The Foundation (2301 Main, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604-708-0881) is a funky vegetarian restaurant with retro decor and a liberal, activist vibe. Popular dishes include the nachos, salads, and pasta. Pictured below is my Mango Forte pasta ($9.75) which was an inventive dish that combined rotini pasta with a sweet dressing, fresh stir-fried vegetables, mango, and spinach salad, sprinkled with fresh Parmesan cheese.

Many people discuss The Foundation on DineHere.ca (click here for review link). Bexby Jones, a reviewer, writes:

It’s not really a place to bring a date (unless your date is an outdoorsy vegan hippy/ skateboarder musician type) and I probably wouldn’t go here for business dinners. But it’s great for friends/ boyfriends/ girlfriends, no matter who you are. The food is definitely comfort food. The rice/ quinoa dishes are rich and saucy with nuts and raisins and things in them. They kind of remind me of stuff my vegetarian hippy mom would make me (if I had one). The salads are tasty. My favourite dish by far is the nachos. For just $8 you get a platter of nachos with corn and beans, and amazing salsa/sour cream, that can fill two people. At night it’s a great place to come for candlelight & wine. They’re open late, too. Sun-Thurs till 1am and Fri/Sat till 2am (but they stop serving drinks at 1am).

Mango Forte pasta ($9.75)

Fujiya Japanese Foods (web site, 912 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604.251.3711) is a Japanese grocery store at Clark and Venables in Vancouver that has a wide selection of fresh, already-prepared sushi and bento boxes at reasonable prices. Items such as those pictured below are in the $3 to 6 range, and if you go 1 hour before closing the items start going on discount. There are a few small tables at the store, but most people go for take-out.

Fujiya also has locations in Richmond (#113-3086 St. Edwards Drive, Richmond, BC, Canada, phone: 604.270.3715), downtown Vancouver (112-1050 W. Pender Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604.608.1050), and Victoria (624 Shelbourne Street, Victoria, BC, Canada, phone: 250-598-3711).

Assorted Nigiri Sushi (deluxe) – around $6

Maki sushi (around $4)

Spicy sushi roll (around $4)

The Reef Restaurant (web site, 4172 Main Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604-874-5375) serves Caribbean cuisine, a blend of European, African, and Asian flavors. The decor really adds to the candle-lit atmosphere, complete with a flaming steel drum, a wooden cottage facade with a corrugated tin roof over the kitchen window, and some colorful original paintings (which incidentally are for sale).

Check out their menu, which includes delicious items such as Oistin’s Flying Fish, a “Delicacy of Barbados”, fried in Bajan spices served with tartar sauce ($9, pictured below), as well as the Jamaican Jerk Wild Salmon ($14, also pictured below), which was really flavorful.

Flying Fish – a Caribbean delicacy ($9)

Jamaican Jerk Wild Salmon ($14)