I’m totally posting about these because I’ve been craving them lately but they were just sooo good and I’ve never had anything like them before! Pasteis de Belem serves traditional Portuguese egg tarts and they’ve been doing it for years! I suggest you get to Pasteis de Belem early because the line is usually out the door!
Pasteis de Belem interior
There were Portuguese egg tarts everywhere we looked when we got into the little cafe. Behind the counter were numerous staff trying to meet the demands of the orders going out the door. Once you are in cafe, youcan make your order at the counter. You then pay and get a number before waiting on the side for your pastries.
While we were waiting for our number to be called, we walked around the seemingly small cafe and saw the bakery. There were soooooo many Portuguese egg tarts I can only imagine how many they get through a day! It was humbling to know that everything was baked freshly in house. Then brought directly from the kitchen to the counter.
Instead of just putting the pastries in paper bags, Pasteis de Belem puts them into a carton which perfectly holds 6 tarts. The container keeps them from being squished and it’s compact so it’s portable unlike the plastic egg tart boxes I see here in Vancouver.
Each pastry was packaged with a blue and brown packet. We later found out that they were packets of cinnamon and powdered sugar.
Portuguese egg tarts
Each Portuguese egg tart wasn’t very big. It was probably 3″ in diameter at most. The pastry was very interesting in that it was baked until it was crispy and crunchy. I really liked that because it gave a nice contrast to the soft and gooey custard middle. The custard was also lightly toasted on top so it gave the custard an almost caramelized flavour. I’ve never topped my Portuguese tarts with cinnamon or icing sugar before. So it was a nice element because it offered a different flavour profile. In my opinion the tart was already pretty sweet on it’s own so we mostly added the cinnamon on top.
All in all, we really enjoyed our visit and we would definitely come again. Belem is located along the seaside so it was such a nice experience to eat the tarts along the water. We also enjoyed looking at the historical keepsakes they had around the shop like this old cash register 🙂
Read more about my Portugal food visits! Bonjardim, Cafe Gelo, Flora and Fauna, Restaurante Uma Marisqueira, and Tasca Saloia.