I warmed it on the stovetop (not microwave) and found it lacking, but acceptable.
After adding:
- tamarind paste,
- onions,
- bell peppers,
- a thai hot pepper,
and then topping with:
- cilantro,
- fresh lime, and
- some chopped up roasted peanuts,
… the additions (standard ingredients) made it much better.
Still, it was missing the contrast of bean sprouts. It isn;t the same without them and if I’d had bean sprouts, I would have added, but at that point I might have opted to just make my own pad thai – which would have tasted better for almost the same amount of cook/prep time.
If you mean the dry-shelf instant noodle bowls, then yes. I think of those as an alternative to ramen noodles since they don’t need refrigeration and cook in a similar manner. In both cases, there’s no pretense of either having fresh ingredients or being anything like a complete dinner-style meal. I like instant ramen (especially with an egg and some greens in it) and I like the instant pho (also preferred with greens, but no egg).
While I expect dry instant noodles to be a minimal affair that one might opt to dress up, I thought the Pad Thai would be more of a complete meal – and it is, but it didn’t taste much like Pad Thai. I understand that bean sprouts are impossible to keep shelf-stable, but Snapdragon could have included little packets of peanuts and chill flakes to improve the meal.