Ben.z Noodle Restaurant (536 Seymour Street, 604-688-8385) is a recently opened Vietnamese restaurant that is within walking distance of the Waterfront skytrain station, Canada Place convention center and cruise ship terminal downtown. The menu is very friendly even to newcomers to this delicious cuisine, with only a few main choices and lots of pictures.

The Vietnamese Salad Rolls ($5.25, pictured below) are one of my favorite items: prawns, vermicelli noodles, and vegetables are wrapped in a delicate rice wrapper, served cold with peanut dipping sauce. The beef pho soup (reasonably priced at $7.75, also pictured below) is a huge bowl filled with various kinds of meats and noodles in a steaming broth.

This is comfort food at its best and is perfect for a rainy Vancouver day. The soup is served with a side plate of bean sprouts, fresh herbs, hot peppers, and a couple slices of lime (also pictured below).

Kadoya Japanese Restaurant (1063 Davie St., Vancouver, 604-608-1115) is a tiny Japanese restaurant on Davie Street downtown, across from the Celebrities gay night club. Kadoya is usually packed with people around 7pm on a weekday, and reservations are recommended. Enjoy some of their colorful, inventive sushi creations such as the specialty rolls pictured below (approx. $7.95 per roll). A very large dinner for two came to approximately $40.

Falafel Maison (516 Robson Street, Vancouver, 604-647-6450) is a small take-out restaurant that serves Mediterranean cuisine. The Chicken Shwarma plate is a humongous serving of grilled chicken on rice with tatziki and hot sauce, a small green salad, humus and pita bread (pictured below, $6.25).