W Downtown is not in the nicest neighborhood.
It is connected to an office building and then it's mostly downtown residential.
If you're looking for nice downtown, the Westin is the best choice.
W Buckhead is known as the nicest.
I've stayed at W Downtown & W Midtown. Both are typical Ws. Buckhead is nicer in general, if you're looking for posh.
If you're looking for proximity to specific places, then Downtown/Midtown are closer to tourist attractions.
I should have listened better to my Fellow DDFers. I checked into the W downtown and was very unimpressed. I stayed over the first night and then we switched over to the St. Regis which was unbelievable. I would HIGHLY recommend it, it is the nicest part of town with a beautiful outdoor mall across the street. The 25k SPG is a stretch so if you're going longer than two days I would settle with the W Buckhead - which seems to be the nicest W in Atlanta. The downtown location IS GREAT if you are spending the bulk of your time on the downtown attractions but you will be giving up a more comfortable experience. I gotta say that I think I am finished with W's as the last several have been pretty lackluster.
In terms of my food experience there, we only stuck to two places Broadway Cafe and Fuego Mundo. Both were definitely impressive for an out of town local.
Broadway Cafe - They are very strict about the breakfast menu ending at 11AM, we got there several minutes later and were denied. The Jalapeno Pizza was good. The hot chocolate basically means that they give you a cup and instant hot cocoa and you make it yourself.