Time Out for Pastéis de Belém

It seemed Bigger on Netflix

Jun 18, 2021

We wrote previously about visiting Restaurante Ponte Final, a restaurant chronicled in the Netflix series Somebody Feed Phil. The restaurant was pretty much what we had seen in the show. During our recent trip into town, we visited two more of the recommended restaurants … as well as a third, just for good measure.

Counter service to the right, sit down service enter on the left.

Patéis de Belém

We left the National Coach Museum around 13h30. We found a small cafe on a side street a few blocks away called Taberna dos Ferreiros. It had a rating of 4.6 on Google and many very good reviews. As we arrived shortly after opening, it was easy to find a table and a waiter, who had the time and inclination to allow us to practice our Portuguese. As fresh sardines are now available, Denise went all-in on the grilled

You need a Sagres to wash down the bones.

sardine entree. I find it interesting that a woman that would never order crab at home because it was “too much work” and doesn’t like to eat with her hands orders sardines in Portugal. But when in Portugal… Our friend, Becky, had what she reported was perhaps the best salmon she had ever eaten and I had a watercress salad with fried panko encrusted tuna and mango. Delicious! But we needed to leave room for the pastéis de Belém.

A short walk away we found Patéis de Belém. The origins of this place are detailed on their website:

At the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, in Belém, next to Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (the Heironymite Monastery) there was a sugar cane refinery attached to a small general store. As a result of the 1820 liberal revolution, all convents and monasteries in Portugal were shut down in 1834, the clergy and labourers expelled.
In an attempt at survival, someone from the monastery offered sweet pastries for sale in the shop; pastries that rapidly became known as ‘Pastéis de Belém’…In 1837, the baking of the “Pastéis de Belém”began in the buildings attached to the refinery, following the ancient ‘secret recipe` from the monastery. Passed on and known exclusively to the master confectioners who hand-crafted the pastries in the ‘secret room’, this recipe remained unchanged to the present day.

We entered through the door for sit-down dining. During pre-pandemic times we probably would have waited 30 minutes or more just to enter the building. But that day we were able to easily snake through the many dining rooms to the patio. The same patio where Phil joined a group of tourists for coffee, pastry, and spirited conversation. Frankly, the patio seemed much larger on NetFlix…but you can’t complain about the flakey, pillowy, sweet (but not too sweet) pastry that we doused in cinnamon and confectionary sugar…just for good measure. While I still have many more to taste test, I can happily report that this was the best pastel de nata I have consumed to date!

Time Out

We relaxed for a bit in our friends’ apartment in Santos while we waited for dinner. Some days you just seem to plan your day around eating. But why not? The venues are numerous and unhurried, the ingredients are fresh, the wine and beer inexpensive, and you will walk it off! At 19h00 we headed to the Time Out Market which had re-opened for dining just a few weeks before. Our friends had visited on a busy Saturday night the previous weekend, so they were a bit shocked when we didn’t have any difficulty commandeering one of the many tables.

How can I best describe the Time Out Market to you? It is like an upscale food court, in a bright fresh warehouse, with giant bars in the middle. And it passed with flying colors my test for a clean eatery…the bathrooms were clean and well maintained. But when I write upscale, I am not suggesting that the food is expensive. My Pad Thai was 10€ and Denise’s Green Curry with Chicken was only 11€. As this is a “SuperBock” establishment we both settled for water. And, of course, Asian cuisine is not your only option. There is plenty of Portuguese fare along with pizza, sushi, gelato, and more.

Lots of choices so everyone can have what they really want.

I was under the incorrect impression that Time Out was an exclusively Lisbon eatery…but the giant TV screens advertised venues in London, Chicago, New York City, Miami, Montreal, and even Dubai. So while I would recommend you include this stop should you be in Lisbon you may find one closer to home. Just think, you might even run into me.