I'm a variant of number two:

the chef as corporation. There are too many restaurants with great chef's names where the chef is only in the restaurant a few times a year.

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At least the public understands that the namesake chef will not be there most of the time.

If the resident executive chef and his/her team is very skilled, and also (maybe more importantly) the restaurant concept is portable to multiple locations, then the branch location should have a good chance of success (Nobu might be a good example).

I'm rarely disappointed at Joel Robuchon's or Alain Ducasse's restaurants.
One notable exception was Ducasse's Beige in Tokyo.

Anything pretentious. Molecular gastronomy, foams, etc seem to be the worst offenders but at the other end of the price spectrum, the coffee world certainly has its own share of pretense too. I want to eat my dinner, not interpret it.

I like food that tastes good, and it doesn't really matter to me whether a food critic approves of it. Do I like the food at the Waldorf Astoria? Sure do - and I like a burger at Wendy's, too!

The restaurant as theatre.
I don't want to watch the chef cook my food, I don't want to see the sweat from his brow dripping in my food and I certainly don't want to see how much I'm paying for so little work.
I want to eat in a restaurant with two swing doors leading into a kitchen I can't see and the only staff I need are a maitre d', a waiter and a sommelier.
I'd also like to eat at a table with a white linen table cloth and white napkins.
And I also want to be able to pour my own wine without some jumped up waiter rushing up disapprovingly.
I'd also like restaurants to catch on to the fact that brewing beer has come on leaps and bounds in the past decade and actually some of it goes better with food than wine.
And I'd also really like the option of leaving a tip rather than being automatically charged for service.
But most of all I'd rather not be charged for service and still find a blank space on my bill for a tip.

Same here.

There are few restaurants where I have problems finding something on the menu to eat. In the last six months, I've only been to one restaurant where I had major problems and ended up settling for something off the appetizer menu that was halfway appealing.

It's not that I'm picky...I'm just not into pretentious food (okay, so I'm a little picky being that I don't like mushrooms, beets and a few other things that I can't think of right now...). I don't care about the Zagat survey ranking, food critics opinions, yadda yadda yadda. I just want good, non-pretentious food.

And if I can't get the good, non-pretentious food, well...there's almost always a McDonald's, Burger King or convenience store where I can get SOMETHING to eat and drink to satiate my need for food (or food-like substances). :)