Swagat - Sun Prairie — Restaurant in Sun Prairie

It pains me to write this, but if you love the West Madison Swagat location, this is not the restaurant for you. At first, I thought the only difference was a condensed menu, which I thought would be fine; I figured it was simpler, to make it easier in the kitchen while maintaining the quality that Swagat is known for.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. The restaurant is so different in so many ways, it should not even share the name. I’ve ordered a few times from this location, but for purposes of the majority of this review, I’m going to focus on our most recent dine-in experience. I will say I was pleasantly surprised when we called ahead for a party of 6 and they were able to seat us immediately. This was drastically improved from when I ordered carryout on opening day, two hours in advance, and I left the restaurant with my food an hour or so after the scheduled time.

My wife ordered paneer tikka masala. The paneer itself continues to be quite good, very fresh and large pieces. You get three pieces in the dish here, which are larger than the four you get at the west location (which used to be five), so it evens out. The sauce, however, is quite different between locations, and it is not really the creamy orange sauce one comes to expect with a “tikka masala” dish. It had a lot more texture to it, and it differed from the chicken tikka masala ordered during the same visit. It was fine, but it’s not at at all the same sauce or experience as you get at the west location, which is far superior in texture and flavor (and for $2 cheaper!).

Two of my friends ordered chicken tikka masala. The sauce with this is better than the paneer, but it still doesn’t live up to the Swagat name. An odd thing here is the use of dark meat in the dish. Ordinarily, chicken tikka masala is chunks of white meat only. I thought it was perfectly edible, actually, but for someone else who doesn’t care for dark meat and orders a dish that you would expect anywhere else to be prepared a certain way, it was a bit disappointing for the change here. Again, the sauce isn’t quite the same as at the other location, and again, the price here is $2 more.

The food all around is okay, but it’s overall just a different experience from the west location, and not for the better. The prices are higher and the food is not as good. I feel they are more concerned with aesthetics than the food. What do I mean? Well, the building is beautiful — I love the location itself. It’s very nice and modern, quite different from the feel of a typical Indian restaurant. But when it comes time to the food, like the mango shrimp I ordered, the value is in the presentation of the food, like the mango drizzle and side salad, not in the quality itself, which was skimpy for the price and also unfortunately not very hot (temperature) even — and another case of expectations not matching reality, since ordinarily a “mango _” is a dish with plenty of sauce. I guess this one was my bad, since it is listed under “tandoori specials” but regardless it’s confusing to have dish not be like it would be elsewhere, much like the chicken in the CTM differed.

Overall, I’m just disappointed. I had been looking forward to this restaurant opening for months. Swagat (west) and Amber are my favorite in the area, but with living in Sun Prairie, I don’t get to those very often. I’ve given this one a go a handful of times, and something disappoints each time. I hope things change with time, and I’ll likely give them another go months down the line, but for the time being I’m going to have to go back to Maharana. It’s not the best in Madison, but it’s more traditional and for a fairer price, and you get what you expect when ordering from or...

We were very impressed with this location when we went inside. Beautifully designed. The decor and restaurant called for a great experience. Unfortunately, this restaurant staff lacks the basic knowledge or common sense on how to treat customers. It's not just about doing your job and that's it, it's about so much more and being engaging with your customers and being considerate and making sure they're comfortable, instead of only doing what conveniences you.

We were kind of greeted in the restaurant, and it was about 1pm, so after lunch rush, I'm assuming, because there wasn't anyone there besides 2 other tables. Somehow with all the space they had to offer, they somehow ended up giving us the absolutely worst location of a table, crammed between the side tables with just an adequate amount of arm room, but not enough space to order multiple dishes, 2 at the most. Besides that, if it were actually busy, we'd then have to deal with the servers rushing back and forth brushing our sides or customers going in and out of the restrooms. The chairs were also very uncomfortable.

