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New Japanese convenience store rice balls taste like instant noodles [Taste test]

Casey Baseel Sep 5, 2026
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Nissin’s Donbei comes to Family Mart in a new form.

On our most recent visit to Japanese convenience store chain Family Mart, we walked right over to the shelf where they keep the rice balls. The usual range of fillings and flavors, such as salmon and tuna, were all there, but the one we picked out was a noodle-flavored rice ball.

▼ This one

OK, we should probably clarify that. Family Mart is currently celebrating the 45th anniversary of the chain’s founding, and it’s marking the occasion by partnering up with a number of popular snack and other food brands for special crossover items. One of those partners is Nissin, makers of some of Japan’s favorite instant noodles, including Donbei, an instant udon in the “kitsune” style, which means it comes with a slice of fried tofu…so the Dongitsune Musubi rice ball comes with one too.

At a glance, this might look like inarizushi, a traditional Japanese food that’s made by wrapping vinegared rice inside of fried tofu, but there are some key differences that set it apart and connect it to Donbei udon instead. For starters, there’s no vinegar used, and the rice is flavored with the same dashi soup stock used for Nissin’s udon broth.

On top of that, or inside the rice, to be more precise, there are pieces of kamaboko (fish sausage). Kamaboko is also a topping that comes with Donbei, and while it’s sliced into discs when used as an udon topping, here it’s chopped into cubes, adding some stimulating texture variation to the rice ball.

All of these little details come together beautifully as you take a bite. The fried tofu is extremely juicy without being soggy, providing a sweetly refreshing element. The rice, meanwhile, is immensely flavorful and satisfying. This isn’t rice with a suggestion of udon broth flavor added as an open-secret nod to its inspiration. It tastes just like the type of dashi used in Donbei, and if you’re a fan of Nissin’s noodles (like Final Fantasy VII’s Sephiroth is), you’ll probably fall in love with this right away too.

▼ Donbei in its original instant udon form

Ah, but if you’re already a Donbei connoisseur, you might be asking if Family Mart’s rice ball tastes like the Donbei sold at stores in east Japan or west Japan. After all, Nissin uses two slightly different recipes for the noodles’ broth, catering to east Japan’s preference for more boldly flavorful dashi, and west Japan’s fondness for a more subtle taste. The answer is that the Donbei rice balls taste like both: the ones sold at Family Marts in east Japan recreate the flavor of east-Japan Donbei, and Family Marts in west Japan have rice balls that taste like west-Japan Donbei.

▼ If you’re not sure which yours is, you can check the wrapper for the kanji character for east (東) or west (西).

The Dongitsune Musubi is priced at 248 yen (US$1.60), is on sale at Family Mart now, and will be available for a limited time.

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