Sacolinha Guia — Restaurant in Cascais

One of my favorite bakeries in Lisbon! I came across Sacolinha while I was Googling about for the best sweet treats in Lisbon, and was immediately drawn in by their massive selection and great reviews. Cascais is, unfortunately, quite far from the heart of Lisbon, but I was thankfully planning to make a trip out there as part of a tour group (shoutout to Buendia's Sintra / Cascais tours) so had the perfect opportunity to check out Sacolinha's giant pastry case.

My mom and I decided to split an assortment, which included two mini bola de berlim, as well as two different types of castanhas de ovos. The bola were lovely; they were super soft and pillowy, and the fillings (one was egg custard, the other nutella, I think) were both great. They were a smidge too sweet and did slightly remind me of American donuts, but they were a bit softer and less overwhelmingly sweet than their US counterparts. My favorite, though, had to be the castanhas de ovos. I already love chestnuts, so having the world's best nut translated into a dessert was a dream come true. They were so delicious that my mom and I had to come back to buy a box of six to bring home with us.

The store itself is a pretty simple, but large pastaleria. It tends to get pretty crowded, but there's, thankfully, ample indoor and outdoor seating. You order up at the counter, and then they'll log your order onto a standard card, which you can later take up to the register to cash out. It's a bit of an odd system, but honestly makes the ordering way more efficient, since you don't have to wait for everyone's credit cards to process or cash to get counted, and you can go up to the register to pay at...

Expensive, mediocre service, only accepts cash payments.

In Portugal, in several Cafes, the same menu (coffee, orange juice, croissant) can be bought for almost half the price, and the products are of better quality (Padaria Portuguesa, Padaria do Bairro, Pingo Doce, Auchan, etc, all offer the same for

I went to buy a birthday cake in this place. I asked twice if the cake I was about to buy was fresh... TWICE! Twice the person gave me a kind of evasive answer, but saying yes. Well... clearly the cake wasn't fresh and had, at least, one day! It wasn't soft we usual. Still ok (I bought the same cake previously and it was amazing), but clearly I was...