Falafel House (902 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, phone 604-806-0045) is a fast food restaurant that serves Lebanese cuisine. Choose from a chicken or beef donair, a chicken schwarma plate, a falafel plate, or a vegetarian plate (pictured below). The vegetarian plate comes with rice wrapped in grape leaves, a samosa, some falafel, humus and pita bread, as well as two kinds of salads. It is around $6.00 plus tax.

Falafel House is big enough to seat maybe around 10 to 15 people comfortably, but is also popular for take out. The restaurant is located near the many night clubs on the Granville Strip downtown, and is open late.

Update June 1st 2008: The Falafel House restaurant has changed to a pizza place, which is also open late.

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).

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).