A ramen shop wants you to know it offers noodles served with its “dream ingredient” – a giant 14-legged deep-sea creature related to woodlice

• A ramen shop in Taiwan is offering a giant isopod as part of a new signature ramen dish.

• The 14-legged “Great King-Legged Worm” tastes like lobster and crab, according to restaurant Ramen Boy.

• The ramen costs around $48 per bowl and is served with a shell and antennae.

A deep-sea isopod called the “Great King-Legged Worm” is now the centerpiece of a new dish at a ramen shop in Taipei.

The giant 14-legged creature, found at depths of at least 550 feet in the Atlantic, is the store’s “dream ingredient,” the Ramen Boy restaurant said in a Facebook post on Monday.

Ramen Boy assured customers that the crustacean tasted like lobster and crab meat when steamed, and that its “yellow glands tasted like crab roe”.

Boiled in chicken soup and served with squid and bonito flakes, King-Legged Worm ramen costs around $48 a bowl, according to Ramen Boy.

Diners will receive their ramen topped with the isopod’s shell and antennae, which the restaurant says are only for decoration.

“The big king-legged worm is very cute, when I go to Japan, I will visit an aquarium to see it,” Ramen Boy’s Facebook post said.

“The take-out girl just said she dare not come to work,” the post added.

The giant isopod in question is Bathynomus giganteus, a carnivorous species distantly related to shrimps, crabs and woodlice.

They are generally not fished for commercial consumption as they live at depths of up to 7,000 feet. But giant isopods are sometimes found in Japanese cuisine. In 2015, a Japanese company started making crackers from shellfish.

That didn’t stop people in the comments from reacting cautiously to Ramen Boy’s new dish, or comparing the “dream ingredient” to oversized cockroaches.

“I heard it was very sweet, but I’ll pass,” the first comment read.

“This really looks too scary,” said another.

Ramen Boy did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

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