For the purposes of this restaurant guide, Downtown Palo Alto is the contiguous, walkable district centered on University Avenue and bounded on the west by El Camino Real, on the east by Middlefield Road, on the north by Lytton Avenue, and on the south by Homer Avenue. Within those boundaries this guide is exhaustive; it includes every place where you can be served prepared food, bar none. Nearly all of the restaurants are between Forest Avenue (two blocks south of University) and Lytton Avenue (one block north of University) and between Alma Street and Webster Street. Pronunciation of the streets is straightforward, except for Cowper St. The English poet William Cowper, after whom the street is named, pronounced his name “cooper”, as do proper scholars, but here in sophisticated Palo Alto us guys just say “cow-per”. After you eat (or before) you can enjoy walking around downtown, where you will find theaters, bookstores, clothing stores, oriental rug stores, jewelry stores, and more, many even locally owned. Though they do not cover downtown restaurants as thoroughly as this site, some other sites can help you get to know the area better: paloaltoonline.com, paloaltodining.com, paloaltodowntown.com, paloalto.net, and for take-out info takeouteats.org.

About parking: Parking can be a challenge in Downtown Palo Alto. Downtown is divided into zones identified by colors and limited to two hours in a zone during the day. There is no restriction after 6 p.m. There are parking garages offering free parking in the evening in several places (High south of University, Bryant north of University, between Webster and Cowper south of University) and the finer restaurants offer valet parking at night. For more detail than you really want click here.