Typo alert!
That should have read “I would NOT have high regard…”
Apologies - it’s been a long day already.
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Dear lord @Harters — you had me going for a minute 
I had a whole draft ready to post when I decided I’d wait a bit to see if that’s what you really meant 
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In my experience, Indian restaurants with a single-region focus are generally much better than those that seek to “showcase the country’s incredible culinary range.”
India’s diversity is more like a continent’s than a country’s. Trying to show all of India’s culinary range in one menu is like trying to show all of Europe’s culinary range in one menu. India has a higher population than all of Europe, and more than five times as many languages are spoken there than in all of Europe. We’ve been invaded and colonized by the Persians, Greeks, Mongols, Turks, Arabs, British, Portuguese, Dutch, and French, all of whom left influences on an already insanely diverse range of culinary styles too. In addition to this, Indian communities tend to stay pretty heavily segregated in terms of marriage and home-cooking even now. So there aren’t just differences between regional cuisines, but very strong differences within regional cuisine based on caste, class, traditonal occupation, and religion. I’m originally from Kerala. Kerala Brahmins eat differently from Kerala Nairs (warrior caste), and from Kerala Muslims or from Kerala’s ancient Syrian Christian population. Kerala communities that traditionally farmed rice eat differently from those that traditionally made metalware or fished. We might enjoy trying each other’s food, but our home food stays like a little time capsule and looks a lot like our mothers’ and grandmothers’ food did. That preserves these regional and sub-regional cuisines and keeps them highly specific. And there are significant differences in the ingredients, preparation timelines, and tools required for all these different culinary styles. I just don’t believe that a kitchen set up to make great things in a tandoor can make truly fantastic dosa. The space and temperature requirements alone would make that unlikely.
I enjoy those multi-culti Indian restaurants in the West, and I’ll order the faux-Goan fish curry alongside the faux-Chettinad chicken. But the real thing, prepared by someone who truly understands the ingredients, techniques, and flavors, is as different from that as a croissant made at a real French bakery is different from the one they use for a croissanwich at Panera.
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This is how we order at Thai restaurants, although it takes a while of insistent reassurance (or repeat visits) for the staff & kitchen to believe us — in case of hotter dishes or those with “unusual” (for Westerners) ingredients 
I watched a show a while back on the food of Kerala Jews, where the lady talked at length about the adaptations to the region.
The new Kerala spot in nyc I mentioned specializes in toddy shop food, of course that’s a whole different story
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The majority owner of my favourite Indian restaurant is from Mumbai and the restaurant specialises in Mumbai street food. As far as I can tell, he knows his stuff, even though he is a restaurateur, not a chef. His family heritage is from Sindh (now in Pakistan) - his family fled to Mumbai at partition), so that gives him another culinary knowledge layer. And he has a third layer - his head chef is from Goa. Clearly, much more direct knowledge than the overwhelming number of “Indian” restaurants in the UK (mainly serving Anglicised Punjabi dishes and run by Bangladeshis form that country’s Sylhet area).
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Thank goodness I got my correction posted in time. If you’d posted and I then did my correction, you’d have felt bad about wasting all that time preparing your draft. Or I could have simply not posted a correction and just sucked up whatever was in your draft, in which case I’d have bad. All’s well that ends well.
I was kidding. I know how you feel about the protein-curry mix & match spots.
I should have added earlier that there are a few things where customization is not only possible, but expected.
For example, chaat, salads (of which there are very few on restaurant menus), and fresh stir-fries.
Chaat of any sort is infinitely customizable — how much sweet, green, and garlic chutney do you like? Often these are also provided at the table to adjust from a midpoint.
My comment was about long-cooked dishes like gravies, curries, lentils, beans, etc that most people order at restaurants — and where it’s really not possible to customize heat at the end for a fully flavored dish, because everything has to cook together to meld.
That’s why there’s almost always a plate of onions, green chillies, and lime on the table, as well as the whole pantheon of Indian pickles and spice powders (the latter especially in southern states), and often yogurt or raita to accompany.
Meal too plain? Add some pickle.
Want it spicier? Eat a green chili on the side.
Too spicy? Eat a spoon of yogurt.
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Thanks, yes, I saw that post and made a note to try Chatti when we’re in NYC again. My Dad would have gone nuts for that menu (although, you know, as an Asian father, he could never have dropped $50+ for a toddy shop set lunch).
The lunch menu needs some work.
I have to communicate this to them nicely.
But I think they did a good job of teaching people to eat a style of food that’s unfamiliar.
I have to get back for dinner.
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since we are down the hole in the wonderland, i thought i would chime in at this moment, and reflect that from my own memories of early days in bangaluru, only pani puri stalls offered the option to customize the heat to your taste. Most south indian restaurants served what was a universal (our little universe which could be street, town, city, state, country etc.) taste. In my travels to delhi for example, i would know not to expect the same dose as that of janatha hotel. I was pleasantly surprised when i arrived here in the USA decades ago, that many indian restaurants offered this choice for any dish!
