Samurai Japanese Restaurant (1108 Davie St., phone 604-609-0078) has become one of my favorite places to go for gigantic and fresh sashimi and sushi rolls. Located in the heart of Vancouver’s downtown Davie Street area, Samurai is usually packed with people well into the evening. Be prepared to wait a few minutes in line, but I think you’ll find that the wait is well worth it! Pictured below are the assorted sashimi, and the Saba (mackerel) sashimi. Price is quite reasonable at this restaurant, considering the quality of the food. For two people ordering some pretty fancy items, the bill came out to around $30.00.

Zachary’s on Robson (web site, 121 Robson St., phone 604.605.1472) is located in the Hampton Inn & Suites hotel which is on the south-east end of Robson Street downtown, right next to BC Place Stadium. Their lunch menu is reasonably priced with most items around $11.00, and I found the quality of food to be far better than I’d expect of a restaurant in a hotel. I enjoyed the Halibut pasta special ($11.99, pictured below), which had generous chunks of tender halibut in a tomato-based sauce with mushrooms and artichokes. The spinach salad (also pictured below, around $7) was quite large and tasted really fresh!

Sekoya (myspace) is a Vancouver based band which is pushing the boundaries of the jazz genre into the new realms of electronic soul. Their performance at the 2007 Vancouver International Jazz Festival was a high energy blend of electronic and acoustic beats with soulful vocals by Amalia Townsend and very jazzy horn lines by Alvin Cornista (saxophone/flute) and Kent Wallace (trumpet). You can listen to some of their recordings by visiting their myspace page.