsley powder, bacon, and onion. There’s also a light sprinkle of black pepper. It feels like the kind of simple mix you’d throw together at home. Even so, the value doesn’t seem bad.

Detailed breakdown of the pasta components

Compared with typical convenience store pastas in the low 5,000-won range, you can tell they paid attention not only to the toppings but also to the cream sauce and cheese throughout. Crushed red pepper is added to help cut some of the richness of a standard cream sauce. Of course, it can’t completely eliminate that creamy heaviness. Still, it’s a setup that makes you look forward to the taste.

Balancing out the richness of cream pasta

Comparing different convenience store pastas

Hearty Cheese Cream Pasta taste

Now, let’s taste it. Using a 1000W microwave, I heated it for about 1 minute and 50 seconds. The cheese on the very top was still slightly under-melted, but after giving it a stir, it didn’t seem like an issue.

The cheese that hadn’t fully melted mixed into the hot cream sauce and melted fairly well. The sauce has a slightly reddish tint compared to a typical cream sauce. After a bite, you can definitely tell the heat comes through more strongly than in a standard cheese cream spaghetti.

Recommended convenience store pasta (review)

That said, it’s not so spicy that you can’t eat it, and it’s not numbing or harsh. It’s just pleasantly spicy. It also feels a bit different from the rosé sauce you might think of when you hear “spicy cream,” because the cheese aroma is quite pronounced and the sauce is thick, so it’s less on the light-and-silky side.

Review explaining the cream sauce characteristics

Personally, I enjoyed this one a lot. A cream-and-cheese combo is hard to mess up unless you’re trying to. And since the cheese portion is quite generous, even though there’s a slightly funky note, the flavor itself feels deep and rich. At this point, it almost feels like you’re mixing pasta into cheese. Haha.

And as mentioned earlier, the gentle heat from the crushed red pepper helps rein in some of the richness from the cheese and cream, so it’s less heavy than you’d expect and surprisingly easy to keep eating. There’s also a slight savory depth that makes it really satisfying.

Review of the lunchbox’s standout points

As you eat, it does get a little spicy, but overall it’s an easy, approachable menu. The value is good, and it also works well as a simple meal. If you like cream pasta or cheese-forward pasta dishes, this is one you shouldn’t miss.

Review comparing convenience store lunchbox flavors

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Hearty Cheese Cream Pasta price and highlights

Hearty Cheese Cream Pasta components

Hearty Cheese Cream Pasta taste

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