For customers who are willing to wait, Small said, Mimi's has a spacious lobby with lots of seating, a fireplace, television and newspapers set out to make the wait more enjoyable.

"Typically, unless it's Mother's Day or Thanksgiving, we don't go higher than an hour wait, and it's usually more like 30 or 45 minutes," he said. "One of the most important things for us is trying to make a comfortable place for people to wait. If people have to stand outside, it's not fun."

Small said his staff give customers an immediate, honest wait time and also make sure they clear dirty tables quickly to move waiting customers into the dining rooms.

"We try to take care of people, and we do that as fast as we can," he said.

Rich Trujillo is general manager of Iggy's, a popular sports bar and grill at the Union Heights shopping center in Midvale. Iggy's doesn't take reservations for groups smaller than eight and has a fairly small waiting area, but Trujillo said the restaurant has other ways to compensate.

Customers can wait at the bar, he said, as long as they remember that Utah law prohibits having more than one alcoholic drink without ordering food. Those who wait in the lobby can watch sports on numerous big-screen televisions, and Trujillo said they usually don't have to wait long.

"I don't know any of our stores that aren't busy on weekends,' (but) we do move people to a table pretty quickly," he said. "Our longest wait that I've seen is when a Jazz game is on or something like that.

"When that happens, we just let people know right up front how long the wait's going to be, and they can decide."

Andrea Person of Midvale usually decides to move on if the wait is too long. If she and her husband, Elliot, are with their two sons, ages 4 and 2, the limit is about 20 minutes because that's about how long she can "stave them off" with snacks and stories.

However, she's flexible on that rule.

"I've got a brother that, if he goes to a restaurant and it's a 20-minute wait, he'll get in his car and drive 25 minutes for a two-minute wait," Person said. "It's ridiculous to put a time limit on it that's too rigid. Usually, if I have my mind set on something I'm going to eat, I'll wait for it."

Person said most of the men she knows are more impatient than the women.

"In my circle of friends, I'd say the men are definitely the ones who want to leave (if lines are long)," she said. "Their top time would be about 10 minutes."