First Look: Sawaii Indian Restaurant Brings Mughlai Heat to Castle Hills, Lewisville

After spending a few years in Little Elm, Sawaii Indian Restaurant pulled up stakes in 2025 and moved to the Castle Hills area of Lewisville (or Carrollton; it’s confusing). It’s right down the road from a future H-E-B on Parker Road. Seemingly too-good-to-be-true Google reviews beckoned us to give it a shot.

Sawaii specializes in Mughlai (Northern Indian) cuisine and promises a slightly more upscale experience than a simple curry take-out joint. And they pretty much deliver. The interior is done in warm blues, greens and browns. There’s a requisite brass elephant welcoming you upon entry to the dining area that is not large but certainly serviceable.

The Menu

The menu consists of sections dedicated to sips, chaats, small plates, tandoori, breads, biryani, chef creations, classics (vindaloo, tikka masala, etc.), desserts, and, surprisingly, pastas. We decided to go with a small plate, a couple of naans, and two entries from the chef’s creation section.

We could have been boring and predictable and gone with a samosa as a starter. Instead, we put our lot in with the chicken changezi cornetto, after my dinner companion and unpaid intern explained to me what a cornetto was, invoking a trilogy of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg films from the turn of the century that caused my eyes to glaze over. Suffice it to say that they’re cones, and in this instance a buttery shell stuffed with slow-cooked Changezi chicken (often referred to as the big, bad brother to tikka masala). It made for an elegant presentation and came with a trilogy of chutneys. Was the trilogy a nod to the film series? I doubt it, but don’t tell that to the intern.

We ordered both garlic naan and butter naan as we normally do, and they arrived four pieces to an order. They were good: hot, fresh and with the perfect texture.

The Mains

Our first main was the lamb roghan josh, a Kashmiri dish of slow-cooked lamb prepared in a rich, flavorful sauce of fennel, dried ginger and ratanjot root and can be ordered in three spice levels: mild, medium and hot. We went with hot.

This was wonderful, the lamb extremely tender with a flavor; not overpowering for those who aren’t in love with lamb. It fell apart when subjected to the fork, just like your grandmother’s Sunday pot roast. At first, it seemed perhaps a bit too spicy, but after a few mouthfuls and after adding some of the included rice, that idea was quickly dispelled.

The other main was Kolhapuri veg, a vegetable curry from the state of Maharashtra, cooked with coconut, chilies and several traditional spices. The menu describes it as “fiery, aromatic, and full-bodied,” and it did not lie. For this, we were not allowed to specify a heat level, and the server explained (warned, really) that it was extremely spicy.

‘Extremely Spicy’ Challenge Accepted

Challenge accepted.

This, my friends, was spicy. Not so spicy that your lips become numb and it becomes inedible, but spicy. On a scale of 1 to 5, maybe a 6? It contained several vegetables such as green beans, carrots, cauliflower and potatoes and was very good. Again, combining it with the rice helped to battle the spice a bit and complement it. 

Other chef creations look promising and are worth checking out, such as dal makhani, lal maas, Kolhapuri Mutton, and lasooni palak. Another time, perhaps.

Of course, if the traditional dishes one usually finds in Western Indian establishments are more your cup of tea, they do have the tikka masala, vindaloo, kadhai and butter masala options with your choice of protein: paneer, chicken, goat, lamb or shrimp. 

We had no time for dessert, but noticed something called jamun tiramisu on the menu, which appears to be some Indo-Italian take on the classic treat. That, along with the pasta offerings, made us wonder if there was some sort of fusion thing going on under the surface.

Who knows. More research is clearly needed.

Sawaii Indian Restaurant, 615 FM 2281 #100, Lewisville, Tuesday – Thursday, Sunday: 11 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.; 4:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.; Friday – Saturday, 11 a.m. -2:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m. – 10 p.m.