Costco Hanwoomul Shrimp Fried Rice Review

At the risk of spoiling the rest of the review, the photo on the package of the Hanwoomul Shrimp Fried Rice from Costco is kind of misleading. It shows a dish loaded with shrimp. This is far from accurate. Even though there’s a lot more rice than shrimp, does this shrimp fried rice have any redeeming qualities?

Image of the Costco Hanwoomul Shrimp Fried Rice bag sitting on a table unopened.
Costco Hanwoomul Shrimp Fried Rice.

Costco carries a lot of convenient products similar to this, like the Bibigo Vegetable Fried Rice, Ajinomoto Yakitori Chicken with Japanese-Style Fried Rice, Ajinomoto Tokyo Style Shoyu Ramen with Chicken, Kevin’s Teriyaki-Style Chicken Stir-Fry, Pulmuone Pad Thai, Kirkland Signature Ginger Beef Stir Fry, Kirkland Signature Chicken Chow Mein and the Kirkland Signature Yakisoba Stir Fry.

Closeup image of the Hanwoomul Shrimp Fried Rice bag showing product description and that it is a product of Korea.
Although the bag says it’s nutritious I would tend to disagree.

Location in Store

This is located in the freezer aisle at Costco, the item number is 1660547.

Top down image of a bowl of shrimp fried rice beside a fork,
Ready to eat!

Taste

The first thing I notice is that the rice is all stuck together in clumps after heating it. The flavor is odd, it’s almost like an smoky, plastic flavor with a hint of spice or pepper. There’s very few shrimp in one bag. I counted six very small tiny shrimp so if you’re expecting a lot of shrimp, you’ll be disappointed.

Top down closeup image of a bowl of shrimp fried rice with a fork hovering over the bowl with a forkful of rice and shrimp.
You can clearly see the lack of vegetables and shrimp.

The fried rice is pretty salty and it’s very rice heavy. There isn’t a lot of vegetables either so I would probably add some more steamed vegetables. The fact that it’s mainly just unpleasantly tasting, salty rice with a few rubbery shrimp means I can’t recommend buying this and wouldn’t want to eat it again.

Closeup image of a fork with one small shrimp on it hovering over a bowl of shrimp fried rice.
There was only six small shrimp in one pretty large bag.

Cost

The large 2.1 kilogram bag comes with seven 300 gram small bags of fried rice and costs $21.00 Canadian. After trying this I feel like I wasted $22 dollars.

Top down image of seven individual sized bags of shrimp fried rice sealed and sitting on a table.
One bag makes a large bowl of shrimp fried rice.

Convenience

The rice is really convenient and I think that’s why I gravitated towards it and picked it up. I decided to cook the rice in my frying pan and it seemed to turn out fine that way. I don’t think frying it made it any better than it would be if I were to microwave it.

Image of the heating instructions for the shrimp fried rice from the back of the bag.
Heating instructions.

Next time I’d probably just microwave it but there likely won’t be a next time! The best before date is about nine months from when I purchased the rice and it needs to be kept frozen. To make the rice more palatable you might try adding more shrimp, chicken or vegetables.

Image of the shrimp fried rice being heated on a frying pan on the stovetop.
Heating the frozen rice on the stovetop in a frying pan.

Nutrition

Calories

One pouch contains 490 calories, eight grams of fat, 94 grams of carbohydrates, three grams of fibre, three grams of sugar, 12 grams of protein and 1080 milligrams of sodium! If there were more shrimp the protein would be a lot higher, that’s also a ton of carbohydrates and sodium.

Image of the nutrition facts for the fried rice from the back of the bag.
Nutrition facts.

Ingredients

The ingredients list is pretty disappointing. There’s a ton of unhealthy ingredients list canola oil, sugar, glucose-fructose, artificial onion and roasted onion flavors, MSG and even artificial meat flavor! The rice contains shrimp, oyster, wheat and soy. The rice is a product of Korea but it doesn’t say where the shrimp are from or if they’re fresh/farmed.

Image of the ingredients for the shrimp fried rice from the back of the bag.
Ingredients.

Scoring

Taste: 4/10

Cost: 5/10

Convenience: 9.5/10

Nutrition: 2/10

Overall

Walk on by!

Costco has products that are just as convenient and taste a lot better. I don’t recommend this.

Have you tried this Costco Hanwoomul Shrimp Fried Rice? What did you think of it?


Please note that this review was not paid for or sponsored by any third party. This product was purchased by Costcuisine for the purpose of producing this review. The opinions in this review are strictly those of Costcuisine. Costcuisine is not affiliated with Costco or any of its suppliers. In the event that Costcuisine receives compensation for a post from the manufacturer of a product or some other third party, the arrangement will be clearly disclosed (including where the manufacturer of a product provides Costcuisine with a free sample of the product).

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