Mrs. Komal Khanchandani arrived in Manila from India with her husband Sanjay and family eight years ago. At first, she missed the spicy victuals and vegetables of her native land. She decided to do something about it. She went to the best markets and groceries in the city and hunted up the spices then approximated those she had always been used to. Her search was not in vain. She was soon busy in the family kitchen whipping up the best of Indian cuisine. The aroma and flavor of her culinary efforts soon gave her the idea to open a restaurant in Makati.
After experimenting with a small canteen, she took the bold step of opening a restaurant that exclusively specialized on Indian cuisine. The result was Swagat, a word which means "Welcome" in the Hindi language.
Swagat restaurant has the ambience of a big but cozy dining room in a suburban home in India. Paintings with Indian settings adorn the walls and the soft strains of native music that Mahatma Gandhi must have enjoyed filled the air.
