K ebabs and kefte roll off the interactive kitchen at the swish Kryptos on Chennai’s fashion avenue, Khader Nawaz Khan Road. On a hot and humid Tuesday afternoon, lunch is in full swing in the large, rectangular 64-cover dining area lined with three kinds of hand-crafted walls—firebrick, metal and wooden. A group of spiffy young women, who have selected this Greek restaurant that opened a few months ago for their afternoon of food and chatter, are poring over a menu of meze, souvlaki, fasolada and gigandes plaki. For most in the crowd, not many dishes ring a bell. But that is precisely why they have chosen to be here—to try, test, acquire and grow their culinary character. And that is precisely what Chennai’s foremost and full-fledged Greek restaurant is cashing in on.

Nearby, on the busy Nungambakkam High Road, at Dahlia, a Japanese restaurant huddled in a rundown shopping complex, every day between noon and 2.30 pm, business is brisk. In 1993, a seafood exporter, Naoki Yamauchi, and partner Revathi Nagaswami...