Wagamama Banana Katsu

Wagamama banana katsu is estimated at £8.20 (est.) and carries 327 kcal, the dessert page's cleverest idea and its second lightest entry. A fresh banana in fried panko crumb with vegan miso caramel ice cream and toffee sauce, the katsu treatment applied where no cutlet has gone before, and the whole plate vegan marked.

The joke lands because the technique is serious: panko fries into the same shattering crust that made the chicken katsu famous, and inside it the banana softens toward caramelised, the fry doing in ninety seconds what a barbecue banana takes an evening to manage. The miso caramel ice cream beside it ties the plate to the list's signature flavour, and the toffee thread finishes the argument.

The numbers are the quiet surprise: 327 kcal makes it the second lightest dessert on the page, the banana bringing structure without the density of cake or cheesecake, and the sugar at 19 g is the list's lowest by a distance. For a fried dessert to post the page's most defensible figures is the kind of irony worth ordering.

The pricing carries the familiar asterisk: no published figure, the £8.20 (est.) estimate marked est. The how much is the banana katsu answer waits at the till, and rarely disappoints anyone who asked.

Parents should note it doubles as the menu's best shared dessert with children: familiar fruit, fun crumb, no coffee, no alcohol, and a portion that splits into thirds without argument. The kids menu's own desserts are smaller and simpler, but this is the one the whole table can end on together.

It follows anything, being light enough to end even a katsu meal without cruelty, and it is the dessert to order the first time simply because nowhere else on the high street is frying bananas in panko. Espresso beside it, or the popcorn affogato split across the table for the full circus.