User:LatakiaHill/ramen

The Ramen Rater is a website dedicated to reviewing instant noodles. As of September 22nd, 2021, the Ramen Rater has reviewed 3950 different instant noodles. All reviews are written by the website's founder, Hans Lienesch. The Ramen Rater has garnered attention from several countries with prominent instant noodle industries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Taiwan, and South Korea. Despite being a single-man enterprise, Lienesch's reviews are taken very seriously by multiple instant noodle manufacturers, and he is frequently given samples of new products and tours of instant noodle factories for review and recommendations.

Reviews
The Ramen Rater's reviews feature a pictures of the instant noodles, a short text review, and a rating on a 0-5 star scale. With Hans Lienesch consuming one pack of instant noodles per day, the websites updates on an almost daily basis. Although Lienesch used to eat two whole packs every day, weight and health concerns lead to him implemented a diet regimen, and he now only takes a few bites of the dish being reviewed.

The Ramen Rater also curates lists of instant noodles by various categories, such as the "top ten spiciest" or the "top ten weird". The lists that draw the most attention internationally are the annual lists of the top ten best instant noodles Lienesch consumed that year as well as the top ten noodles of the year for each country. The Ramen Rater has enjoyed positive coverage from countries that tend to fair well in his annual top ten, such as South Korea and Singapore. Conversely, Lienesch has received hate mail from countries whose noodles that he tends to review poorly; in 2013, Lienesch drew the ire of Chinese readers for not including a single Chinese or Taiwanese brand in his annual top ten list, while featuring several in his "Bottom 10 Noodles of All Time" list. This lead to Mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese media covering the site negatively.

Influence
The Ramen Rater is described by one instant noodles vendor as "the instant noodle authority". Hans Lienesch has been invited by instant noodle manufacturers across the world to visit on factory tours and sample new products.