Wagamama Kids Yasai Katsu with Katsu Curry Sauce

Wagamama kids yasai katsu with katsu curry sauce is priced at £5.90 with 548 kcal on the plate, and it holds a title most parents never guess: the biggest calorie count on the entire kids menu, vegetables and all. Fingers of sweet potato and butternut squash are panko breaded and fried, served with sticky rice, carrot, cucumber and sweetcorn, plus the mild katsu curry sauce.

The trick of the dish is disguise. The breaded vegetables look like golden nuggets, the squash and sweet potato turn soft and sweet inside the crunch, and plenty of children who push visible vegetables around a plate eat every piece of this without noticing the con. The sticky rice clumps helpfully, so it survives a first attempt at chopsticks and scoops cleanly onto a fork, and the curry sauce is the same gentle, korma level blend served with the chicken version.

Honesty about the numbers matters here. The kids yasai katsu calories run just over a quarter of an adult's 2,000 kcal reference day, more than either chicken katsu plate, because breaded vegetables drink up more oil than a chicken fillet does and sticky rice packs densely. Protein sits around 11 g, half what the chicken version manages, while salt stays low at around 0.6 g. None of that makes it a bad order; it makes it a proper meal rather than a light one, and the dish is marked vegan, the only katsu on the kids menu that is.

The allergen sheet lists gluten, wheat and mustard, and the may contain line is long, taking in peanuts and the full run of tree nuts, so a conversation with the server comes first for any child with a nut allergy given the shared kitchens. On value, anyone asking how much is the kids yasai katsu will find it undercuts both chicken katsu plates while filling a child up at least as well. A plate of yasai vegetable gyoza suits the table if the adults are sharing the meat free theme, and a tropical juice on the side goes down easier than anything fizzy.