Samurai Sushi Japanese Restaurant (web site, map, 1108 Davie Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604-609-0078) is a good choice for decent quality, affordable sushi in the downtown West End neighborhood. The restaurant is fairly small and does not take reservations, so if you go during peak times you might have to wait a few minutes to get a table. But a policy of no reservations seems to be the norm for some of the more popular and reasonably priced restaurants in the area, such as the Greek restaurant Stepho’s, just a few doors down Davie. Pictured below are some of the items we ate, including the Tuna and Salmon sashimi ($9.95), the Toro Sashimi ($10.50), half order of House Roll sushi ($5.25), chopped scallop roll ($3.90), and some nigiri sushi pieces ($0.99 cents a piece for Inari and Saba, and $1.95 per piece of Ikura salmon roe).

cvancouver writes (click here for their review):

Every sushi roll is over sized and jam packed. Party trays (from $20-$35) are enough to feed 4 average person. Compared to many eat-in restaurants, I find Sashimi to be quite the “bang for your buck.”

For more photos please view Part 3, Part 2, or Part 1.

(above) Tuna and salmon sashimi at Samurai Sushi in Vancouver, $9.95

(above) Toro Sashimi, full order, $10.50, from Samurai Japanese Restaurant

(above) Half order of House Roll Sushi ($5.25) from Samurai Sushi

(above) Ikura sushi ($1.95 each) and chopped scallop roll ($3.90)

(above) Saba nigiri sushi (Mackerel, $0.99 each), Inari sushi (sweet bean curd wrapper, $0.99) and Ikura sushi from Samurai Japanese Sushi restaurant.

Tri-ty Cafe (map, 130 – 8100 Ackroyd Road, Richmond, BC, Canada, phone: 604-231-8997) is a Taiwanese cafe and bubble-tea house located near #3 Road and Westminster Hwy in Richmond. The restaurant has trendy, modern decor, and serves casual Taiwanese dishes as well as a selection of teas, slushies, ice cream or yogurt shakes, and lots more. I tried the Pudding Ice Cream Smoothie (pictured below, around $5) which was gigantic and the perfect sweet refreshing treat for a hot day. The ice milk that they use is like a slushie, and I was slurping on the cold pudding and ice cream so quickly that it gave me a “brain freeze”.

Cooking Nerd writes (click here for her review, with some more photos):

At most tables you get this little LCD screen that continuously flashes food porn a la Tri-ty, making you wish you had ordered that noodle dish instead of the one you did, then actually making you order more. This is a great tactic!

(above) Large Taiwanese style Pudding Icecream Slushie (around $5)

Beatty Street Bar and Grill (765 Beatty Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604-688-3504) is one of my coworkers’ favorite lunch spots for Friday afternoons, and it’s also a great place to grab a beer or some food before (or after) a BC Lions football game at BC Place Stadium or a Canucks hockey game at GM Place. This restaurant / bar is located very close to both stadiums, and is decorated with sports memorabilia. The many TV’s tuned to the sports channels make it easy to keep an eye on the current games.

The Beatty Street food menu is fairly basic, but quite well executed, with daily specials such as Fish and Chips on Fridays, a soup and sandwich special, burgers, pastas, and the usual appies. Prices for lunch are in the $10 to $15 range, which are quite reasonable considering the downtown location. I especially enjoy their pastas, such as the Chicken Pesto Pasta ($13.99, click here for photo), and the Prawn Linguini ($14.99, pictured below). The Prawn and Mussel Linguini was prepared in a simple way, with a basic tomato sauce, lots of yummy cheese, several prawns that were hidden throughout the pasta, and some mussels which I quickly devoured. My only suggestion for this dish would be to add even more prawns, but I was quite satisfied regardless.

This restaurant is located in the Georgian Court Hotel, a popular downtown Vancouver hotel for tourists and business travelers alike. For some more photos of the Beatty Street Bar and Grill please view Part 1.

(above) Prawn Linguini pasta at Beatty Street Bar and Grill ($14.99)