Seven-Eleven Sausage Yakisoba Review [Korean Food]

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Hello! The new Seven-Eleven lunchbox I want to introduce today is the Sausage Yakisoba. Even among convenience store lunchboxes, a single-item yakisoba menu is especially hard to find! Since news of a release at Seven-Eleven came after a long while, I bought it right away. It was a decent, reasonably edible stir-fried-noodle-style single-item menu! So shall we take a look at what it’s all about?

Table of Contents

📋 At a Glance

Product: Seven-Eleven Sausage Yakisoba (lunchbox)
Brand/Store: Seven-Eleven
Price: 4,500 won
Weight/Calories: 390g · 675kcal (98% of the daily sodium allowance)
Main components: Stir-fried noodles with Worcestershire-style yakisoba sauce (spaghetti, not chukamen), Uiseong-garlic sausage, a little red cabbage and stir-fried veg, Ottogi mayonnaise
Cooking: Remove the lid, then microwave for 1 min 20 sec – 1 min 30 sec
Notes: Closer to “yakisoba-flavored spaghetti stir-fry” than yakisoba; the sodium is on the high side
Verdict: ★3.0 — Not a true yakisoba recreation, but if you set aside the yakisoba expectation, it’s a decent-value stir-fried noodle for a light meal!

Sausage Yakisoba Lunchbox: Price and Features

Japan originally has a wide range of yakisoba cup noodles, and plenty of places sell yakisoba lunchboxes without any trouble, right? But since Korea has such a well-established lineup of single-item pasta menus, yakisoba seems especially hard to find among these “single-item noodle” menus. I’ve had it as a side dish before, but as a single-item menu, only one or two come to mind! It really does feel like a rare menu, haha. The price of this menu is 4,500 won.

Introducing the microwave cooking method

This menu has to be cooked after removing the lid, so please be sure to keep this in mind! (These days, more menus are cooked with the lid closed, so I’ve actually become more careful about the ones where you can’t.) Just put it in the microwave and cook for 1 min 20 sec – 1 min 30 sec.

The price of the convenience sausage yakisoba

The total contents come to 390g with 675kcal, so the calories are quite high relative to the weight than you’d expect! The sodium is at about 98% of the daily recommended amount, so it seems like a saltier menu than you’d think. Be sure to keep this in mind when you eat it!

Sausage Yakisoba Lunchbox: Components

So let’s take a quick look at the composition. Since this menu is a single-item menu, there isn’t really much to note about the composition! Peel off the packaging and there’s basic Ottogi mayonnaise and chopsticks inside! Open the lid and you can see big pieces of sausage and yakisoba noodles.

A meal substitute that may lack fullness

A Japanese convenience store food experience

As you’d expect from Lotte’s Seven-Eleven, the sausage appears to use Uiseong-garlic sausage. The ingredient list does say Uiseong garlic! You might assume the noodles are of course the chukamen used in yakisoba, but surprisingly, they used spaghetti. At this rate, you’d wonder if it’s not yakisoba but “yakispaghetti”… In any case, the sauce itself does seem to be a Worcestershire-style yakisoba sauce.

The vegetables seem to be added only a tiny bit as stir-fry ingredients, and a little red cabbage is sprinkled in the middle of the noodles. The composition itself is really simple! Looking at it overall, rather than real yakisoba, it seems more accurate to call it spaghetti stir-fry with yakisoba flavor plus sausage!

The convenience of the yakisoba cooking time

Explaining the divisive texture of the yakisoba

The Taste of the Sausage Yakisoba Lunchbox

So let’s taste it right away. First, I cooked it in the microwave for about 1 min 30 sec! It seems right to sprinkle the mayonnaise evenly on top and toss it before eating. Since it’s spaghetti, the texture and taste will probably be a bit different, yet they’ve provided everything, right down to the mayonnaise…

So when you try to toss it, since these are spaghetti noodles, they don’t mix as well as you’d expect. Well, if it had been cooked with chukamen the noodles would clump, which has its own problems, but it’s a slightly disappointing point! So when you take a bite, rather than a distinctive texture, it definitely feels closer to a spaghetti stir-fry.

The Flavor of the Spaghetti Stir-Fry and the Sausage

You might think there’s hardly any difference in taste, but there really are some subtly different parts, and you’ll probably get it once you try it. You could probably get a similar taste at home by boiling spaghetti, adding a bit of vegetables like cabbage, then stir-frying it with yakisoba sauce.

Overall, it seems more accurate to see it as a stir-fried noodle that recreates yakisoba flavor rather than yakisoba, and among all that, the Uiseong-garlic sausage tastes good, so pairing it makes the seasoning just right and it feels spot-on. This part is an unexpected point, if anything!

Verdict — A Value Stir-Fry with Yakisoba Flavor

It’s not a “this really tastes bad!” kind of thing, but it’s not at all like it recreates a yakisoba lunchbox I ate while traveling in Japan or a similar menu from a yakisoba specialty shop — so if you’re looking for something like that, it’s hard to particularly recommend! For the feeling of looking for a light meal, it’s a lunchbox you can enjoy at a reasonable value.

For reference, there’s no need to save the sausage for later — you can just eat it together. There’s more than you’d expect, so no need to ration it, haha! Personally, I think it’s the kind of menu you can enjoy reasonably well if you just erase the thought of “yakisoba” from your mind.

Comparing the price of the sausage yakisoba

You can learn about the origins and background of yakisoba, the Japanese stir-fried noodle this menu reinterprets, in the Yakisoba article on Wikipedia.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How much does the Seven-Eleven Sausage Yakisoba cost?

The price is 4,500 won. With 390g of total contents and 675kcal, it’s fairly filling for a single-item noodle lunchbox. That said, the sodium is somewhat high at about 98% of the daily recommended amount, so it’s good to keep that in mind when you eat it.

Q. How do you cook the Sausage Yakisoba? What noodles does it use?

Fully remove the lid, then microwave for about 1 min 20 sec – 1 min 30 sec, sprinkle on the enclosed Ottogi mayonnaise, and toss before eating. For reference, the noodles are spaghetti rather than the chukamen used for yakisoba, and the sauce is a Worcestershire-style yakisoba sauce.

Q. How does the Sausage Yakisoba taste? Is it like real yakisoba?

Honestly, it doesn’t recreate the taste of specialty-shop yakisoba; because of the spaghetti, it’s closer to a “yakisoba-flavored stir-fried noodle.” That said, it’s not to the point of tasting bad, and the Uiseong-garlic sausage in particular tastes good, so pairing it makes the seasoning just right. If you set aside the yakisoba expectation, it’s a good-value menu to enjoy as a light meal.

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