Swagath Gourmet

Reviews 7

BA

Balaji Ganapathy

Of all the South Indian restaurants in the Eastern seaboard, nowhere do you feel more at home than at Swagat. Here, authentic food is served with equal attention to quality and taste, with genuine care for the patrons. For those who are uninitiated to the culinary delights of South India, I would recommend trying any of their dosas and uthappams, served with a special sambar (I love the coconut infusion) and chutney. The kovil idi is a must-have signature dish that you will not find in any other restaurant that offers similar fare. If fusion is in your mind, try the idly masala for starters. Each of our family visits to Swagat is incomplete without tasting their paniarrams as an appetizer. The rice items are tastefully done, with the right level of spice and flavors. I consider the puliyogare and lemon rice to be their best rice dishes. Some of their north indian dishes such as the puri bhaji are also delicious, and the thali will never disappoint your taste buds. For dessert, their puran poli (which is served hot) is a delight to eat so is the sakkara pongal. The owners are very courteous, and treat you like family. It is no wonder that we keep going back every time we yearn for home made food ! I have been visiting them for years, and highly recommend it to everyone.

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OM

omkareswaran chandramouli

This was my 2nd visit in 4 years to Swagath. Before I continue with my review, I should confess that my palette is used to Tambram cooking. However, I still am a very knowledgeable critic of South Indian food. We ordered butter dosa, mysore rawa dosa and poor sabzi. I was not vowed by the food that was served, unlike the other reviews that I read. It was disappointing especially after reading such great reviews. The quality of butter dosa, is to be able to smell the butter when the dosa arrives and after eating a fragrance should remain in your palm. I had more butter in my rawa dosa instead. Rawa dosa was good, but not spectacular, doesnt stand out compared to other south Indian restraunts. Poori sabzi, Im finding it difficult to explain what was wrong with the sabzi. I dont think it was restraunt worthy. The service was great, very attentive ppl managing the place. Something that is not common in an Indian restraunt. Being a udupi restraunt, if I do visit again I would expect the variety rice to be a better bet. Unfortunately my experience with dosa now and thali previously were disappointing. However, my kanadiga friend is a regular here and suggested this place. So it does appeal o folks with a different pallete. But quality, still is a question mark...

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AN

Andrew Alford

My wife and I have been coming to Swagath since before we were married. More than fifteen years later, we are still coming back. It is one of the few restaurants we have patronized that has stood the test of time, and with good reason. Every meal begins with a cup of rasam, a spicy tomato/lentil broth with mustard seeds in it--which you will likely want refilled, several times, if you can take the heat. If you are a fan of dosas, look no further! Swagath gave me my first taste of these phenomenal crepes, and they are still my favorite in "Little Indian" Edison, or anywhere else for that matter. I recommend the Masala Dosa. I also highly recommend their rice dishes, and especially their Lemon Rice. For dessert, you can look forward to an addictive spiced coffee and Ras Malai (delicious in a yogurt gravy with a hint of rose water in it) and/or the Halva. The latter is made completely fresh--100% almonds, soaked in milk overnight, then peeled and ground...and seasonings added, like honey and cardamon. We couldnt decide between these, so ordered both... This is a great place to visit, and perhaps doubly so if you are looking to give someone their first exposure to Indian cuisine. Highly recommended!

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MA

Madhavi Prakash

I had the pleasure of taking 4 Danish colleagues on June 9, 2015 who were visiting our NJ office on business. They wanted to explore the South Asian culture and I suggested that the ideal way to do that would be to spend an evening browsing the stores along Oak Tree Road. We culminated the evening with a fabulous dinner at Swagath Gourment. The owner welcomed us with a very pleasant greeting. I mentioned to him that my colleagues were looking forward to tasting their first Dosais. He assured me that he would personally recommend some gourmet suggestions and he did. We started with the complimentary "Rasam" which prepared our taste buds for the other delicious items to come. This was followed by the Kovil Idlis which was delicious. The owner recommended that we order different varieties of Dosai so that we can share. That was an excellent idea. The evening ended with their great "Badam Halwa" which we all shared. I still get a lot of compliments for suggesting Swagath for dinner. My colleagues have since returned back home with very fond memories of their evening on Oak Tree and Swagath. I look forward to taking more colleagues to this wonderful place.

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DK

Dk Pk

Went to this place for the first time after being in the area for almost a decade. What we loved: dosa (I had Mysore Rava masala dosa), rasam, coffee and to our delight Paneer Butter Masala (we had two characters at our table who wanted Punjabi dish at a South Indian restaurant). To say the least not only I finished my dosa, I ordered my self the Paneer Butter Masala (for which the owner added insane hint of spicy kick upon request). What we didnt like: Tamarind rice. It was good, but Ive had better at Balaji temple in Pittsburgh (may be because it was prasaad). If you are in the market for ambiance, and not the food quality, dont go here as its a simple place which serves pretty good dishes. The service is amazing and all 8 of us felt like the owner is extremely passionate about what he is doing there. Not a quality you see nowadays. I would highly recommend this place and definitely try their Paneer Butter Masala (which in my opinion was better than Ive had at any Punjabi restaurant in US). Now about all these negative reviews - Im not sure why anyone would give this place a 1 or 2 stars. It deserves 10 out of 5. Cheers!!!

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SR

Srivatsan Sundararajan

We used to love this place for its ghee flavored Onion Rava Masala Dosa until recently when they served us a dosa made with a mix of normal dosa batter and rava and "claimed" that it was onion rava dosa. Cooking enthusiasts like me who have tried making the traditional onion rava at home would know that the batter is a mix of rice flour, maida and rava along with other condiments. When we complained and pointed out that the dosa didnt look or taste like onion rava, the lady working in the restaurant said, "This is onion rava. Eat it!". Eat it!!! really? Three different people came to the table and tried to convince us that what they served was onion rava. After that, the manager, in an attempt to do damage control made up a story saying that "rice flour purchased from the wholesale market was not of good quality and that is what resulted in the bad dosa". You are allowed to make mistakes as long as you own up, be honest and treat your customers with respect! That was our last visit and we would discourage people from visiting this place!

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RA

Raju Patel

There isnt a positive thing to write about this place: - dirty glasses - which are stacked on top of each other and placed on your table - youre responsible to take each one apart and pour water out for yourself - the dosas are oily and tasteless - chutney and sambhar are in tiny quantity and $1 for refill!! - the waiter will never come by your table to ask if you need anything extra and to add to all this mess, they charge mandatory 15% tip for parties of 4 or more - that is just ridiculous. Avoid this place, there are much better places in the area. I think most of the reviews on G+ are written by the owner and friends using fake accounts - we went here by these reviews and were highly disappointed in food, ambience and service. For each of the reviews, just look at the number of reviews written by each user - exactly 1 !! thats a sign that those are fake accounts to bump up rating of this place

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