The food is healthy, fresh and bursting...

The food is healthy, fresh and bursting with flavor. The walls are adorned with a changing display of oil paintings, photographs and ceramics by local artists. The tables are ringed with hundreds of books customers can take home.

Welcome to Rex’s Cafe of San Pedro.

“You forget you’re in the big city in here,” says owner Darinka Backic, who bought Rex’s two years ago.

In the morning, the smell of fresh muffins wafts through the air. There’s even a request sheet at the counter for customers to list muffins they’d like. The current favorite is lemon poppy seed ($1.25).

The Frisbee-sized buttermilk pancakes ($2.25) are topped, on request, with pure Vermont maple syrup. A nice accompaniment is the turkey sausage enhanced with fresh fennel.

Among the daily breakfast specials, cook Jose Ramirez prepares huevos Rexcheros . For $4.95, one gets corn tortillas with two eggs topped with jack and Cheddar cheeses, tomatoes, avocado, brown rice, green onions, black olives and homemade red salsa.

Darinka’s mother, Vicky, who grew up in southern Yugoslavia, helps out in the kitchen. She prepares spanakopita, phyllo dough filled with spinach, feta cheese and fresh herbs ($1.95), stuffed grape leaves ($3.95), and an eggplant casserole moussaka ($6.95).

For the pasta lover, vegetarian lasagna made with whole wheat noodles is popular. And if you didn’t get your quota on Thanksgiving, an in-house roasted turkey melt comes with avocado and mushrooms.

There is also an interesting mix of nonalcoholic drinks: boysenberry latte ($1.50) is steamed milk with boysenberry syrup and whipped cream. Hot spiced cider with unfiltered apple juice, nutmeg, clove and cinnamon is fine for a rainy day.

Rex’s Cafe, 2136 S. Pacific Ave. , San Pedro. Open Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. until 2 p.m., Saturday from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. and on Sunday from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. (310) 519-7190 .