Wagamama Kids Chicken Katsu with Amai Sauce

Wagamama kids chicken katsu with amai sauce costs £6.70 and comes in at 404 kcal, pairing the same breaded chicken fillet, white rice and vegetable pieces as the curry version with a sweeter dip on the side. Amai means sweet in Japanese, and the sauce delivers exactly that: a sticky, sweet and sour flavour a child recognises from the first taste.

This is the katsu for the child who declares every curry spicy on principle. The amai dip sits close to the sauce on a takeaway sweet and sour chicken, so it asks nothing new of a fussy eater, and the pot on the side means the crumbed chicken stays dry and crisp until the last minute. Carrot, cucumber and sweetcorn fill out the plate, raw and plain, which is precisely how most of the target audience wants them.

The kids katsu with amai sauce calories land a touch below the curry version, about a fifth of an adult's 2,000 kcal day, with around 21 g of protein and just under 1 g of salt. The trade sits in the sugar: around 11 g here, close to double the curry plate, because the dip is built on sweetness. That is worth knowing rather than worrying about; as a sit down meal for a child it remains one of the more balanced things on any chain's kids list, and the vegetables and lean chicken do the heavy lifting.

The allergen sheet lists gluten, wheat, egg and soya, and unlike the curry sauce plate there is no mustard and no nut line on the published may contain list, though shared kitchens mean a medical allergy always deserves a word with the server. Parents comparing prices and asking how much is the kids chicken katsu with amai sauce will find it matches the curry version exactly, so the choice comes down to your child's sauce politics alone. If pudding is happening anyway, the chocolate brownie is the crowd pleaser, and a cloudy lemonade alongside the meal beats a cola against the sweet dip.