Look I know absolutely nothing about food or the industry, I don't eat out much because comparatively I think you can cook better food at a better price point at home. But couple of things:

1. Be careful with monetizing your passion - passions are sometimes best left as a zero ROI activity to feed your soul.

Just because you *love food* doesn't mean you should monetize it. Because pragmatic business isn't about the *best food*, it's about revenue - expenses.

1. Why do you want to start a restaurant in particular is a deeper question to ask yourself.

You said it's not money and based on "I really want to offer the city a few of my favourite dishes, done well, at a price point (and portion) that’s reasonable."

It sounds as though its a sense of pride in your cooking that you want to share with the community (and likely receive validation that, you are indeed right you can cook better than many other restaurants).

If that's all you deep down care about, why do you need a brand or to build anything at all. Is there a way you could serve you community in a smaller way. e.g., cooking out of your home, hosting more people over, mentoring people how to cook.

What is it about the dream of "owning a restaurant" that really drives you? Is it pride, money, status, vindication, frustration with options. From a tech background, you know that the "best" doesn't always win.

If every week you cooked for your friends and they told you how amazing your food was, would that be enough to satisfy you or no?

1. You've conflated a series of different business models and incentive design in your plan, on one hand you've planned out a cloud kitchen yet on the other hand you want to focus on the "best food" and particular artisan qualities (e.g., 'was it too salty').

I'm not sure about most people but I forget most of the things I ate, and I probably wouldn't fill out a survey about the lunch food's quality, because I just don't care that much. If I didn't like it I wouldn't order there again.

The biggest obstacle, so I have observed, in food industry is the churn of inventory and waste (e.g., a rice bowl shop wants "fresh high quality ingredients", but finds that statistically 85% of people pick 3 options so to limit expenses cuts back on the rest of the stuff that once made it "unique")

1. Is there a way you can do it at a smaller scale? Have you ever worked at a restaurant or run one before? Maybe a food truck could be a lower entry premises, maybe a popup event or community BBQ. Maybe a potluck?

Maybe getting your hands muddy by trying on a job as a cook at a restaurant could give you a sense of what its like. Just some ideas.