Along the street of Central Avenue stands Natalie, a Peruvian seafood delight. 

Natalie originally was only located in Hollywood, but has recently opened a location in Glendale. 

Upon entering Natalie, you’re instantly met with beautiful paintings that reflect Peru’s beauty, along with the sound of beautiful Hispanic music that invites a relaxing atmosphere to peacefully enjoy your food. Although the ambience of the restaurant is wonderful, the space is quite limited and it’s difficult for big families to comfortably indulge in their food while the area is small. 

What I love most about Peruvian restaurants is the fact that they always welcome us with warm bread and butter. This sets the tone for the meal, which we’re about to devour. Anyone who comes here should try the water, which is enhanced by mint and lemon. Not only does it come in a big jar, leaving plenty for refills, but it leaves you with a sense of refreshment. Two well-known drinks everyone should try include Inca Kola — a golden bubblegum-like drink — and chica morada — a grape-like juice.

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To begin the meal, we started off with ordering papa a la huancaina and choros a la criolla. These are exceptionally delicious appetizers due to the balance of a creamy and sour taste. Papa a la huancaina is a dish consisting of potatoes covered in a yellow, creamy sauce, which complements the sour taste of choros a la criolla, a dish consisting of mussels with cutup onion. 

The entrees we ordered consisted of tallarines verdes, or “green spaghetti”,arroz chaufa, and lomo saltado. Personally, tallarines verdes are the highlight of my Peruvian dining experience. However, I particularly enjoyed Natalie tallarines verdes relatively more than the other Peruvian restaurant. The other restaurants don’t exactly capture the exquisite taste of the dish. Whether it’s too creamy, not enough sauce, or just tastes completely off, Natalie had none of these qualities and exceeded my expectations. What’s great about ordering tallarines verdes is that it was accompanied by cooked potato and breaded chicken. I’ll admit that the constant taste of the spaghetti’s sauce can be exhausting, but the potato and chicken calm the constant repetitiveness down. 

For all of you Chinese food lovers, arroz chaufa was influenced by Chinese fried rice. You even get the choice of deciding if you want it to be accompanied by shrimp or chicken. Lomo saltado was made for meat-lovers, a dish made up of beef, onion, tomato, and rice. 

To end the meal on a good note, we ordered lucuma, a delicious ice cream based off of the Peruvian fruit, which resembles an orange avocado. 

It’s now become a weekly ritual for my family and I to go eat there since the food is too delicious to resist. Since I haven’t had the chance to visit Peru, Natalie is a way to experience the great food Perú has to offer. However, going there can be pricey, especially if you’re going to buy more than five plates as it almost amounts to $100. I’d recommend you only bring a couple of people along with you due to the food being more on the expensive side.

No need to go all the way to Perú for it’s authentic food, when you can go to Natalie.

Address: 205 N Central Ave, Glendale, CA 91205

Phone: (818) 551-1677

Hours: Sunday – Thursday: 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Friday – Saturday: 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.