No one who travels and stays in small-to-medium-sized hotels is shocked by this. I have a complaint, however. We have so many Indian-Americans distributed all over the nation, and it is still fairly difficult to find good Indian food outside big cities.

I've wondered about this, but what I've heard is that few Indian families eat out very often.

Indian food is labor intensive and uses expensive ingredients. Restaurants are also low margin businesses that don't scale well and are super risky, not something I'd advise someone to do unless they have a passion for it and ability to fail and carry on with life.

I have not been to a single Indian restaurant that can compare to a home cooked Gujarati meal, especially made by someone who grew up there.

I'd be thrilled if there were some restaurants that passed a much lower bar than that. I don't agree about expensive ingredients. Lots of restaurants (not all!) have figured out how to serve non-spoiled vegetables. When I lived in Singapore I lived near (and patronized regularly) a bunch of Indian restaurants that did that without refrigeration (at 1° N latitude).

The labor costs are an issue. I cooked a curry with garden vegetables and Gulf shrimp over the weekend, and it took over an hour (perhaps it would have been unpalatable to a real Indian person, but three hillbillies from the Ozarks liked it just fine). However, it's possible to purchase e.g. frozen okra that's already sorted and chopped.

But yeah restaurants are difficult. Way too much competition in that space unless you really like running a restaurant. Chinese-Americans seem to have had some success, however.

For home cooking, pressure cooking makes Indian meals much easier. In a restaurant you'd presumably make big batches

Pressure cookers make lots of stuff easier! They don't chop up vegetables though...

> Indian food is labor intensive and uses expensive ingredients

Labor intensive yes, but expensive ingredients? Maybe saffron, but it's used very sparingly in only a few dishes, and a little goes a long way.

Generally, vegetables are more expensive than grains and more perishable.

By mass, Indian food is mostly grains and pulses (Rice, wheat, and split peas).

You should try Rajdhani in Artesia, CA if you get a chance. But that's the only one I have found.

Or Shahnawaz, not too far away.

For the time I spent in India, most of them eat their meals at street stalls throughout the day. Those that do have home cooked meals, often have housemaids that do all of that super labor intensive cooking. Even the relatively poor, have even poorer people working below them at home!

Good Indian food doesn't exist in the US.

Take a trip to BC, or the UK, and you'll see what I mean.

This is incredibly diminutive of Indian cuisine in America.

The Bay Area itself has Zareen's (Michelin guide) and Rasa (Michelin star).

Yes, the UK has much more phenomenal Indian food, but to say the US has none is wrong.

I'm sorry Michelin star means squat for Indian food. I have tried both and they are pretty crappy.

Ah yes, Indian cuisine like "Bombay Sliders."

Dude I've lived in Singapore. You don't have to tell me about food.

Hopefully you made it to Penang then.

While I am in agreement that BC has plenty of authentic south asian cuisine, Seattle is not so terrible.

Food recommendation: Gulberg Restaurant, 5943 Fraser St, Vancouver, BC V5W 2Z6

Authentic Lahori food.

The cuisine is way older than the 1947 partition...

"...not so terrible" isn't a ringing endorsement.

What is good in Seattle?

Everything good is actually within a 5-7km radius of Microsoft HQ in Redmond, on the east side. There's a really good chaat place. And a grocery store where the clientele are 99% Indian, a half block from the chaat place.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Chaat+House/@47.6326521,-1...

If you are far south of downtown in the Renton/Kent area, this Pakistani kebab place is great:

https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=maz...

Mayuri (the grocery store) does have a great selection of staples items.

In that same parking lot is Teapot Vegetarian House (not Indian) and Malay Satay Hut (though the quality was lacking last time we went).

Naan and Curry has the best non-vegetarian South-Asian food in the Seattle area. It has branches in Renton and Issaquah. I have personally found it much better than Maza grill, mentioned in the other comment.

I’ve eaten there in the Bay Area and am inclined to agree with you.

I think its more than 50%.

My new owner origination had about 16 owners/managers. 8 owners were Indian/Gujarati, 1 owner was from Pakistan, 1 white owner and rest were managers.

I went to my first franchise conference and almost 70+% of the US owners were Indian/Gujarati.

I got 2 greeting cards from the franchise in 1 year. 1 was for Diwali/Gujarati New year and 1 in December for the new year.