Review: At Natalie's Mediterranean Eatery, family offers Eggertsville worlds of flavor

Traditional vegan dishes plus souvlaki, spanakopita, and chicken lemon rice soup star

Chicken souvlaki wrap, hummus, tabouli, and falafel at Natalie’s Mediterranean Eatery on Millersport Highway in Amherst.

Over two decades, Natalie’s Mediterranean Eatery has earned a spot in Eggertsville’s hearts and stomachs. Its chicken lemon rice soup is reputed to have healing properties, fans say, its savory tang capable of vanquishing colds.

Places like Natalie’s - run by a family serving scratch cooking at family-friendly prices - are especially threatened these days.

As a restaurant critic, my mission includes alerting all eaters within the sound of my review to gather their rosebuds whilst they may. The Applebees of the world will always be with us, it seems, but there are fewer and fewer places like Natalie’s.

Today’s baklava waits for customers at Natalie’s.

In 2002, when Emil and Violette Mansour lost their jobs sewing for M. Wile Co., they turned to Violette’s experience cooking in her native Lebanon to earn the family’s daily bread.

Violette and Emil Mansour launched Natalie’s in 2002.

The Mansours took over Natalie’s Cafe & Deli, a coffee-and-subs place in an Eggertsville plaza on Millersport Highway. With thousands of University at Buffalo students passing by daily on buses between campuses, word spread quickly: plant-based life forms welcome here.