Here are places we go - my kids are now 1, 4 and 6...
From your hotel, go North on the frontage road of I-35 and turn left onto 290/71 to go west. If you go down to the exit for Lamar (about 3 miles down) there will be a couple shopping areas. The one on the right has Outback and Azul Tequila. If you turn right onto Lamar the shopping center on your immediate left has Trudys, Chilis, Pei Wei, Fuddruckers, Olive Garden and El Rey. Further North (but within a mile) there is Golden Corral and Red Lobster and probably a few others.
If instead of turning left you go North on I-35 a few miles there is an exit for Riverside Drive. Exit there and turn left. A little ways down there is a Joe's Crab Shack with one of the best views in Austin (lake and downtown). There are geese which keep my kids entertained for hours. If you keep going past Congress there will be Threadgills on the left, Bennigans on the right.
Any of those should be within 10 minutes or so of you. There are other places too, but due to the hotel location they would either be harder to get to or harder to get home from. Let me know if you have any other questions!!
