Paderia Bakehouse — Restaurant in Santa Monica

My main objective for coming here was to try the Portuguese egg tarts. I thought they were just o-kay. Because I love Portuguese egg tarts so much (or egg tarts in general) and the ratings were great, I had high expectations, but was slightly disappointed. I much prefer the ones at Natas Pastries in Sherman Oaks - the puff pastry base is more delicate, tender, not overbaked, and the custard filling is slightly less sweeter and more flavorful. To me, there was a big difference in the quality of the flakiness and texture. Not sure if I got a subpar batch here, but the puff pastry base felt overbaked (the inside a little as well) given the texture was a little tough, with slightly bitter notes (especially the bottom and the edges). If you’ve tried overbaked pastries or pie crusts you’ll know what I mean. They're not 'bad' by any means but, to me, not a memorable pastel de nata for sure. Natas Pastries is a little bit pricier ($3.75) compared to Paderia's ($3), but more worth it. The Bola de Berlin at Natas Pastries is also great. I will be getting my pasteis de natas at Natas Pastries from now on.

The cookies to be honest don't grab my appeal. The massive/thick cookie concept is not a novel one, and is likely (I suspect) taken after New York's Levain Bakery's cookies given some of the flavor combinations are exactly the same. On appearance they look more undercooked on the inside than I personally would like. And I also heard from someone that the inside felt grainy and underdone. I'm sure they are not bad, but they are not a huge appeal to me especially given the $$ price tag.

I love the banana pudding from Magnolia Bakery so I will stick with theirs! Wonder if the banana-pudding-in-a-cup concept was also taken after Magnolia.

The person at the register was soo sweet and nice. I love the display and aesthetics, but in terms of the bakery items I don't find myself in need of coming back...

The best way I could describe the place is that it’s a West Coast Levain with the added benefit of drinks and other pastries like ensaymada and Portuguese egg tarts. West Coast is the best coast :)

Came here on a Saturday after lunch around 2 and there was a short line that moved quickly. Ordered 3 cookies and since I checked in on Yelp and spent more than $10, I got a free drink. The cashier recommended the raspberry matcha (you get a choice of milk, and they do have oat) which I acquiesced to. The drink was super refreshing and had a good raspberry flavor that wasn’t overwhelming. The cookies are $4 and are the size of hockey pucks. They are a tad undercooked inside, which I prefer because that way, the chocolate just oozed out when I got to the middle portion. Definitely split a cookie with someone, having one by yourself would be a lot (though if you eat the whole thing, you do you). My favorite was the chocolate chip sea salt. The double chocolate was also super tasty, but it might be too sweet for some.

There’s a parking lot in the back. Credit cards are accepted. There were a couple of chairs to sit outside while you wait for them to call your order, and no indoor dining. They had a water bowl for dogs outside, so I imagine they’re dog friendly. Overall, a really cute spot in the West Side to fulfill whatever sugar cravings...

Found this place while searching Google maps for coffee and had to rush over because they were closing in under 20 minutes. I'm glad we did.

They were out of hot coffee, which wasn't great, but they did have their vietnamese iced coffee and it was SO good! I haven't had a real strong vietnamese iced coffee in a while. They also add some house-made cream on top (no strong opinion about the cream on top of the coffee personally, but the wife seems to have liked it).

We also got the raspberry matcha infusion, which was tasty too. And not too sweet, which is great. It contains chia seeds, as an FYI.

The other things we got were: chocolate walnut cookie Portuguese egg tart strawberry cheesecake All were good. The cheesecake is a little too much on sweeter side. The cookie was great and the Portuguese egg tart was the bomb - so flaky and so buttery! Will definitely be going back for at least the tarts.

Highly recommend checking it out.

Update: tried the Horchata Coffee (they made it a little less sweeter than normal for me) and the Ensaymada. Both are great! The Ensaymada, get it with cheese and warmed up...