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).

Vancouver’s convention center and cruise ship terminal is Canada Place. (click here for more photos and the address of Canada Place)  Below is the view that you get from the restaurant Aqua Riva (200 Granville Street, phone 604-683-5599, web site) which overlooks the sails of Canada place and is a popular tourist destination.

Griffins at the Hotel Vancouver (900 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, phone 604-684-3131) is a decidedly upscale and yet casual restaurant in the sumptuous Hotel Vancouver in the middle of downtown. Most of the patrons at lunch were wearing business attire, but this was not surprising considering that the restaurant is located very close to Vancouver’s main business and financial district. The attraction here is the lunch buffet which is a somewhat formidable $27, but at this price offers a good degree of quality as well as the expected quantity. Pictured below are some of my choices from the buffet table: there is a variety of cold and hot selections including seafood, salads, soup, cuts of meat and pasta dishes, as well as some very tempting desserts.