Christmas Eve Day Lunch at Benny's on the Beach with my father and friends

Family friends that we hadn't seen for a very long time (Snowbirds from the Rocky Mountains) decided to drive across the state from Ft. Myers. When they arrived a little before lunch I started to think about places they would enjoy and are unique to our City. The answer was "Benny's on the Beach." Surprisingly, there was not that much activity at the beach yesterday. However, the parking area "up top" was full with people waiting for spaces to open up. We dropped off two of our party and I stayed with our guest who drove here and helped negotiate our parking kiosk. No problem. We quickly joined the rest of the party.

In advance of going I made a call to see how long the wait was. A very pleasant woman said there might be 15 minute wait. They didn't take reservations but she said to ask for her when we got there (her name was Jordan if I recall). We were surprised that the other two in our group already had seats and were enjoying the lovely and engaging view of the Atlantic Ocean from the pier. We settled into conversation and got around to looking at the menus. The attentive staff kept checking to see if we were ready to order and filling our beverage needs.

Once we ordered our meals were served within a reasonable time. Two of our party had fish and chips, another had the tuna salad toast and I had the fish tacos. Here are the tacos:

I'm a big fan of fish tacos at Benny's. This was the best plate I've ever had there and would encourage you to give it a try.

I've had this item before, but this plate was the best, with a generous helping of mahi-mahi, cole slaw inside the tacos, sriracha cream sauce and pickled ginger on top with rice on the side. Everyone at the table had good things to say about the food and the experience. Here is a picture of my father, one of our guests, and me enjoying the company, the breeze and the view.

Smiles all over the place at Benny's on Christmas Eve.

The food critic Joseph Thompson III was not spotted which was too bad—would really love to treat him to another hot dog with fries some day. Maybe he was at Mulligan's or took a ride to John G's. Anyhow, the drive to Benny's was an interesting one in that my guests got to see the Gulf Stream hotel, the cottages, and other parts of our downtown. And, as always, it was another wonderful day at the Lake Worth beach.