Your local Indian food restaurant vs. Amy's frozen meals

[Ambivalent Dreams]

I know across the country many restaurants vary their flavors to suit local tastes.  So, I wonder, how spicy is your local Indian food restaurant?  I buy Amy's frozen meals for lunch at work from time to time and I find that the frozen meals are BLAND compared to the restaurant where I usually eat.  I live in Louisiana so I figure people here might like a little more heat than in some places.

So, what are your experiences?  I'm curious!  :)

[amma_mama]

I live in a cosmopolitan area and the Indian restaurants vary in spiciness. Those that cater to expatriate Indians tend to offer spicier food, both more flavor and more heat (with South Indian restaurants being spicier than northern Indian), than those that are frequented mostly by non-Indians. We prefer more authentic Indian food - not just the spiciness, but the different variety of dishes than one finds in an Americanized Indian restaurants (which typically serve northern Indian style dishes). We do a lot of Sri Lankan food at home, which tends to be even spicier than Indian food, so my palate finds the Americanized version of Indian food too bland.

[velochic]

I've never had the Amy's, as we don't eat processed food, so I can't really compare.  I just wanted to say that our Indian restaurants have us tell them how spicy to make the food on a scale from 1 - 10, with 10 being the hottest they can make it.  If I'm sharing with dd (9yo), I order a 5.  If not, I order a 7, which makes me sweat a little.  When dd was much younger, I would order the food at a 3, and even then, it was very, very tasty, but not spicy hot at all. 

So not very spicy should not equal BLAND.  Whether the dish is spicy hot or mild, it should still have good, fresh, robust flavor.  Most processed food is just salty, but bland, and I'm sure even the "organic" processed stuff is no different.  Indian is dead easy to make at home, though... and most dishes freeze well... you could make your own "tv dinner" and spice it how you like it (and probably save some money, too).

[BetsyS]

Our favorite Indian restaurant makes it "American hot", which is really, really hot to me (like my hot-saucing loving dh will have his nose running hot).  I can't imagine what "Indian hot" tastes like.  On the side, they serve sliced onions and sliced jalapenos, just in case you need something extra. 

I've never had Amy's, but I can't imagine a frozen meal coming close. 

[HollyBearsMom]

Ugh- I don't think you can compare a frozen processed dinner to a restaurant meal no matter what the ethnicity unless the restaurant is *really* bad. 

I live close to large urban area and the restaurants there vary by country of origin and specialty. ie: hunan vs szchuen,  Northern vs Southern Indian, etc. In "Little India" and "Chinatown" there are restaurants by the dozen and some are much better than others (obviously) and also vary on how they interpret spicy. When trying a new place we usually indicate our spiciness request by asking for "Indian" spicy or by star.

In our small urban town the pickings are a little slimmer but the good news is we are regulars in a number of them so they know just how we like it- SPICY but with lots of flavor.