I’m talking about the reality in a place like Chennai India. Among restaurants that serve Indian food here the majority label themselves “multi cuisine” meaning you will find south, north and indo Chinese dishes in all of them. They’re definitely not bad. I wouldn’t necessarily go there for the best rumali roti in town but they’re good stuff anyway.

Other than Punjabi and chaat no other Indian sub cuisine gets too many special restaurants at least here.

I’m not saying that this is the best way. I prefer specialized restaurants as well, but Foreign folk get introduced to ethnic food in steps and step 1 is a compression of an entire nations diversity into a single menu. Ones only hope is they do it a decent service. This will naturally let people pursue specialized cuisines from there as is happening with Chinese cuisine in most big metropoles in the US and I’m sure will happen with Indian over time as well.