Situated at Change Alley Mall, just a minute’s walk from Raffles Place MRT station, MadASS (or Mad About Sucre Social) serves bentos for lunch and tapas at night. They use natural, seasonal ingredients with no preservatives or artificial seasoning.

The main difference between Mad About Sucre and MadAss is the former is fine-dining and the latter is a casual joint. This means that MadASS uses simple, straightforward culinary techniques. By cutting down more labour-intensive cooking hours, MadASS is able to present the food at affordable prices.

Available for Lunch Only

For lunch, they serve customisable bowls starting from $16.50. You can choose the mains first (wagyu beef, barramundi, pulled Iberico pork, prawn, grilled turmeric chicken, baked tofu steak) and then the base [wild grains, cauliflower rice (gluten-free), quinoa (gluten-free), salad, and chilled soba (gluten-free).] In addition, each bento comes with seasonal vegetables.

We had the wild-caught grilled prawns (5 pieces) paired with the base of wild grains ($20.90), and added an onsen egg (+$1). There is nothing exceptional about it except the prawns are fresh (not frozen) and the quality shows. They have a natural sweetness. Really pleasant to eat.

The pan-seared baramundi ($18.90) is also wild-caught, and we paired it with chilled soba. Normally, restaurants put mentaiko on fish but here, they use a sauce made from Spanish garlic and paprika.

Available for Dinner Only

For dinner, they serve tapas with cocktails and other alcoholic libations. There are also many vegetarian options. The sautéed mushroom ($15) is fried with Spanish garlic and finished off with butter, making the difference.

The baked cauliflower ($15) — they serve something similar at Mad About Sucre — comes with miso sauce, pistachio, and hazelnut, and sprinkled with sourdough crumbs. At the base of the cauliflower is gherkin that is slow-cooked to educe its natural sweetness.

Although expensive, the crispy tortilla (4 pieces, $24) is a bite-size pre-dinner snack. The tortilla chip has chopped tomato and grilled A4 wagyu beef.

There are two levels of numbing spicy crispy chicken (normal or extra spicy, $11). They reduce and intensify the mala sauce to a dry paste. This mala paste tops fried chicken which is lightly marinated in buttermilk.

The hand-picked Alaskan crab meat pasta ($19) is tossed in a spicy aglio olio sauce.

MadASS also has a bartender, Dante, who has worked at bars like Bar Stories and Smoke and Mirror. The Caribbean Escape ($16) is a light dance of passionfruit, elderflower liquor, rum, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and sweetened not by sugar or honey but by maple syrup.

Desserts

The desserts are fantastic. The pink guava sponge cake ($8) uses organic pink Caribbean guava and because the guava is so intensely and gracefully sweet on its own, they use less sugar for the cake. The sponge is pretty amazing: at once dense and airy and moist. They also come in a 4-inch cake.

Besides the guava cake, there is a chocolate stout cake that was sold out when we got there.

The munch bar ($8) comes in 3 different choices of flavours: apricot, forest fruit, and pecan. The bar is likened to a Mars bar but it is so much better. It comes in a gold foil, and when unwrapped, it is glitter purple. There are three layers to the bar: nuts on top, a berry salted caramel dense layer, and a bottom crust.

In general, the food at MadASS is easy to understand and straightforward. It is different from the sophisticated food at Mad About Sucre but it is good too.

Menu

MadASS
Change Alley Mall #01-1, 30 Raffles Place, Singapore 048622
Weekdays only, 8am – 9.30pm
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–Dumpling Darlings, Boat Quay: The Simplest Gestures Are the Biggest
–Solo Ristorante, Amoy Street: Your Ticket to Northern Italy

This was a tasting. Written by Dr. A. Nathanael Ho.