Natalie Bistro

This restaurant is one I had never heard of before, but we happened to pass it on our delivery runs and it turned out to be a great little find. It is a small and funky breakfast/lunch/coffee place on Rainbow (just north of Spring Mountain) featuring salads, soups, sandwiches, and pizzas. I believe it is run by Europeans because of the ambience and the focus on Greek and Italian specialties. You order at the counter, grab a ridiculously out-dated magazine from the newsrack, and then find a seat at one of the mismatched tables. We sat at the high corner booth which was comfortable but had cushions that needed to be re-covered. I had the Greek Salad served on a unique plate (pictured above) which was crisp, flavorful, and extremely fresh. There was nothing really interesting about it but I really liked how they used small Persian cucumbers instead of the larger and more common English cucumbers because the Persians are really crunchy and perfectly bite-sized. There were plenty of ruby red bed peppers and the tomatoes were actually pretty decent for this time of year. They use good kalamata olives and the knife cuts on their red onions were uniform and of just the right width. I really hate getting salads where the onions are cut so thick that you have to cut them again yourself, and you still end up with big pieces. All in all it was better than most salads in Vegas, and the price was right - $7.99. Ian got the Cobb Salad which was also incredibly fresh and tasty, but again, nothing interesting. The only real complaint about it was that the croutons were not made in house, and the waitress/cook forgot to bring the dressing. It took a little while to get the food considering that there weren't too many other tables and nothing we ordered had to be cooked, but it was worth the wait.

Today's Food: 6.5
Ambience: 5.5
Would we go back? YES