Wagamama Ube + Cherry Bao Nut

Wagamama ube and cherry bao nut is estimated at £8.20 (est.) and carries 533 kcal, the biggest dessert on the menu and the most photographed. A panko crumbed bao fried hot and filled with a scoop of ice cream and cherry sauce, ube lending its violet colour and its gentle vanilla pistachio sweetness, the whole thing vegan marked.

The engineering is fried ice cream logic wearing a bao: hot shattering crumb outside, cold scoop inside, and the race between the two is the eating experience. Ube, the purple yam of Filipino desserts, needs no dye for its colour, and its mild sweetness lets the cherry sauce do the sharp work. It is the dessert people order for the table because one spoon each is an event.

The numbers say dessert with conviction: 533 kcal makes it the list's heavyweight, the sugar at 33 g sits mid pack for the page, and the fat carries the fry. Wagamama publishes no price for it, so the £8.20 (est.) figure is this site's estimate anchored to the published desserts, marked est wherever it appears.

The how much is the bao nut answer carries the asterisk the whole dessert page mostly shares, with the till as the settler. The vegan marking covers scoop and crumb alike, shared fryer footnote standing for medical cases.

The order timing matters more here than anywhere on the menu: the kitchen fries to order and the countdown starts at the pass, so it should arrive when the table is ready to attend to it, not while mains are being finished. Ask for it after plates clear and the hot cold contrast arrives intact, which is the entire ticket price.

It follows the lighter mains best, gyoza and ramen tables, because after a katsu it is a second commitment. One between two with the matcha version beside it covers the bao nut argument in full.