Sometimes, when people visit Austin for the weekend, or for events like SXSW, they decide not to rent a car if they are staying downtown. Downtown Austin used to be sort of a ghost town as far as great restaurants went, with a few sprinkled here and there, but not enough to sustain even a weekend visitor very easily. Luckily, Austin is growing like mad, and new restaurants are opening every week.

For the Austin City Guide, I’ve pulled together a list of my top 25 downtown restaurants, with “downtown” in …