10 Brands Like Momofuku Goods to Try in 2026

If you like Momofuku Goods, the useful question is which shelf you are replacing. Fly By Jing covers the crunchy chili condiment, Omsom covers the weeknight sauce base, Bachan's covers the one bottle that goes on everything, and Red Boat covers the ingredient underneath all of it. Ten founder-run brands, sorted by shelf.

Momofuku Goods is not one product. It is chili crunch, air-dried noodles, seasoned salts and soy sauce, all built on the same idea: take something a restaurant kitchen does and put it in a jar you can keep in a cupboard. That model is the reason people like it, and it is the thing most alternative lists ignore. They rank chili oil.

There is also a reason a chunk of people started shopping around. In spring 2024, while its trademark application was still pending, Momofuku sent cease-and-desist letters to smaller brands using the phrase "chili crunch". Homiah's founder Michelle Tew pushed back publicly, MìLà did too, and on April 12, 2024 David Chang apologized on his podcast and said the company would stop enforcing it. That is the whole story. Plenty of people still buy the jar, and plenty decided to spend elsewhere.

Either way, here are ten brands built on the same chef-to-cupboard logic, matched to what you are actually trying to replace.

How we picked these brands

• A real person behind the recipe. A named founder with a specific origin story, not a house brand invented by a category manager.
• It covers a shelf Momofuku Goods occupies. Crunchy condiment, noodles, seasoning, sauce base, or a sweet. "Vaguely Asian food" was not enough.
• You can buy it direct. Its own storefront, shipping nationally, not a marketplace reseller.
• A specific, checkable product. Something you can name and taste, not a line extension of a commodity import.
• Priced honestly. Premium is fine when the sourcing explains it. We say so in each entry.

At a glance

1. Fly By Jing

Fly By Jing is the name that comes up more than any other when people go looking for a Momofuku substitute, and it earned that the same way: Jing Gao built the Sichuan Chili Crisp out of a roving supper club before it was ever a product. The range has since grown past condiments into instant noodles, a creamy sesame noodle pack and a mini hot pot set, which makes it the closest match for Momofuku's pantry breadth rather than a single jar.

Best for the person replacing the chili crunch who wants the rest of the shelf too. It is priced at the premium end. If you specifically want more crunchy chili options, we compared the wider field in our roundup of chili crisp brands worth trying.

2. Omsom

Omsom sells "starters", pouches holding the sauces, seasonings and aromatics for one specific dish, developed alongside named Asian chefs. Sisters Vanessa and Kim Pham built the company around dishes they grew up with, spanning Vietnamese, Thai, Filipino, Chinese, Korean and Japanese cooking.

This is the closest thing to what people actually wanted from the Momofuku noodle packs: restaurant flavor with no shopping list. You add a protein and a vegetable. Best for the weeknight cook who wants a finished base rather than a topping, and it sits at mid pricing.

3. Bachan's

Bachan's started as a family recipe. Justin Gill named it after his grandmother, which is what "bachan" means in Japanese, and bottled her Japanese barbecue sauce. It is cold-filled and unpasteurized, so it lives in the fridge once you open it, and that is the tradeoff for how fresh it tastes against a shelf-stable teriyaki.

Best for the cook who wants one bottle that handles chicken, rice, vegetables and noodles without thinking about it. Mid-priced and widely available, which makes it the easiest first purchase on this list.

4. immi

immi rebuilt instant ramen from scratch: plant-based, low in carbs, high in protein. Kevin Lee and Kevin Chanthasiriphan started it after watching diet-linked health problems in their own families, and the whole range is 100 percent plant-based.

A common complaint about the Momofuku noodle packs is that the sauce sachets run salty and the portions run small. immi answers a different version of that problem, the nutritional one. Best for the shopper who wants the noodle habit without the sodium load. It is premium per serving, so treat it as a weekday lunch upgrade rather than a pantry filler.

5. Red Boat

Red Boat is the base-layer fix. Cuong Pham, a Vietnamese American engineer, left a career at Apple to make fish sauce from wild-caught black anchovy and sea salt, barrel-aged at a Phú Quốc barrelhouse. The lineup is graded like a press: 40°N is the first press, 31°N is the more affordable second press, and 50°N is the top grade. The brand also sells Vietnamese curry and simmer sauces now.

Best for the cook who realizes the finishing condiment matters less than what is going in early. Mid-priced for the bottle, and one bottle lasts a long time.

6. Yun Hai

Yun Hai treats Taiwanese soy sauce the way good shops treat olive oil. Instead of one house bottle, it sells distinct expressions, including an Amber River single-origin, a Vat Bottom soy sauce and a caramelized sugar version, each with its own character. The shop carries kitchenware alongside the pantry goods.

Best for the person who has already upgraded the salt and the oil and wants soy sauce to stop being a generic ingredient. Premium, and genuinely a different experience from a supermarket bottle rather than a marginal one.

