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Slow-cooked lamb shank in savory tomato sauce, served with mashed potatoes, rice, almonds and pine nuts alongside Ksarak, Lebanon’s national drink (Photo by Beth Furgurson)
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The busy dining room of Natalie's (Photo by Beth Furgurson)
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House-made hummus, tabbouleh and pita bread (Photo by Beth Furgurson)
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Sambousek, cheese and spinach pies (Photo by Beth Furgurson)
Omar Abouzaki will tell you he’s no chef, although he fires plenty of kebabs at Natalie’s Taste of Lebanon. He’s a home cook, who learned Levantine stuffing and stews at his mother's stove in Lebanon. It's the cuisine he now brings to the mod, Middle Eastern dining room on Cox Road. Natalie’s is named for Abouzaki’s front-of-house partner, Natalie Schwartz, with whom he worked at the short-lived Nora’s Taste of Lebanon; along with another local Lebanese favorite, Aziza’s on Main, it’s sorely missed. Until now, Richmond has been in a Lebanese-eats down-cycle.
It’s soulful cuisine you’ll find here, with lamb, vegetables and rice carrying the meals. If you want seafood, go to Beirut or Tripoli. This is mountain cooking, with nary a prawn on the menu. You will, from time to time, be offered seafood additions to the evergreen panels categorized by appetizers, entrees, soups, salads and manakeesh, a variety of flatbread.
When venturing to an indie-owned, strip-mall spot like Natalie’s, one defining moment is when the front door swings open: Will it be dark or bright? Busy or dead? Dank and cluttered, or wide-open cafeteria? Natalie’s is none of these. The reveal, on a semi-busy Saturday night, is akin to stepping into a Nate Berkus-designed resort: clean neutrals woke with keyhole cut-out chairs and oceanic blue backsplashes, the marble tilework imported from Lebanon. Tables hold children — there’s pizza! — and swank couples noshing meze over arak, an anise-flavored liquor similar to ouzo. A patio with heavy rattan seating and fabric fluttering in the breeze makes us forget we’re sitting in a parking lot and not in cabanas lining the Mediterranean Sea.
One of the nicest aspects of Natalie’s is that there are no small plates. If you want to share food, and share you will, the portions demand it. You must choose from 37 appetizers — I’m lumping soups, salads and flat- breads into this category — and roughly 20 mains, served with rice and occasionally salad. Put the platters in the center of the table and dive in. After a few service fits and starts — my first three choices are eighty-sixed, a pattern that repeats itself at dessert, when I find, again, only after ordering, that the rice pudding, too, is caput — I’m down for the parade of reasonably priced comfort food.
A balloon of just-baked pita sails to our table, anchored by a bowl of sesame-and-thyme-spiked za’atar for plunging in peels of the steamy bread. We add hummus — creamy, with nutty grit; texturally, think satin versus silk — and decadent labneh, a strained yogurt with garlic and mint all the consistency of mascarpone. Slim grape leaves brimming with soft rice are dispatched in two bites. Fried kibbie, a nibble of cracked wheat and beef, fragrant with onion, comes molded and fried to perfect little scuffs. But the grilled haloumi cheese is squeaky-tough, literally cheeping as it’s chewed, and its salad weathered.
Batata harra, meaning “spicy potatoes,” begins with a sauté of olive oil, cilantro, garlic and lemon juice to which cubes of fried potatoes are tossed, their centers emerging custardy. Sharwarma chicken, a rainbow of paprika, white pepper and a dozen other flavors makes a musky foil to its sharp garlic dip; pickled vegetables add raciness and moisture to the dry meat. They garnish many of our plates, helping us take down cinnamon-scented lamb shank and a tureen of slow-cooked okra with lamb, rekindling appetites between rich, saucy bites.
Natalie’s comfort zone is classics: lentil soup with a glass of Bekaa Valley red. Hard-pressed for a wine description from our server, we discover from the back label we’re drinking a shiraz blend that spices up every slurp.
You’ll find plenty of vegan and gluten-free choices, but no menu rebus. There aren’t twee presentations, either. Pleasurable zelyabeya, deep-fried dough balls sopped with rosewater syrup, are homey, not haute. When chefs cook with love, as Abouzaki says he does, they consider their guests, but stir from their happy place. As for small plates? They’ll bring as many share plates as you like. You’ll need them.
3 out of 4 forks
3601 Cox Road, 804-499-3030
Hours: Monday to Thursday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Prices: $4 to $21
Handicapped-accessible
