What the lists agree on
Pastelaria Aloma leads with 6 of 8 lists. Four of them are years of O Melhor Pastel de Nata, a blind tasting run by Edições do Gosto. This guide counts each year’s 12 finalists, 2023 to 2026, as one list, and Aloma is the only shop in the city that made the final all four times. Time Out Lisboa and Lisboa Secreta name it too.
Castro is second with 4 and Nat’elier third with 3. Five places share fourth, each named by 2.
The contest and the media lists meet at the top: Aloma, Castro and Nat’elier are contest finalists that Lisboa Secreta also names. Lower down they split. Altis Belém Hotel & Spa and Bread & Friends Marquês were finalists in 2023 and 2024, and no media list names them for pastel de nata. Confeitaria Nacional, Pastéis de Belém and Pastelaria Alcôa come only from media lists.
Of the places in this guide, Lisboa Secreta names the most: 10, including 6 of the 8 ranked. Lonely Planet names one, Pastelaria Alfama Doce.
Six of the eight ranked places are in three parts of the city. Castro and Alcôa are both on Rua Garrett in Chiado, at numbers 38 and 37. Nat’elier and Confeitaria Nacional are in Baixa, and Pastéis de Belém and the Altis hotel are in Belém.
The contest takes entries from across the Lisbon area. This guide counts only shops inside the city of Lisbon, so finalists from towns such as Amadora and Ericeira are left out.
Pastel de nata in Lisbon
A pastel de nata is an egg custard tart, often eaten fresh from the oven with cinnamon and icing sugar. Monks at the Jerónimos Monastery in Belém created it before the 18th century. The monastery closed in 1834 and the recipe was sold to a sugar refinery, whose owners began making the tarts in 1837. That bakery is Pastéis de Belém, on Rua de Belém, and it sells its tarts as pastéis de Belém.