7. Diaspora Co.

Diaspora Co. began in 2017 when Sana Javeri Kadri used $3,000 from a tax refund to source heirloom Pragati turmeric from a fourth-generation farmer in Andhra Pradesh, frustrated by how flat supermarket turmeric tasted and how little growers were paid. The company now works with 150 small farms across India and Sri Lanka on 30-plus single-origin spices, and pays farm partners an average of six times the commodity price.

Best for anyone who wants the sourcing story to hold up when they check it. Premium, and openly so.

8. Burlap & Barrel

Burlap & Barrel buys single-origin spices straight from smallholder farms and sells them as named varieties rather than anonymous jars, which is why a cinnamon or a black pepper from them tastes like a specific place. It also had a Shark Tank appearance, which is where a lot of people first heard the name.

If you liked Momofuku's seasoned salts, this is the larger version of that shelf, at mid pricing rather than premium. It is a seasoning company though, not a heat company. If chile burn is what you are after, our hot sauce picks are the better shelf.

9. Brightland

Brightland makes California olive oils and vinegars, sold in painted bottles that block UV so the oil does not degrade on your counter. Aishwarya Iyer built it around small sets, an oil and vinegar duo rather than one workhorse bottle, which is also why it turns up on so many gift lists.

Best for gifting, and for the cook upgrading the oil and acid layer. Premium. If you mainly want a cooking oil you will burn through fast rather than a set to display, the squeeze-bottle olive oil comparison is a closer match.

10. Milk Bar

Milk Bar is the dessert half of the same story, literally. Christina Tosi ran the pastry program at Momofuku, and in November 2008 she opened Milk Bar next door to Momofuku Ssäm Bar with seed funding from David Chang, then took it independent. The cookbook is still co-credited to Tosi and Chang.

Best for the shopper who found Momofuku through the restaurants rather than the pantry aisle, or who is buying a gift and wants a cake instead of a condiment. Mid-priced, and it ships nationally.

How to choose

Work backward from the jar you were about to reorder.

If you want another crunchy chili condiment, go Fly By Jing. It is the closest like-for-like, and the broader field is covered in the chili crisp roundup linked above.

If what you liked was dinner solved in ten minutes, go Omsom. That is the shelf the Momofuku noodle packs were reaching for.

If you want one bottle that improves most things, go Bachan's. It is the lowest-risk purchase here.

If you want better noodles specifically, go immi for the nutrition angle, or Fly By Jing if you want the flavor turned up instead.

If you have realized the problem is your base ingredients, go Red Boat for fish sauce and Yun Hai for soy sauce. These two change more dishes than any topping will.

If you want a deeper seasoning shelf, go Burlap & Barrel for range at a fair price, or Diaspora Co. if traceability is the point.

If you are buying a gift, go Brightland for the kitchen, Milk Bar for the person who would rather have cake.

And if you are stocking a pantry from scratch rather than replacing one item, it is worth browsing wider than this category. Our guide to the best DTC food brands covers the rest of the shelf.

Frequently asked questions

What happened with the Momofuku chili crunch trademark?

In spring 2024, with its trademark application still pending, Momofuku sent cease-and-desist letters to smaller brands using "chili crunch" in their product names. After public criticism from affected founders, David Chang apologized on his podcast on April 12, 2024 and said Momofuku would no longer enforce the trademark.

What is the closest thing to Momofuku Chili Crunch?

Fly By Jing's Sichuan Chili Crisp is the most commonly named alternative and the closest in ambition, though it leans more numbing and aromatic than Momofuku's version. Several smaller founder-run brands sell their own take, which we compare separately.

Is Momofuku Chili Crunch worth the price?

Most reviewers say yes for the Chili Crunch specifically, with the caveat that it is expensive and a little goes a long way. The recurring gripe is packaging: several people report the jar leaking oil.

Are Momofuku noodles better than regular instant ramen?

Opinions split. The quick-cook noodles themselves review well, but the sauce packets are often called mild or overly salty, and the portions small. If the noodles are the reason you shop the brand, immi and Fly By Jing are both worth trying.

Which of these is best for weeknight cooking?

Omsom, comfortably. Each starter holds the full sauce and aromatic base for one dish, so you add a protein and a vegetable and you are done. Bachan's is the runner-up if you would rather have one bottle than a set of pouches.

Can you buy these brands in grocery stores?

Some, partly. Bachan's, Fly By Jing and Burlap & Barrel have real retail distribution, while Yun Hai, Diaspora Co. and Omsom are mostly direct from their own sites. Selection in stores is usually narrower than online.

What should I try first if I have never bought any of these?

Bachan's, if you want the highest chance of liking it. It is mid-priced, it works on almost everything, and it does not ask you to change how you cook. Once you know you enjoy this kind of shopping, Red Boat and Yun Hai are where the bigger jump in your cooking happens.