re: SEC Tournament - some recommended restaurants?

A little insight on Birmingham before you make your plans. Birmingham is a great city but there are numerous places that are very dangerous. Basically the suburbs are the best areas; Mountain Brook, Vestavia, Hoover, Cahaba Heights and Pelham. These cities are located off two major Hwy 31 and 280. HWY 280 has the tendency to have horrible traffic.

Within 5 miles of Regions Park and safe:
Courtyard on HWY 31
Hampton Inn on HWY 150
Hyatt Place on 150
Renaissance Ross Bridge - Expensive and on a nice golf course
Days Inn on 150. - does not look to be in the best shape
La Quinta on Riverchase Parkway - quiet and very slow on weekend because it is a hotel that serves businesses on Riverchase Parkway.
Whitney Hotel - You pay for the location (attached to the Galleria). Not really that great for the price but will give the wife something to do if she would rather shop than attend the games.

Hwy 280 has hotels and restaurants and is a great area but the aforementioned traffic is a huge problem. These hotels are about 10 miles from Regions Park.

Downtown has the Redmont Hotel which is a nice hotel with a good bar but is a a good distance away from Regions Park and not a good area at night.
Sheraton Downtown is nice and recently renovated but is not in the best area of town.

Restaurants - there are a ton of restaurants but NOTHING that you are used to in LA. Basically, I would suggest going to the BBQ restaurants for the week. It is like telling visitors in LA to go to the Macaroni Grill and not ACME oyster. I would not suggest any seafood place as they are not comparable to what you are used too.
Full Moon
Tin Roof
Golden Rule
Jim N Nicks
Dreamland
GEAUX TIGERS!!!