LISBON, PORTUGAL Pasteis de Nata

During our trip to Portugal, we have tasted many Pasteis de Nata, the famous Portuguese egg tart. Our first sample in Nazaré at a random bakery near the beach left a weird after taste that made us wonder, "is that what it's supposed to taste like?" The next few at each town we visited did not impress us. We had to wait until we got to Lisbon to taste excellent Pasteis de Nata.

Our first sample with Ricci and Amy was at Manteigaria stall at the Timeout Market. It was highly rated and we enjoyed it, but better was yet to come.

Our next sample with Ricci and Amy was on our day trip to Sintra. Ricci spotted the Fabrica de Nata in old town, and each couple split one. We immediately regretted splitting, because it was warm and flakey and so good it blew our mind! We immediately went back for 8 more (4 to eat and 4 to carry home.) Lucky for us, we found out that Fabrica de Nata had multiple locations, including Lisbon, not far from our apartment. 

Our third sample with Ricci and Amy was on our day trip to Belem. It was well known that Pasteis de Nata originated in Belem, and were called Pasteis de Belem at the same named bakery. Based on Rick Steve's recommendations, our first stop in Belem was to the bakery. The line was short when we arrived, but was super long by the time we got our baked goods. The Pasteis de Belem were served warm, and it was definitely above average, but we still loved the ones from Fabrica de Nata best.

We decided to give Manteigaria another chance at their bakery and not at the market stall. We felt that having them still warm coming out of the oven gave the other two bakeries an advantage over the market stall. The Manteigaria shop was just a few blocks from our apartment, and when we sampled the pasteis warm, it was much better than from the market, but still not as flakey as the ones from Fabrica de Nata.

 RECOMMENDATIONS: We voted Fabrica de Nata as having the best Pasteis de Nata in Lisbon, over Manteigaria and Pasteis de Belem. We had Pasteis de Nata at multiple locations of Fabrica de Nata (Sintra, Lisbon, Porto) and they were consistently flakey and amazing. Manteigaria and Pasteis de Belem were a toss up between second and third, and the rest of the random baked shops were far behind.