I feel like I’m in a job interview struggling to answer a question about my faults, about what I could work on to be a better me. Well, I’m a bit of perfectionist, to be honest. And I get personally invested in my work, so I tend to take it quite seriously.
These are the sort of indirectly self-promotional non-answers that are often offered up in response to this line of questioning. You feel obliged to say something, but the truth is, you’re not keen to be incisively critical.
It’s my job to maintain a critical perspective, but the truth is, I just love this week’s venue. I feel like I’d have to invent some shortcomings just to sound unbiased. It was the top restaurant of my 2015 end-of-year roundup and a place to which I have sent countless friends since then for what I think is one of the most consistently excellent meals of any genre on the North Shore. I’m talking about Swad Indian Kitchen, the elegantly appointed West Vancouver pan-Indian restaurant that impresses me in new ways every time I go.
I was advised via email by Swad owner and industry veteran Kamal Mroke that the restaurant had launched a new fall menu. I packed up the family, all die-hard fans of Indian cuisine in their own right, and headed to check out what was new on offer.
The place was packed for a Wednesday night in West Vancouver and we were grateful to score one of the few remaining tables. I began to pour over the menu, a lengthy read with dishes spanning styles from the far north in Kashmir to the deep south in Kerala, in search of things I hadn’t tried. There were plenty and, with the gentle guidance of Mroke, whose warm front-of-house disposition puts him in league with some of the best maitre d’s in the city, we settled on a solid tasting menu.
For those with Swad menu favourites, fear not, many tried and tested staples remain on the new menu and my experience has been that the kitchen is so nimble here that they can often accommodate special requests and cravings. We began our meal with delicious florets of deep fried cauliflower in a dusting of spice. This appetizer revealed sweet, spicy and tangy notes (the cauliflower is marinated in a honey-chili mix) that I crudely likened to vegetarian buffalo wings. With a bottle of Kingfisher beer, the snack was a perfect warm up to the big meal ahead.
We followed up the cauliflower with Jalpari, fillets of ginger and garlic marinated fish coated in a fresh, fragrant and herbaceous mint sauce. The portion was exceptionally generous for an $11 appetizer, with no fewer than four sizeable morsels of tender fish. Succulent ribbons of potent ginger garnished the dish, contributing to its complexity and depth of flavour. This turned out to be my second favourite item of the tasting, bested only by Paneer Methi, an extraordinary dish in which meaty chunks of paneer (house made fresh cheese) were tossed in a fenugreek-heavy, vibrant golden masala with flavours of deeply caramelized onion and garlic, turmeric, and toasty nigella seeds.
A second paneer-focussed dish was also excellent, this time with grilled triangles of the cheese tossed alongside grilled red and green peppers and onions, topped with fresh herbs. From the tandoor, we enjoyed exquisite Moogdum Kebab, or bone-in grilled chicken thighs that were marinated in yogurt (for optimal tenderness) and served with a rich and round (but sensibly applied) cashew sauce. The tandoori chicken was a particular hit with the kids, who made short work of the dish, mopping up grill juices and sauce with hot-buttered naan bread and basmati rice.
Lamb Rara was an indulgent treat with mountains of tender cubed lamb cooked in a thick, brick-red Punjabi-style masala with coriander. The meat was melt-in-the-mouth tender and the gravy lush and sophisticated. Navrattan Korma was the final savoury dish of the meal, this one marked by a creamy, finely-pureed nut gravy with toasted spices, a subtle chili kick, and crisp seasonal vegetables including okra, cauliflower and peppers.
At the end of the meal, as we set aside the remainder of the ambitious menu tasting to take home, Mroke appeared with a final dish to cleanse the palate: two scoops of vivid yellow ice cream with a bright fruit drizzle. Our host explained that this ice cream, made by him with ripe mangos, is made according to a tightly guarded recipe that has been around for generations and was handed down to him at the end of the life of the man who held it before. Mroke is the only person in Swad who knows how to make this intensely fragrant, staggeringly brightly flavoured frozen treat. I managed to wrest a spoonful from the bowl before my kids decimated the dish like locusts. If it is on offer when you visit, I suggest you try it.
I have written a number of reviews of middling meals over the course of my five-plus years penning this column. But even in those, I try to find a silver lining, a solid note in an otherwise discordant production. Taking this approach can, in rare cases, lead to ambiguity and readers will drop me a private line asking me to clarify my position. In the case of this review, I want to eliminate any and all potential for misunderstanding: Swad is a special place, a treasure on the North Shore that deserves recognition and steady patronage. I called it the best of 2015 and, though it is perhaps still too early to definitively determine 2018’s top meal, there is little doubt in my mind that Swad will once again rank near the very top.
Our meal of seven dishes, two beers and two glasses of wine plus mango lassies for the kids, rice, naan, and ice cream, was $150 before gratuity.
Swad Indian Kitchen, 1734 Marine Drive, West Vancouver. Swadindiankitchen.ca. 604-281-4411.
