Tuga Pastries — Restaurant in Sydney

Anyone who has been to Portugal knows they have some of the best pastries going around. So you have this in mind when you hear of a shop selling a Portuguese tarts and make it a mission to visit.

I’m not sure why I’ve never noticed Tuga before since it’s only a block from where I work and I drive up Clovelly Road regularly. But it’s quite a small shop with an inconspicuous frontage so it’s probably understandable why I missed it. I was drawn to the pastry shop after seeing an Instagram friend tagged here.

Tuga is a pastry store selling breads, sweets, pies and it is also the home of their signature item, the pastel de nata, or the Portuguese tart, developed in Lisboa Portugal in 1837.

The history behind this tart coming to Australia is as follows. Gus Ferreira became a pastry chef, leaving Portugal for Australia and opening a Portuguese cake shop in Curlewis Street, Bondi in 1994. Today, Gus’ son Diego has kept up the legacy as head baker, making and selling these out of this shop now in Bronte.

The store sells to the public through retail as well as wholesale, catering and events.They make cakes to order, whether it be an Orange cake, Passion fruit & yogurt cake, butter cake, Carrot & pineapple cake, Chocolate, coffee & hazelnut cake.

We went especially for their Portuguese tarts. A beautiful flaky pastry with a sweet, egg custard centre and dusted with cinnamon.

We also had the “bread of God”, a coconut Portuguese brioche. This was absolutely incredible.

For more sweets, we also had the cinnamon donut as well as a donut with raspberry. This has a delicious filling, a good mix of sweet and tarte inside a fluffy dough dipped in cinnamon.

From the savoury options we loved their incredibly tasty caramelised onion and mushroom quiche. Whilst they had pies we didn’t get them this time but certainly are keen to try.

Kurt just wanted everything in the shop, but couldn’t possibly eat any more in one go. But the positive is, it means we will be...

Sort yourself out Tuga, PLEASE!

I usually love Tuga, going at least 2 - 4 times a month for the last year but my most recent trip was quite disappointing.

They have started making coffees and hot breakfast (bacon and egg rolls) which has slowed service massively and meant only 1 person can fit inside the store and order at a time.

It took 20 - 25 minutes to wait and buy two Pastel De Natas, a cookie and a sausage roll. When we got them the sausage roll and tarts were cold when they had always been hot, the server had also asked if we wanted cinnamon on the pastel de tarts which we did but none was put on. We were also double charged for the sausage roll so I had to come back and get a refund which was happily given. I noticed it seems like they had changed over all their staff as well which perhaps contributed to the issues?

I’m only leaving this review as a loyal customer as I really hope you get back to where you were in terms of quality baked goods and service. FYI, while I can understand Tuga now offering coffees I don’t think your market is or ever was in bacon and egg rolls / other on demand hot food. Why change your business model? I suggest sticking with your (usually) excellent baked goods as that is your real competitive advantage and leave the hot food to cafes, otherwise people like me won’t bother to drive out to your store. Either way, perhaps consider having a seperate line for people wishing to buy just baked goods? Hope to see this was...

I've always wanted to buy Tuga in person, but didn't know they had a bakery near where I work. So when I did manage to drive on this occasion, I decided to make a detour before heading into work.

Got there super early (0600) and glad they were already open. The tarts that I was there for wasn't quite ready yet, they were still in the oven. I was happy to wait to get them hot.

As I was waiting, one of the staff (long dark hair in pony tail) offered me an OJ which I accepted. I think she figured I came from a way away and not local.

Lovely service from the staff, she was also happy for me to take photo of the whole tray of the tarts, too.

And the Portuguese tart fresh out of the oven? To. Die. For.

I have had many Portuguese tarts but this one just blows everything out of the water. Best in Sydney, hands down. The filling: warm, runny and not overly sweet; the pastry: flaky and buttery.

Definitely worth the...