Khai Thai Cuisine (809 Seymour Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604-682-7000) is a nicely decorated, airy room with skylights, and a layout of tables and cozy nooks in which to enjoy a relaxing Thai meal.

Located conveniently in the heart of downtown Vancouver near hotels such as the Vancouver Westin Grand, as well as the Vancouver Public Library, Khai Thai Cuisine has affordable lunch time specials, with a variety of choices of curries and other Thai dishes such as the Pad Thai.

The combinations are $9.95 at lunch, and come with a green salad (pictured below), rice, deep fried spring roll, and a main course such as the Penang Curry with Chicken (also pictured below). I found the service was excellent and the flavors of the curry were so good that I finished every last spoonful!

Panang Thai Chicken Curry, served with rice, spring roll, and green salad (pictured above), all for $9.95 (at lunch time).

Tanpopo Japanese Restaurant (1122 Denman Street, Vancouver, BC, phone 604-681-7777) serves “all you can eat” sushi in its downtown, West-End location. Lunch time prices are around $12 for the sushi buffet, and dinner (which features a greater selection) is around $22. Service was attentive, and the kitchen was fast, bringing our orders out quickly. The sushi tasted really good too. Tanpopo is just steps away from the English Bay beach and within walking distance of Stanley Park.

(update Jan 2, 08) Olivia writes:

Also noteworthy is the fact that you can order unlimited sashimi. I don’t eat raw fish, but for sashimi lovers, this is great news! ^_^

Pictured below are some of the items we ordered.

Pan fried gyoza

Ebi sunomono salad (with shrimp)

Salmon and tuna sashimi

California roll and salmon maki sushi

Salmon maki sushi

Chicken katsu (breaded chicken cutlet)

Taking the ferries over to Victoria is a popular day-trip for visitors to the Vancouver area. The ferry terminal at Tsawassen (on the Vancouver side) has a marketplace with a variety of vendors serving delicious food, such as Taste of BC (web site) which serves fresh and smoked BC salmon. I ordered the Smoked Salmon bagel (pictured below, $6.95) which was served with fresh smoked BC Salmon, onions, capers, and cream cheese. This was a special treat while waiting in line for the ferry.

Smoked salmon bagel with cream cheese, capers, and onions ($6.95)