Atlanta Vegan, go!

Swapna Indian Restaurant
2655 Cobb Pkwy
Atlanta, GA 30339
(770) 956-7589

• Food: 4.5
• Service: 4.5
• Ambiance: 3.5

Ethnic food can be a life-saver for vegans in Atlanta, and I feel lucky that Atlanta has such a wide variety of ethnic cuisines. When it really comes down to it, my favorite is Indian food, but that might be because my parents are from India. I grew up with curry as my comfort food. It was magical.

Since my mom is one of the best Indian cooks ever to grace a stove top, I have pretty high standards for Indian food. In the past few years, every single Indian restaurant I once loved has gone seriously downhill. The food at Udipi just doesn't sparkle like it once did. The now defunct Madras Saravana Bhavan still tasted good, but the service was so awful it ruined your meal. The Indian fast food joints I frequented started getting nasty health and safety scores. Panahar is clean, has great food and great service, but it's Bangladeshi food, so it's just not quite the same. It got to the point where my partner and I would just cook our own Indian food; between filth, bad service and plain bland food, it wasn't worth the cost and hassle of going out.

I had been hearing about the international culinary wonders of OTP. So, last week, when I visited my parents and had a major craving for Punjabi food, we decided to try a new place. We went to Swapna, a small place serving both North and South Indian food on Cobb Parkway. Swapna serves both vegetarian and meat dishes, but when we asked for some of the vegetarian dishes to be specially prepared without butter, cream, or any dairy at all, the servers didn't even blink. They were incredibly knowledgeable and helpful. The restaurant has been converted from an American buffet/diner, so it has that odd atmosphere that so many ethnic restaurants have these days. You have the family-sized booths and decor of a pizza joint, but you're smelling rich spices from the east. It's not exactly romantic, but it's not a school cafeteria either.

For starters, we ordered an appetizer plate of idli , upma , a plain dosa, and a mendhu wada. The idli and wada were perfectly silky and fluffy, and the dosa was a well-crafted structure, cooked enough to be crispy, and soft and pliant enough to be folded around some potato masala. Delicious. We ended up ordering another dosa before dinner was over. I'm personally not a fan of upma, but my parents said it was tasty.

We also ordered some Aloo Gobi (potatoes and cauliflower) with some naan made without butter. The naan was warm, tender, fluffy, and just chewy enough. The Aloo Gobi was another success, spicy and flavorful, without a hint of the heavy grease so many Indian restaurants are guilty of serving. The naan and Aloo Gobi are highly recommended. However, we also ordered some less successful Palak Chana (spinach and garbanzos). This was the only non-vegan dish that we got: it was made with cream. In fact, it had too much cream and ended up hiding the flavors of the spinach, beans, and spices, rather than intensifying them. The Palak Chana recipe could benefit from a lighter touch.

Overall, this place is wonderful and I look forward to trying more of its menu. If you ask for dishes to be made without dairy, I doubt you will be disappointed. I know it's a long drive, but if you're craving some truly delicious Indian food, this place is worth it. It's clean, vegan-friendly, and really tasty.

I hope to post some pictures soon, once I get a digital camera than will do justice to the food.

Have you been to any really great Indian food places lately? Have you been to any awful ones? Share your experiences with atlanta vegan!

This article is also available at broadcastatlanta.com