Swagat - West Madison — Restaurant in Madison

Came here for the Lunch Buffet on Father’s day hoping to enjoy our first Indian buffet as a family! Overall experience was Ok the quality of the food I would give a solid 2.5/5 as there is a definite difference between the quality of there regular menu items and the buffet items the saving grace for me would be the Mango Ice cream. In my travels overseas I have been grateful to have tried many different styles of Indian cuisine from around the world so I do have a more experienced palate when it comes to the gustatory modalities so I gave food an extra .5 stars landing at a solid 3 star experience on the buffet food. Now as far as the Service our family was sat at a Table that was not properly prepared we waited about 10min for a staff member to return with water glasses so we could ensure our children could hydrate them selves before we began our meal but unfortunately the after we were escorted to our table No words were exchanged by our server nor did she even look in our direction? After about 10-15min of contemplation we figured no one was going to greet us or explain how the process worked or to see if we needed additional silverware or the much needed Water Glasses so we decided they we should just fend for ourselves stand up and seek a staff member and request glasses and silverware as we thought it would be rude to take the resources we needed from one of the other properly prepared tables so to prevent another family from sharing in our dismay. More could be said about the service but I will end on this last point one of the main reasons why we chose to patronize this restaurant in particular is because we heard from a friend that this restaurant has the best Mango Lassi in Madison and we would have loved to experience it for ourselves if only our sever would have said more than 2 woulds to us throughout the experience :( not upset just disappointed that at this price point you would expect a little more value out of the experience. Overall atmosphere was clean not much else to say besides that as first time guest we felt pretty confused as to how their process works from the time we were seated to the check out process we just kind of felt as though we didn’t receive the best quality of service but not...

I'm writing this review because it is the second time that the same thing happens to different members of our family.

My husband called at 1:45 p.m. in the afternoon as we were passing by and they told up the buffet was open until 3:00 p.m.

By the time we site, it was 2:07 pm. Then as soon as we sat they informed us that close the buffet at 3:00. It was 2:10 PM, so we had PLENTY of time.

While they serve the water, my 11-year-old son accidentally moved the table and the man gave him a really bad look and shook his head negatively. His name is Vijat. I apologized to him and he ignored me, then I asked if he heard me and he says “YES” leaves without even acknowledging my apologies.

We didn't feel comfortable already but we decided to go ahead eat.

But what really exacerbated our displeasure is that there was no food, my husband really enjoys the tandoori chicken and that they had exactly three pieces on the tray. I mean, they close at 3 and is only 2:15 PM, and they already don’t have any food.

My husband asked to the young man if they would bring more food to what he suddenly start speaking in his language with Mr. Vijat and he answer no and said that what was in the trays served was everything they had.

My husband got upset and complained that he had called before entering and that it is unfair that he didn’t have enough food.

He turned his back and just sent the bill: $ 54.41 for three pieces of tandoori, naam, lentils and three sodas.

This place should take their work more seriously and respect their customers if they want to stay in business. If you say you close at 3:00 pm why in hell there's no food one hour before?

Do not deceive your customers telling them the buffet is open, where they do not have food, the food doesn’t look fresh and badly treat your customers.

That is a misleading information to attract the customer, to receive a benefit when you know in advance that you don’t have enough food at the counter, but you charge the same price.

There's a name...

Before COVID, they were alright. Now they're awful. I don't know what happened to them, and I tried to forgive them and assume various incidents were honest mistakes, but tonight was the last of what I could take. We ordered food through eatstreet, the food did not arrive. We contacted eatstreet and they refunded, and we ordered again. Swagat cancelled the order. We then ordered again with a note asking not to cancel. They just didn't bother to fulfill the order and told us that we should contact eatstreet and get a refund when we spoke to them on the phone... with an eatstreet representative on the line who connected us. They then hung up.

The staff has become rude, incompetent, and lazy, apparently. Multiple times we have gotten various amounts of rice, most often vastly under what was necessary to compliment the entrees, and we've had to leave notes on our orders to ask for the appropriate amount of rice... which they have ignored on occasion. I had also ordered Tandoori chicken in the past... which came raw in the middle. It's a mystery to me how someone managed to undercook a relatively thin chicken drumstick, but they managed to do it. They've also sent food of various freshness to us.

In years past, I would've sworn by their food as some of the best you could find in Madison. I understand restaurants are having a hard time during this pandemic, but this is the kind of service and food quality I would expect from a poorly managed and unsanitary restaurant. I will choose one of the other Indian restaurants to dine at...