Mamasons: One of Trendiest Desserts in London - Ube Bilog

By Halal Xplorer Dessert England Filipino Food London November 22, 2021

Mamasons: trendiest dessert in London

You cannot be connected to the London Instagram scene and not have seen Mamason’s famous vibrant purple ube filled Bilog pop up on your feed. Their show stoppers are quite insta-famous and that’s probably an understatement – they may be the hottest treat in the whole of London! When I think of Mamasons I think of three things: 1. Ice cream, 2. Ube and 3. Bilog.

The Ice Cream

Mamasons is the first Filipino family run ice cream parlour in London. They specialise in trying to recreate and provide the Filipino ‘dirty ice cream’ experience. The story behind being called dirty is supposedly Filipino parents trying to put off their children from having ice cream. It is anything but dirty… it is delicious and here at Mamasons they use it in a number of different ways to create wonderful treats. You can of course just have the ice cream straight up.

The Ube

In the Philippines, the purple yam is known as ube. It is grown in Southeast Asia and in the Filipino cuisine it can be found in almost every dessert you can think of. At Mamasons, ube is used to create numerous amazing creations: you can have it in ice cream form, or in the famous Filipino drink Halo Halo, or in a doughnut, or as a tart, or as a brownie, or in a latte, or in their showpiece, the star of the show – the Bilog.

The Bilog

This is their speciality, their show stopper, their signature creation. This is what you probably have seen all over Instagram! A bilog is basically a milk bun filled with ice cream – an ice cream sandwich if you will. Warm and toasty (think fresh waffles or pancakes) on the outside and cold on the inside. You can choose from a few different ice cream flavours, but of course you’d be silly not to try the ube flavoured one at least once. It is subtle in taste – almost vanilla like. The vibrant purple colour of the ube makes this wonder look as good if not better than it even tastes! It is such a crowd pleaser whether you want to take a shot for your instagram food page or you want to indulge in what is quickly becoming a London classic.

Their branches

They are located in Kentish Town (where you’ll find Bintang, Panadera and Guanabana too!), Chinatown and as of a few weeks also in Westfield London (Shepherd’s Bush). So, next time you are in one of these areas or even if you aren’t, find a branch and try out their Bilog at the very least!

A special in the Westfield branch?

Mamasons celebrated their Westfield launch with a special Bilog: the baklava Bilog. This is the milk bun filled with baklava ice cream. You can only get this exclusive Bilog here at the Westfield branch. How was it? It was pretty good. They’ve nailed the baklava taste as you get that nutty creamy baklava taste, but for us the ube one is still the best.

The Brownie and Coco

Since the original review, we visited a few times and tried a couple of their other popular items. The ube brownie and the ube coco. The brownie was different taste wise due to the ube, but texture wise the same as a usual brownie. With the ube ice cream it elevated the brownie even further. It was delicious and even though I’m not rushing back to try it, it’s still a pretty decent shout when in the area. The ube coco was another unique offering. Hot chocolate that tasted a bit like Horlicks, which is not a bad thing I guess. I wasn’t too keen, but I can see it being a hit in the winter months out in the cold.