We decided to order the chicken tikka masala and malai kofta. Holy cow, guys, there's no lunch menu. Everything is just dinner prices. So for lunch this is definitely not worth it. We received our food very quickly. The Malai Kofta was the only good thing about this restaurant, beautifully presented and a foodgasmic taste that matched the actual end product. The sauce was absolutely amazing and paired well with the veggie meatballs. We received 4 total veggie meatballs, so you might be wondering how much that cost? Well it cost ONLY $16.95 for four meatballs with loads of sauce and some rice, FANTASTIC DEAL, especially if you have money that grows on trees.

The chicken tikka masala had great aroma and great potential, but when we took a bite of it, it was rather boring in taste, almost borderline bland, but it didn't have anything that made the dish sing and at $18.95 the dish was just a big FAIL. While we are visibly annoyed about how bad the food was, there was really no service from the staff. They just seat you, take your order, give you your food and then the bill. They really didn't exist, unless they decided to take their cell phones and browse the web or just chit chat among other staff members. The only nice person came at the very end, a different server an Asian lady who kindly gave us our bill along with a togo box. The waitstaff, expecially the men, missed the mark, or maybe don't care, but I wouldn't come back here again. My mom still can't stop complaining about how bad the experience was. And our lunch totaled close to $39, even though with tax, it should be $37.87. Did they decide to give themselves a pity dollar bc they knew how bad their service was? Oh well. They got our money, but not the business. Good luck. With those exorbitant prices and lack of basic service, they don't seem to care if they run their restaurant to the ground. Not a good start. If I didn't have much to say about the service, it's because there wasn't any. The Indian waitstaff just did their job and that was it, nothing more, nothing less. The Asian lady at the end was the only polite, höflich worker there. Maybe their staff needs to go to Maharaja in Milwaukee and see how the employees there treat their customers. It's night and...

My 1st ever experience with Indian cuisine was on Monday, at a different restaurant (Buttered Chicken and Mango Lassi). I went to Swagat on Wednesday for a couple of reasons. #1 was to compare their food to the other restaurant's. The 2nd reason was to take advantage of the discount offered via the Upside app. The buttered chicken from Swagat had me literally saying, "OH MY GOD," out loud with every bite! That was a first with any meal I've ever had! I was also very pleased with the amount of Naan that I received. To make sure that I wasn't 'tripping', I went back the next night and ordered their lamb curry and fried corn. OMG!!! I think I'm addicted to Indian food after those two experiences. Seriously! I was mentally trying to budget how often (4x? 5x?) I will be able to visit this restaurant each week, and I understood how elder Indian women get so supple as they age! Their food is AMAZING! I will HAVE to start exercising more often in order to keep enjoying Swagat's food the way I plan to, going forward. My experience at Swagat for the last two nights made me wonder why it took me so long to try their food! I'm already looking forward to treating every out of town guest who visits me to dinner at Swagat's as an intro to the area.

p.s. I have a low tolerance for highly spiced food. I assumed wrong about Indian food. Swagat has highly flavorful food! स्वादिष्ट! Svaadisht!

UPDATE: I am not capping/exaggerating when I say that this is the first and only restaurant that I have ever visited 4 times in one week! Yes, I'M ADDICTED at this point. I'm updating to share this latest experience! I have traveled this country, having eaten street food to the best fine dining spots, and I am happy to say that Swagat has a place in my heart! When you visit Swagat Sun Prairie and you order your cocktail, ask for Roy by name. He prepared the hands down, absolute BEST Mojito (Strawberry) that I have ever had IN MY LIFE! I'll be back in a couple of days to experience what it's like to dine in and I pray that he is on duty at that time. This is definitely a Sun Prairie hidden gem! And kudos to the chef for the absolute most delicious lemon rice and salmon Curry imaginable! I truly hope I get a chance to meet him or her one day! Hey this bartender Mr Raymond is a new guy in this restaurant n he is amazing n he gives lots of choice as well summer drinks so pls...