My husband's Birthday is this weekend and I'm wanting to take him to the West End in Dallas. Any suggestions re best places to stay and best restaurants? I've booked a room at the Amerisuites which is within walking distance of everything, but can always change it....has anyone stayed there before???? Thank you, eb from Texas

Well the NICEST (i.e. expensive) place I can think of that is RIGHT THERE in WestEnd (though it's been a while for me) is The Palms. Being a steakhouse, it is the sort to appeal to a man oriented bday dinner. However, again, that's just WestEnd, strikes me that there are definitely better places to be had downtown then this standby...anyone?

Never stayed at Amerisuites...but have stayed at the Hyatt (Reunion Tower). Nice enough (faded a bit), HUGE. And if you stayed there you could just go up to another old old standard, Antares in the ball (although I'd probably choose to just have drinks and go somewhere else...it's a wonderful night time view of course )

Antares is great for a drink & view. Landry's does a good job for a meal... would like to try The Palms myself one day.

I appreciate the response from both of you, though I failed to check this posting before we left around noon on the 16th....
Would like to tell you how our trip turned out tho.....we stayed at the Amerisuites for $89 and it was great, although I would definitely recommend parking at the $5.00 lot across the street rather than pay the $14.00 valet parking fee. If you book the Amerisuites, go to their webpage and choose the weekend rate. We've been to the Palms before in Houston and wish we had tried the one at the West End, although I know it's pretty pricey. We ate at Joe's Crab Shack and I was a little disappointed (like the one in Houston much better). We were also surprised that the West End was not as lively as it was when we were there a couple of years ago, but it was definitely nice to be in an area where we could park the car and walk around, go to eat, etc., without fighting the traffic. We had brunch at Brazil's in Deep Ellum on Sunday and it was good and apparently very popular with the locals, but probably won't go back. eb from Texas

Yes, West End has gotten much quieter in the past few years. It is mostly patronized by out-of-towners and convention attendees. Most of the locals go to Deep Ellum, McKinney Avenue, or Greenville Avenue.

I'll agree that Joe's is NOT very good. It's also a chain, and I generally avoid those since the food is usually just OK. One of the best restaurants in the West End is Lombardi's italian. Sorry I didn't see your post earlier, or I would have recommended it!