Natalia’s Elegant Creations was recently voted the best pastry shop in town. Since I wasn’t the one voting in that poll, I immediately became suspicious and vowed to either disprove that poll or eat delicious pastries. Luckily for Natalia’s, I ended up eating.
Natalia’s Elegant Creations was recently voted the best pastry shop in town. Since I wasn’t the one voting in that poll, I immediately became suspicious and vowed to either disprove that poll or eat delicious pastries. Luckily for Natalia’s, I ended up eating.
Natalia’s basically tries to recreate the food, atmosphere and je ne sais quois of a Parisian cafe. Apart from the fact that many Parisian cafes do not share Natalia’s scenic view of a Burke and Herbert drive-thru bank or blast Enya from their speakers, Natalia’s does a pretty good job. The tables are intimate and the interior does not reek of desperation the way many other faux-Parisian cafes do. Despite the Enya, I was looking forward to whatever I was going to order on the spot for no reason other than it looked like it might taste good.
Normally I go into how much I like one particular thing and then go off about something that has absolutely no relation to the subject at hand, but this time I’m going to have to start off with some displeasure. The turkey sandwich, with apples, gouda and honey mustard on sourdough, was pretty good. But sandwiches are not meant to come with a selection of “baby carrots, tomatoes, fresh berries, grapes, snowpeas, peppers, celery and cucumber sticks.”
Maybe I should have expected this, as I was ordering a sandwich in a place with the word “elegant” in the title, but sometimes a sandwich just needs to be a sandwich and not get prettied up for the purpose of being entered in a débutante ball. Furthermore, the chocolate milk was more milk than chocolate. When I order a chocolate milk, I want it to be so full of chocolate that it needs a bilateral trade agreement just to be in the country. This just felt like milk with a fraction of a Hershey’s kiss shaved into it.
But this place isn’t famous for sandwiches or chocolate milk. This is where you go to get pastries, and by golly, they’re good pastries. The vanilla-bean cup is almost like a pudding but slightly firmer and extremely subtle with the vanilla, but I get the feeling that a person could run through a few dozen of them before he or she noticed that they had added a few thousand calories to their diet. These things are dangerously addictive.
The lemon tart is literally to-die-for. As in, I will put you six hundred feet under if you try to take it away from me or order the last one before me. It’s a creamy and not-too-tangy masterpiece inside a buttery crust with a tiny sugar lemon-wedge on top. I assume it would taste incredible cold, but I was too busy eating it to find out. It seems like it could melt quickly though, so don’t leave it anywhere hot. Also, don’t leave it near anyone that you don’t trust 1000%, as they will definitely steal it.
Finally, the chocolate orange truffle bar will solve all problems ever. It’s basically a big ol’ brick of fudge with an incredible orange flavor that sneaks up on you. I may become comatose after eating it, but that’s a small price to pay for the divinity that my taste buds have witnessed.
Natalia, I uphold your News-Press “Best Of” award for Best Bakery and bestow unto you my own “Your-Pastries-Are-Ballin’-Outta’-Control” award.
Good job. Now ship over a sample-crate with everything you’ve got.
Natalia’s Elegant Creations
230 W. Broad St., Falls Church
703-241-8040
nataliaselegantcreations.com
Hours:
Tuesday – Thursday & Sunday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Friday – Saturday, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Closed Monday
