We have here popular restaurants and ones that are struggling, and to me the differences in food quality and price are, well, none, and maybe even reversed. A few of the former require a credit card to make a reservation, which will be weeks out often as not. We still haven't been to Gunshow, just too many other options.
A lot of this is the celebrity of a few chefs, and a lot of it is whether they make a local magazine's list, and of course then there is the egg lobby.