Is The Term 'Curry House' Offensive?

Is 'Curry House' really an offensive term?  According to Sejal Sukhadwala from the Guardian, it is!  In an article for the paper, she claims that there's a growing clamour to do away with the term as many restaurateurs feel it's "out-dated and derogatory".  It's the apparent failure to acknowledge that there's more to Indian cuisine than curry that apparently causes offence. 
                                                                                                                              
She's missing a pretty obvious distinction though.  Most people know that your typical 'Star of Bengal' on the high street isn't the finest, most authentic representation of South Asian cooking, while I doubt anyone has ever called the Michelin starred 'Cinnamon Club' in Westminster a "curry house"!

It is fair to say that that the term probably doesn't conjure up an image of high-end sophisticated dining but that doesn't make it derogatory. The formula has become ingrained into British culture.  To find fault with that is pure snobbishness.
 

The menu is usually generic and Anglicised but people love it.  Surely it's better to differentiate between the top class establishments and those that serve madras and chips after pub closing time!

We all know the image of the old fashioned curry house: flock wall paper, sitar music, one of those amazing pictures where the waterfall is actually moving,  £6 main dish, or push the boat out and get a special for £7.50.  Cobra beer. Brilliant!  At The Chilli Diaries, we love old-school curry houses and the disappearance of these would be as sad as the decline of pubs in this country.

Long live the curry house! 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/oct/10/calling-time-on-the-curry-house