Taco Tuesday, but make it rooftop.

Taco Tuesday in Pacific Beach usually runs on a formula. Loud bar, sand still on your shoes, tacos as an excuse for the drinks. The Beverly Beach Garden flips it. Same deal energy — but the board lands on a rooftop table, the garnish is doing outfit-level colour coordination, and the Pacific is over there handling the lighting for free.

I went up this afternoon to scout it properly. Appetite first, questions later.

The deal, before the food

Every Tuesday, The Beverly takes 50% off its tacos — and, for the record, 50% off tequilas and draft beers too — from 12 PM until close. Now the honest part, which is also the good news. I rolled in early — tacos ordered by 4:30 — purely for golden hour, because that light on that rooftop waits for nobody and neither do I — and the 50% was already on my bill. No waiting around for some evening window. Just learn from my timing: go for golden hour, and the discount is already running.

My receipt, since you'll ask: Baja Fish $3 · Seared Ahi $4 · Shrimp $4 · Roasted Achiote Cauliflower $3 · Carnitas $3. Five tacos, $17 of tacos, zero regrets.

One more thing that matters more than it sounds. On the regular menu, the tacos come in orders of three. On Taco Tuesday they go à la carte — per taco, mix-and-match across the whole menu, which is exactly how five different tacos ended up spread over my two plates. Either way, they land on fresh homemade corn tortillas. A tortilla is half the taco. These taste like somebody in the kitchen actually cares about that, and you can tell from the first bite — warm, soft, a little blister on the edges.

Board one: Baja fish, seared ahi, shrimp. Sunset doing the food photography a favour behind them.

Board one: the seafood run

The Baja Fish is the classic, done the way the classic wants to be done. One long fillet of beer-battered white fish under coleslaw, pico de gallo and avocado crema. Crunch on the outside, soft in the middle. It vanished while I was still deciding which taco to start with, which tells you everything.

Next to it, the Seared Ahi is the show-off of the board. Miso sesame crust, sliced thick, still rare in the middle, with pickled onion, coleslaw and roasted garlic aioli. It is a very composed, very confident taco — the kind that makes a table go quiet for exactly one bite.

Third up, the Shrimp: citrus-marinated, avocado crema, pickled onion, lime over the top. Bright and a little sweet. If the ahi is the one you photograph, the shrimp is the one you quietly reorder.

Board two: the overachievers

Two tacos, zero filler. The Cauliflower goes roasted achiote these days — charred florets, grilled pineapple, cotija, pickled onion — and it eats like it has something to prove. Sweet heat first, salty cheese after, real char underneath. Vegetarians get an actual taco here, not an apology with lettuce.

And the Carnitas. Slow-braised pork, cilantro-lime crema, pickled onion. Simple on paper. In practice it is the taco I kept thinking about on the drive home, the pickled onion cutting in at exactly the moment the richness needs it.

Still on my list

Three more sit on that menu with my name pencilled next to them: the Asada, the Chicken Adobo, and The Cali — skirt steak with truffle fries on the taco, which is either genius or chaos. I intend to find out. A Tuesday only has so many hours, and I spent mine wisely. Report to follow.

How to do it right

The Beverly Beach Garden, 4190 Mission Blvd, Pacific Beach. It's the rooftop — mint-green garden furniture, orange umbrellas, heaters standing by for when the marine layer remembers where it lives. Go on a Tuesday. The deal runs 12 PM to close — aim for golden hour for the light, and let the sunset be your second course. PB parking is its own competitive sport, so give yourself a few extra minutes and don't let it make you late.

And since someone always asks: I don't drink, so the tequila half of this deal is wasted on me. The menu runs mocktails, my glass stayed on water, and it changed nothing. The tacos were the whole point. They usually are.

See you up there next Tuesday. I'll be the one ordering both boards again.