Sauce It: Make Your Own Customisable Comfort Bowls With Hand-Crafted Specialty Sauces Under S$10 At Pasir Ris

Foods like mac n’ cheese and baked rice are always perceived to be comfort food. Rich and creamy with all its cheesy goodness, it somehow always hits the spot for a satisfying meal. At Sauce It, you can elevate that experience by making your own.

From your choice of carbs to fillings and sauce, you can customise it any way you want. Intrigued by this offering, I decided to head down to White Sands Shopping Centre to try out if it is as good as it sounds.

The shopfront was minimalistic, with all their ingredients placed neatly into aluminium containers for freshness. Ben, the outlet boss, mentioned to me how they prepare everything daily, and they make all their sauces from scratch too.

Orders are made on a slip, where I could tick off the ingredients I desired to create my own bowl. Made-to-order, I watched as they prepared my bowls in front of me. As I saw the sheer amount of sauce and cheese loaded into my bowl, then sprinkled with a heaping amount of additional cheese, I had high expectations for it.

The first bowl I concocted was a base of Mac & Cheese (S$4). I chose Gomiti (Elbow) with their Signature Cheese Sauce for a classic touch, with Smoked Duck (S$3) and Mixed Veg (S$1) as its accompaniments.

Unfortunately, Sauce It was a takeaway kiosk so we had to bring our food elsewhere to consume, which was a slight hassle.

Nonetheless, the Mac & Cheese had a nice crusty top that I broke into, which revealed the stringy and gooey cheese. As I loaded it into my mouth, it had a burst of savoury richness as the elbow pasta was filled with sauce. The pasta had a nice bite to it, and the sauce was viscous without being too overwhelming.

The Smoked Duck was served in chunks, studded throughout the dish. They were pretty generous with the portions as there was a piece in every few bites. Duck generally has a deeper and bolder flavour, but I was glad it wasn’t gamey.

It also had a relatively good ratio of fatty skin to lean meat, which brought out its juiciness. This helped in enhancing the taste of the dish as the cheese sauce was slightly one-dimensional.

The Mixed Veg was a combination of cauliflower, broccoli, cherry tomatoes and carrots. These neutral vegetables helped to cut through the heaviness of the cheese sauce which I appreciated.

The second bowl I got was Baked Rice (S$4) with their Tom Yum Speciality Sauce (S$1). For fillings, I went with Prawns (S$2) and Honey Chicken (S$2).

Similarly, all the ingredients were mixed together with the sauce before being topped with cheese and sent for baking. This had the same oozy cheese pull with the rice, which gave it an additional dimension of savouriness.

The sauce itself was pretty unique, with tangy and slightly spicy notes. For a homemade sauce, it was pretty well-done and I found it quite addictive. My only gripe was that the white rice was a lil’ too mushy.

The Prawns tasted run-of-the-mill and I felt they were a tad chewy, which was a sign of having been overcooked. However, they made up for it with sheer quantity as I had quite a number of them in my bowl.

The Honey Chicken fared way better, with tender and flavourful meat. I liked how the hint of sweetness permeated through the dish without being overpowering. The succulent meat was delightful, and I found myself picking them out to enjoy on its own.

The last bowl we had was Pasta (S$4) with Salted Egg Yolk Sauce (S$1). With Ben’s recommendations, we paired it with Vongole (S$2) and Mixed Mushrooms (S$2). With all the hype about salted egg yolk, I was looking forward to this.

They served the sauce on the side, which was a thoughtful touch so the pasta doesn’t get soggy. Despite that, I was sorely disappointed as the noodles were limp. Whilst generous with the sauce, it was way too much that overpowered the entire dish.

The sauce had the colour of salted egg yolk, but not the taste of it. Salted egg yolk sauce should be fragrant with rich and savoury notes and a hint of spice. However, this lacked that punchiness and was too runny, which made it hard to cling onto the pasta.

The saving grace was the Vongole, as the clams were fresh with no brininess. They had a natural sweetness to them, which emerged as I scraped away most of the cloying sauce.

The Mixed Mushrooms were decent too, as they added a touch of earthiness in attempts to alleviate the thick yet bland sauce. Needless to say, the sauce was the weakest link in this dish.

Sauce It had some hits and misses. Their Mac & Cheese, as well as the Baked Rice, is worth a try. They do make for good comforting food that you can enjoy at home whilst relaxing after a long day or during lunch when you need a perk-me-up.

In addition, their portion sizes are really generous as well. With that being said, some fine-tuning can be done to improve their standards.

Expected damage: S$6 – S$9 per pax