Good choice, Dudeson.

I agree that atmosphere and novelty trump the tastiness of the food, for a China old-hand. How about ShiPing Huigan...
www.gokunming.com/en/listings/item/378/shiping_huiguan
Pretty stone courtyard house, few hundred years old, situated south of Green Lake. The food is OK. It's over-priced, but you pay for that ambience. There is a similar place (less pricey) in the Bird & Flower market, and others too. Names escape me for now.

I love the city garden hotpot restaurant on top floor of 'nan ya di yi chen' shopping mall on dianchi rd
Bit of a regular lol

Any McDonald's, KFC or Pizza Hut without a doubt.

They don't have a KFC Select in Kunming.

nian lun(年轮) restaurant.
yunnan cuisine.
nanping street.

I have not found that simply because the food is served at five times the normal price, in a little private room and on a Lazy Suzanne made it actually taste better. I think some of these expensive, fancy places are for face saving more than anything else.

zhulaoye - exactly right, and this is not only a Chinese syndrome either - although the food at such places is usually a bit better than elsewhere and rarely seriously bad, it's never 5 times the value of common sense behaviour either.

On the other hand, common sense can become boring, and people do like to have hired help which is good at pretending to respect them.
So choose your fantasies, pay for them, and suspend your disbelief, like when you go to the theatre. AND ENJOY GOOD FOOD! wherever you find it.