Sonomama Japanese Restaurant (web site, 980 Granville St., Vancouver, phone 604-662-3770) is a relatively new addition to downtown’s Granville Street strip, amidst the nightclubs and fast food restaurants near the corner of Granville and Nelson. A lot of care has obviously gone into the design and decor of this restaurant: it’s an ultra-modern and stylish room with huge vaulted ceilings, a glowing wrap-around sushi bar, tables and a few comfortable booths. For best value, be sure to try items from the combination menu, such as one of the sushi combinations ($10 to $13) or the Chirashi and Udon combo ($12.95). Chirashi-don (pictured below) is a bowl filled with rice and topped with fresh seafood, and the combo also came with a bowl of hot udon-noodle soup.

Update (Jan 1, 2008): Sonomama has closed and there is a new Indian restaurant there now.

Samurai Japanese Restaurant (more photos, 1108 Davie St. Vancouver, Phone 604-609-0078) is a cozy and very busy restaurant located in Vancouver’s downtown core. It serves yummy Japanese food at reasonable prices. My “Combination C” came with a variety of sushi and sashimi (pictured below) as well as Teriyaki, Tempura, miso soup, and rice. My meal came to $13.73 including tax.

20-1128 West Broadway, Vancouver
Tel: (604) 677-0426
[DineHere.ca link]

I had a very enjoyable meal at this All You Can Eat Sushi restaurant. Price for dinner was $21.95. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves!!