Nicest hotel is the Canterbury. The Westin, Hyatt and Marriott are all very nice. Non-chain restaurants are scarce. One of the best ones is Malibu on Maryland. St. Elmo's is a hunk-o-beef classic expensive steak house. Not my style but lots of people like it. Palomino is a small, upscale chain that is very good too.

Agree with those hotel recos, plus the Adams Mark is pretty nice, as is the Radisson (and it's right on the "circle" - a round-a-bout at the direct center of the city). It was rennovated a few years ago so the interior is still fairly new.

Restaurants - would highly recommend Scholar's Inn which is about 3-4 short blocks from the Murat - a very easy walk. Food is excellent, reservations strongly suggested, especially if there's a show at the Murat that night. Also would recommend Rathskeller, but the atmosphere isn't as upscale.

I stayed at the Adams Mark on Saturday night. The room was nice, but kids who were in town for a band competition we're running down the hallways and playing on the elevators all night. I went with some guys for the Colts/Jets game on Sunday. Since we had more than a few beers we didn't care about the noise, but if I was with my wife on a vacation I would have been furious.

We stayed at Adams Mark this summer and were disappointed. They were really messed up in reservations- we couldn't get a room until 5:30 and we had a dinner reservation at 6! Also had a few other problems there. Last month, we stayed at the Marriott and were pleased.My husband went to priceline and requested a 3 star downtown hotel and got it for $80.

I've stayed at the Hyatt, it was good, much like other city Hyatts. Probably cater more to business traveler than others, but you know what to expect with a Hyatt.
As for dinner, not many really nice restaurants in downtown Indy. I've been to St. Elmo's, an Indy institution. It's good, not great, maybe a bit overrated. They're famous for the shrimp cocktail--it is very good, very powerful cocktail sauce.