Antiga Confeitaria de Belem Reviews (Lisbon, Portugal)

Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, Portugal

Göppingen, Baden-Württemberg

November 19, 2010

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Best of IgoUgo Third time lucky! My husband and I always travel with a guidebook and like reading it before we start as well as on the spot, but somehow we managed to overlook the mention of the most famous bakery of Lisbon, the Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, Rua de ...Read more Third time lucky! My husband and I always travel with a guidebook and like reading it before we start as well as on the spot, but somehow we managed to overlook the mention of the most famous bakery of Lisbon, the Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, Rua de Belém 84-82, during our first two stays in the city, or we didn’t take the praise heaped on it seriously. When a tourist couple in our hotel raved enthusiastically about it, we decided to finally have a look. Belém is a suburb of Lisbon and can easily be reached by bus, tram or train, a taxi ride from the centre costs about 6 Euro. It’s to the right (across the street) of the Mosteiro dos Jéronimos (Jeronimos Monastery), which is a must for all tourists to Lisbon and therefore easy to find.

At the beginning of the 19th century when the story of the now famous pastelaria (bakery) started, Belém was far away from Lisbon and could only be reached by boat. The village had a sugar cane refinery which also contained a general store. When in 1820 all monasteries and convents were closed in Portugal due to the liberal revolution, someone from the adjacent Jeronimos Monastery had the idea of taking sweet pastries to the shop and offer them for sale to earn some money. People from the city who used to visit Belém to admire the beauty of the monastery and the Tower of Belém soon took to savouring the pastries in the store.

It must be said that the ‘Pasteis de Belém’ can also be bought in the pastelarias of Lisbon (the city is full of pastelarias!), but they’re not the real thing as we now know. They’re sold warm but they’re warmed up and that’s not the same as them coming fresh out of the oven.

The Antiga Confeitaria is rather inconspicuous from the outside although it now occupies two houses. One could walk by if there weren’t a queue of people spilling out of the right entrance of the shop onto the pavement. They either buy pastries to take away in special cardboard containers or eat them standing at the counter where they can also get coffee. On the walls beside the counter all the items which can also be bought are on display, crockery with the logo, wine, packed sweets, knickknack.

Customers wanting to sit inside enter through the left door. A wonderful flavour of cinnamon hits our nostrils when we get in, yummy! There are some small rooms behind the counter whose walls are covered with tiles depicting Belém in the Age of Discoveries in the early 1600s. Their tables and chairs are always occupied when we come. So we move further into the building(s) and reach an immense room, the size of a school gym. The German couple from our hotel was even reminded of the Hofbräuhaus in Munich. A waiter tells us that they can sit 510 customers in all rooms! I think that German and Austrian tourists are especially puzzled because they come from countries with a vibrant Café culture. When they think of Cafés, the German word ‘gemütlich’ comes to mind. It’s usually translated with ’cosy’ but it’s not exactly the same, so the Americans have included gemütlich into their vocabulary. Here cosiness is the last thing that comes to mind! One tourists writes on the net, "The place is mobbed from morning till night, seven days a week, by tourists and locals alike." (It’s open daily from 8:00 to midnight). And yet . . .

Even in November the gym-size room is more than half full, the customers are nearly all Portuguese. Although the Portuguese are the quietest Romanic people, the noise level is considerable. A menu offers not only sweet things but most people eat pastries, or rather Pasteis de Belém. Most drink cappuccino or milk coffee with them, one old Portuguese lady I see at a neighbouring table, however, has hers with a glass of beer. Well, "de gustibus non est disputandum", you can’t argue about taste, as the Romans used to say. Most people order two pasteis, one costs 90 cent.

The famous pastries/pasteis are custard tarts which are served fresh out of the oven. On the tables stand two tin containers with cinnamon and icing sugar which one has to sprinkle over them before the first bite. The outside is made of flaky pastry which is hot and crispy, the vanilla pudding inside is just heavenly. On average 14 000 pasteis are made every day, all work is done by hand as in the olden days, no modern machinery is used. And the certain something that makes them so special and better than all other pasteis of Portugal is still being kept secret, only the two head bakers know it.

I found an elaborate recipe on the net but am not going to include it, you’d never reach the real thing, not even from afar. I certainly wouldn’t want to eat it, after tasting the real thing I can’t eat an ersatz pastry any more. For those among you who don’t know the real thing yet: there is no other way but to go to Lisbon and visit the Antiga Confeitaria de Belém. Get to know Pastry Paradise!

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From journal Lisbon and its attractions

The Famous Pasteis de Belem

by Liam Hetherington

Manchester, United Kingdom

May 11, 2010

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Best of IgoUgo I sometimes think it mustn’t be a bad life being a monk. If you’re not busy brewing beer you get to live in some of the most beautiful buildings around – the Mosteiro de Jeronimos in Belém being a case in point. Not only did monks live and worship ...Read more I sometimes think it mustn’t be a bad life being a monk. If you’re not busy brewing beer you get to live in some of the most beautiful buildings around – the Mosteiro de Jeronimos in Belém being a case in point. Not only did monks live and worship in this gorgeously over-the-top complex, but they also got well fed doing it. For this monastery was the home of the Pasteis de Belém.

The pasteis de nata that you will see in confeitarias across Lisbon are all base upon these famous custard tarts. These were prepared solely for the delectation of the Hieronymite monks out here in Belém. Following the 1830 liberal revoluation and the dissolution of the monasteries the cooks moved to this location just down the street to sell pastries made to their own secret recipe. Now no visit out to Belém is complete without a trip to the Antiga Confeitaria de Belém.

You will not be able to miss the place (or the fact that it has been in operation since 1837!). If you do not see the blue awnings, the numerous signs, or even the inset brickwork in the pavement all advertising its location in its inimitable typeface you will certainly see the queue of people. (The logo is repeating across the packaging carrier bags, doormats and souvenirs on sale in the café – I did want one of their chef’s hats!) The trick is to go in via the right-most door, pay at the till, and then present the chitty the cashier gives you to the servers behind the counter. For €5.40 you will get a hexagonal cardboard tube containing six individual pasteis and also two sachets, one of icing sugar, one of cinnamon.

When you have your pastries you can cross the street and find a shaded bench or sunny patch of grass in the Praça do Império gardens and consume your lip-smacking Pasteis de Belém. Maybe it was the history or the atmosphere but I have to say that I did enjoy these more than the city-centre pasteis de nata. If anything they were sweeter (even without adding icing sugar and cinnamon). I really must recommend a visit! Close

From journals The Sweetest Capital City In Europe?, The Age of Discoveries

Antiga Confeitaria de Belem

by billmoy

Chicago, Illinois

December 29, 2002

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Best of IgoUgo Antiga Confeitaria de Belem is a must if you are in Belem and enjoy tasting foreign goodies. This legendary pastry shop has been serving customers since 1837. Its trademark treat is the Pasteis de Belem (also called pasteis de nata), sort of a cross ...Read more

From journal Bill in Portugal - LISBON

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