Flake Bakery — Restaurant in Brookline

first time here after reading a lot about this place and i was very excited to try pasteis de nata here at Flake which is rare to find in the US. anyhow, lets get to the review. very good service and online buying option and the bakery has a small but cozy seating area with a restroom. as for the pastei, it wasn't bad but not overwhelming unfortunately or my expectation was too high. the pastry dough was quite nice and flaky which i liked very much. the custard unfortunately was a letdown. first off, too sweet and not eggy enough. and yes, i do understand eggs are WAY TOO expensive in the US right now so it must be so costly to make "real" custard anywhere. but if you are going to make pastei de nata or flan or french choux a creme, then you must use eggs to make a proper custard and since this is their only product i would think the custard would be on point. there is a place in paris (Comme à Lisbonne) that sells only pastei de nata that hits the mark closer to what you would find in Portugal. but still, this place is nice and i would go back and purchase them again but just keep my expectations a bit more reasonable next time. good luck to the team at Flake. [UPDATE (3/9/25): based on the Flake's response I would like to correct myself that in this particular case for pastei de nata, the custard is different than what i expected from custards say in choux a la creme or flan or creme caramel. and if this is the case, then i apologize for my comments on the custard and would like to change my rating to a 5 star. thank you for your reply to my comment i appreciate it and will return to buy more in...

Drove 40 min only to be allowed to purchase 3 unless I had preordered online. I didn’t know that ordering 6 is considered a large purchase. One of the servers said if I brought a friend with me, then we could each order 3. Or preorder online and come back and get it at 3:00 pm which would have been 5 hours later. Nowhere in the website does it specify that I have to order 6 or more online and wouldn’t be able to order 6 just by ordering from the store. The website should be updated if that is a policy so that people aren’t inconvenienced when they get there. I told her it would be an inconvenience to drive another 40 minutes to pick up only 3 more and she said, “well, I can order online from anywhere(even Portugal) and be able to pick it up.” She missed the point, and 2 of the servers looked at her like they didn’t get why she was saying that and another server told her that was not even comparing the same thing and that he would handle it and I agreed, she got defensive. First of all, If I’m in Portugal, I don’t need to order the pastels de nata in Boston because it’s originated from Portugal and make the best of in their own country! When her coworker told her to stop because it was all set, she continued and said, “ok, but I don’t know how we aren’t comparing apples for apples”. After I told her she wasn’t because saying I can be in Portugal and order it online to pick it up in Boston is a stretch to say. The other server spoke to her 3x to tell her to stop and it was all set but she kept getting defensive and rude. Poor...

New Portuguese bakery that specializes in Pastel de Nata.

For a while, I’ve been sneaking over to Raffles Hotel/Café Pastel for an occasional fix of pastel de nata. Boston has a handful of good Portuguese restaurants, but finding a spot to grab these little custard tarts on the go is another story. So Flake Bakery seemed like a perfect addition to the city.

At the moment, Flake Bakery is easily one of the most hyped spots in Brookline. I’ve heard stories of weekend lines that stretch down the block, so instead of battling the morning crowd, I strolled in around noon. Lucky for me, the crowd had thinned out, but since they bake in small batches, I had to wait about 20 minutes for the next round. The upside? I got to experience the magic of fresh-from-the-oven pastries. That first bite was pure bliss—the warm, flaky crust giving way to a perfectly creamy custard center that practically burst with a plesant sweetness.

Once they cooled down, I can't say these were leagues ahead of the ones from Café Pastel. However, considering they’re almost half the price, they definitely felt like a sweet deal. I’d recommend giving them a try, but be ready to hang around for at...