We had a Price Pfister "Elevate" faucet installed last week and love it. I really like the ability to change the height of the faucet to adjust to my needs -- filling large pot with water (up!) or wanting a clear view out the window (down!).

It was very close to your price point -- $168 -- on clearance at Lowe's last month.

Haven't had any issues with it, but any reviewer that had a complaint also pointed out that PP customer service was easy to work with and corrected any problems quickly.

Here is a link that might be useful: Price Pfister Elevate Kitchen Faucet

As a plumber for over 20 years and repaired thousands of faucets stick with Moen or Delta. The internal parts used in them are the same as they made over 50 years ago so they are made the same as they used to and ease of repair and parts cost cannot be beat.

We built our last house and installed Price Pfister faucets in kitchen and all baths.... and each one developed a different problem over the years. Some major / some minor. Such an incredible hassle. They are beautiful on the outside but you get what you pay for.

We've been disappointed with PP bathroom fixtures. Mostly, the tub and sink drain stoppers just stopped going up and down. We ended up removing the innards... meaning no stopper in the sink and prying up the tub stopper. Due to this experience, we're not even considering PP for the new kitchen. Perhaps ask your plumber for input.

This is a bit over your budget, but I found the Moen Terrace faucet in stainless steel at Lowe's for $178. We had to buy and install it last night, due to a malfunction of our kitchen faucet necessitating an immediate replacement. Overall, I'm pleased. The website I linked to lists one of its functions as "spot resist," and I have found that the brushed stainless of this faucet doesnt seem to leave water spots like it would on shiny stainless. I think Moen makes decent mid-range faucets and have heard good things about their customer service.

Please note this can be installed with or without the escutcheon. I'm looking forward to using this when we get our new undermount sink and countertops, as I think it looks much nicer without the escutcheon.

One other thing---although this faucet does have a high arc, it's not as high as many others like it. Some of them are so high that I feel like it would be almost eye level. The height of this faucet feels comfortable to me, with the higher profile that most faucets have these days but not too exaggerated in height.

Here is a link that might be useful: Moen Terrace Kitchen Faucet

I have the Moen Anabelle, also spot-resistant. We've had it for about 6 months now, and I love it!

I've been really happy with this faucet, both in function & looks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Moen Anabelle faucet

Regarding "brands" - our upstairs bathroom fixtures (showers, tubs, sinks) are Kohler and are almost 17 years old. We have had no problems whatsoever with them in that time. In fact, they're in such good condition and work so well that I'm having a difficult time convincing my DH to put in new fixtures to update the bathrooms!

This might be over your budget, but we had this Delta Leland single faucet installed last month. It is $198, but with a 10% off coupon from Lowes (you can buy them on ebay), it will bring the cost down to around $170. I love our new faucet.

We didn't install the face plate or the soap dispenser to keep things simple with our single hole Kohler dual mount single bowl sink.

Here is a link that might be useful: Home Depot Delta Leland faucet

mrartsncrafts, If the sink is used as an undermount, does the faucet get installed through that same single hole?

When we ordered our sink and faucet, I was adamant that I wanted a single hole sink becuase I didn't want to use the escutcheon plate with the faucet. However, a friend who worked at a plumbing supply distributor ordered the sink and faucet, and he discovered that the sink was not availalbe with 2 holes (I wanted 1 for the faucet and 1 for the soap dispenser), so he ordered one with 4 holes without telling us. If I had been given the choice, I would have done without the soap dispenser if a 1 hole sink was available in the style we chose or choose a completely different sink. However, he never considered that it would make any difference---despite my repeated comments that I did not want to have the escutcheon plate. When it arrived, we needed to get our sink put in---plus we didn't want to make problems for our friend who had been kind enough to help us out---so we resigned ourselves to using the escutcheon plate. We are planning an update to our kitchen, to include an undermount sink, and I am so looking forward to finally having a single hole faucet, with a soap dispenser next to it.

I have the kohler coralais pullout faucet. Purchased it online. It's been installed for about a year and have had no issues.

Here's a vote for the Kohler Forte. We installed ours without the escutheon plate, but that's up to you. I love the simple design and the simplicity of the spray/stream lock function.

I had worried a bit about the scale of it: it looks big in some photos because it's reasonably high. But that's not an issue at all in our kitchen. It looks great and works flawlessly with our Orca sink.

We've had ours for five or six months.

Price is very competitive -- less than your budget, and you can find them at most plumbing supply shops and at the big boxes.

We installed the Delta Leland as well. I got it on Amazon for $178. We love it.

I installed a Delta Ashton from Lowes 9 ish months ago, and while I love the pulldown head, ease of moving the faucet, the magnetic docking, I don't love the switch between the spray and non-spray. You have to push it really hard to avoid dripping.

My DH was adamant about the magnetic docking, while I was drooling over a Brizo. I wish now we'd tried the Brizo. I will say the installation was a snap -- really, really easy, and it looks great, no water spots, etc.