so how long will you wait in line for food?....

I personally would not wait over 30 minutes for any restaurant. This is especially true for the restaurants who always seem to have long lines like Cheesecake Factory, Outback and Cheddars and other restaurants of that type. Of course they just serve generic foods of mediocre quality that attract the masses which is the purpose of a chain restaurant!

Just about any restaurant that is worth eating at will either take reservations or at least has call ahead seating. If the restaurant doesn't have either of these they don't care about their customers in my opinion.

I will not wait for any (sit down) chain restaurant. The food/experience just isn't good enough to absorb that much extra time just waiting to sit. I think I genuinely shocked the hostess at the Hurstborne Olive Garden when we were told it would be a 30 minute wait and I thanked the her and proceeded to exit. She asked if we wanted to put our name on the list. I politely said, "no thank you" and the look on her face was one of disbelief. I still never understood all of those people lined up outside Cheesecake Factory in the mall...

For indis, I'll wait a reasonable amount of time that is usually the equivalent of an hour, maybe more if I really really like the place and we can get drinks.

30 minutes. Anywhere.

30 minutes max if they have a bar.

Assuming no advance reservations,
30 minutes with a bar with seating
10 - 15 minutes otherwise tops
For us it is rarely a surprise on arrival. I currently have 83 local restaurant phone numbers loaded on my cell and if we still can't decide I have an old PDA (remember those?) with about 320 we can draw on to find a place without a wait. Trust me, there's always a local indy we really, really like that we can get in right away. The ones that are we interested in but repeatedly can't get in based on our wait rules on traditionally busy nights we just have to plan on going to on odd weekdays. We normally call ahead to see if there's a wait and pick a place to eat based on no wait or 10 - 15 minutes. We're not in the biz but figure if there's a wait to amount to much the kitchen is probably understandably more pressured on output than attention to detail. To wait and then have rushed food is not a plan.

I'm very cranky when it comes to waiting. I will not wait more than 10 minutes- there are too many great places to eat to have to wait longer than that for a table. It's been my rule of thumb for 20 years.

Yep, 3 year old in tow, I'm never waiting more than 15 mins for a table. I'd do it solo or with friends, but not w/ niño.
Re: call ahead seating...it's just a back handed way to cut ahead in line. If a joint does it, I'm all over it. But it's cheating and shouldn't be expected.

Re: call ahead seating...it's just a back handed way to cut ahead in line. If a joint does it, I'm all over it. But it's cheating and shouldn't be expected.

I've never heard that way of looking at it before. I look at it as a short term reservation. You've already decided where you want to go so you're just checking to see where they will have a table for you. I certainly don't consider it cheating, it's just a smart use of your time. If a restaurant has it and you don't use it you're just wasting your time. I personally don't understand why every restaurant doesn't have it.

Re: call ahead seating...it's just a back handed way to cut ahead in line. If a joint does it, I'm all over it. But it's cheating and shouldn't be expected.

I've never heard that way of looking at it before. I look at it as a short term reservation. You've already decided where you want to go so you're just checking to see where they will have a table for you. I certainly don't consider it cheating, it's just a smart use of your time. If a restaurant has it and you don't use it you're just wasting your time. I personally don't understand why every restaurant doesn't have it.

Call-ahead seating can be a problem if the place doesn't know how to integrate late-arriving call-ahead parties with those parties already waiting. I'm sure there's a system to use to make it integrate the people seamlessly, but there's at least one local indie that seems to not know how to do it.

When I eat out w/ family or friends I'll wait as long as the person(s) that chose the restaurant is willing to. This doesn't happen when I choose restaurants because I wouldn't pick a place that has a wait. If they have a wait then they're probably doing just fine & I'd rather take my business somewhere that it's needed. My brother bought me a gift card for Cheddar's for my birthday & we waited for about 1.2 hours before we were seated. I didn't mind so much because we were able to drink at the bar & their croissants were actually better than I would've expected.

I typically eat later then most people (after 9pm) so I usually never have to wait. That said, I also do a fair amount of dining out in large groups (8 or more) and I am used to waiting. If I show up at a place to eat, I don't mind waiting 45 minutes or so.

That said, I might not be so willing to go BACK to a place that had a 45 minute wait.