Swagat, 86 Hill Rise, Richmond (2nd March 2010) by mikebate

The monthly RoT rendez-vous was plagued by illness and on-the-day drop-outs (even though drop-outs usually attend) with no excuses.

The pub selected for our support was the excellent White Cross in Richmond. It was a little cool inside because their unique, under-the-windowsill, fireplace was out of service due to smoke leakage but the beer and atmosphere was as good as ever.

Basky and Zippy met at the arranged time at 6.30pm with other less-polite members turning up over the next hour, including Pymster who rudely had gone on a run and came into The White Cross sweating, like someone who was overdoing it, wearing a pink T-shirt and his Dad’s old 1960’s baggy shorts. He definitely won’t have bikini-clad women chasing him like Benny Hill used to. Fortunately no beads of sweat infested our fine pints of Youngs.

Jezza turned up to drink tap water due to his liver having been diagnosed as suffering from RoT excesses. Newtsey turned up after a long journey only to decide that, due to the lack of human habitation where he lives, the taxis would not relish meeting him at a late hour so he promptly left after 2 pints for another 1.5 hour trip back. This is a shame because, apart from a brief sip of a Cobra, he missed out on Swagat.

Swagat is a new Indian restaurant that replaced an old-fashioned Greek restaurant on Hill Rise Richmond. It seems that Greek cuisine is out of fashion in this country at the moment. The Pymster warned us that is was a bit pricey but RoT’s charter is to review new places.

The popadoms were superb – thick and crispy with pleasant pickles. Strangely, just like the Bombay Bicycle last month, they don’t do lime pickle but we had an interesting spicy mango pickle instead.

The menu had some interesting variations on the usual Indian fare. I had Prawn Molee ‘cooked in coconut sauce and tempered with curry leaves and mustard seeds’. The king prawns were succulent and the dish delicious. Basky’s Chicken Tikka Masala (described on the menu as "Masala Liptey Murgh"), despite a higher quality than usual sauce, was a little bland but it serves him right for choosing the most boring Indian dish known to man. It is usually meant for the unwashed masses who daren’t try anything new. Pymster had Lamb Sagwala – Spring lamb with spinach and a bit of garlic and cream. The lamb was excellent but the dish was a little plain-tasting. Tee-total Jezza had Chicken Tikka Makhani ‘Tandoori morsels of chicken tikka cooked in clarified butter, sun dried fenugreek flavoured tomato cream sauce’. He said it was delicious but ate it before we could try any.   The vegetables were chick peas ‘tempered with ginger, green chilli and raw mango powder’, roasted aubergines sautéed with onion, tomato, garlic and cumin, and ‘Yellow Dal Tadka’. All were very good.

The restaurant has a low-light ambience, was full when we visited, and had some good chill-out music. It is indeed a little pricey, especially the vegetable side dishes at an unreasonable £5 served in a small cup. Main courses are probably about 10% higher than other good quality restaurants but overall the price per head worked out at about £25 which included a large bottle of Cobra.

Tangawizi across the bridge still gets our vote in terms of superb, good-value, dishes in a great contemporary atmosphere but Swagat is definitely worth a visit and is sure to survive with the Richmond gentry on its doorstep.