This was another of the shut-the-first-time-we-tried attempts in our San Pedro culinary odyssey, and the second time we went and found Beach City Grill open happened to be a Wednesday , when the daily lunch special was two desserts for the price of one (it happens on Tuesdays as well). Oh dear. Well, with this in view we both settled for salads — Yucatan chicken (with roasted pepitas and chipotle-lime dressing) and Jamaican chicken (“the next best thing to a trip to Montego Bay” — specifically with the inclusion of mandarins, strawberries, and fried plantains… oh yes). So far, so delicately and individually spiced and excellent, but what really pushed BCG into five-star territory was those desserts. The Key Lime Cheesecake had a quite startling depth and intensity of citrus flavor, with additional hidden taste bombshells in the form of small pieces of dark chocolate buried in the crust, while the Caramel Bacon Pie was simply sensational. I’m probably the last kid on the block to get his head around the idea of bacon as a dessert ingredient, but for any others like me the nearest I can get to a description is something like a warm cinnamony apple pie better than the best you ever had in New England, plus again hidden taste bombshells, this time chewy bacon bits lurking in its depths that nonetheless chimed perfectly with their more conventional surroundings. The crust was short and rich, the portion ample, and a generous scoop of vanilla bean ice cream topped it off. One lunch clearly didn’t begin to do justice to BCG’s menu; we’ll be back for more, and for dinner.

I really wanted this place to be good. Sadly, it was not. The highlights were the owners who greeted us warmly. The booths are cute, lots of interesting decor, beach towel table clothes under glass. The lighting is very bright, too bright. The Cajun sweet potato fries were very good. Our waitress was sweet and attentive. The rest of the waitress staff was young, inexperienced, and appeared uninterested. My soup was barely warm and the other food was ok. (The table next to use sent one of their entrees back.) I\m hoping lots of people like this restaurant and it does well. It\s just not for me.