Portugal's pastry legacy just got official validation. TasteAtlas, the food and travel guide powered by user ratings, has crowned the nation's two most iconic desserts as the best in the entire world. The Pastel de Belém takes gold, with its close relative the Pastel de Nata securing silver. Both are custard tarts that have become shorthand for Portuguese culinary excellence, and they're now beating out competitors from Istanbul to Italy to claim the crown.
The 2024 ranking drew more than 160,000 total ratings, with nearly 108,000 deemed legitimate and used to build the final list. That's a serious sample size. The platform filters out suspected bot activity and overzealous hometown voting while weighting contributions from users with proven food knowledge. The result is a list that feels credible, if not entirely definitive.
What makes these tarts so different (and why it matters)
Here's the wrinkle: the Pastel de Belém and Pastel de Nata are nearly identical to look at, but their names tell completely different stories. The Pastel de Belém is the stricter of the two. It can only legally be made at one place: the historic Fábrica Pastéis de Belém in Lisbon, which has guarded its recipe since 1837. Monks from the nearby Jerónimos Monastery created the original formula, ingeniously using leftover egg yolks left over from other kitchen work to craft something extraordinary.
The Pastel de Nata, by contrast, is the version you'll find in bakeries across Portugal and now across the globe. Similar enough to be cousins, different enough to have their own identity, these custard tarts have become Portugal's most successful culinary export. Nearly 30 million travelers just picked Portugal, and dessert lovers will want to make the pilgrimage to taste the original.
The rest of the world's best desserts aren't slouching
After Portugal's sweep, the top 10 expands to show how seriously the world takes its sweets. Turkish kunefe (a crispy shredded pastry filled with cheese and drowned in syrup) claims third place. England's clotted cream ice cream lands fourth, creamy and indulgent. Italy's strudel and pistachio gelato round out the international elite, alongside more Turkish baklava from Gaziantep, Puerto Rico's coconut tembleque, and thin, delicate French crepes.
When you dig into the full Top 100, the diversity becomes staggering. Italy appears repeatedly with regional specialties like tiramisu and brioche con gelato. France contributes the expected classics: creme brulee, chocolate souffle, cremes Suzette. Belgium, Greece, Brazil, Poland, and Peru each stake their claim. The Netherlands makes waves with stroopwafels and poffertjes, proving that dessert traditions run deep and varied everywhere you look.
How recipes travel across centuries and continents
Many of these desserts are really stories written in sugar and flour. Portugal's custard tarts, for example, inspired Hong Kong's beloved egg tarts after Portuguese influence reached Macau centuries ago. Italian tiramisu relies on coffee, chocolate, and sugar that arrived through trade routes. These recipes evolved as people moved, as ingredients traveled, as cultures collided and merged. A dessert on today's list is often a edible record of history.
For travelers, this matters more than you might think. These sweets have become destinations in their own right. Food pilgrims travel to Lisbon specifically to eat a Pastel de Belém fresh from the bakery's counter. They visit Gaziantep and Antakya in Turkey just to taste baklava and kunefe the way locals do. They sit in Italian gelato shops debating regional flavors, or hunt down stroopwafels in Gouda, or slice into Basque cheesecake in San Sebastian. A single dessert can unlock a place's whole identity.
Where to eat your way through this list
If you're plotting a dessert-focused trip, the TasteAtlas rankings offer a sweet itinerary. Start in Lisbon for that Pastel de Belém. Portugal's Secret Coastal Crown Jewel Just Beat Out All of Europe, so combine your pastry hunt with a beach escape. Head to Turkey's southern cities for kunefe and baklava experiences that can't be replicated elsewhere. Spend an afternoon in an Italian gelato gelateria testing pistachio versions from different regions. France's cafe culture delivers crepes and other classics around almost every corner.
The full Top 100 ranking on TasteAtlas offers both world-famous classics and obscure regional specialties worth seeking out. The platform itself acknowledges this isn't meant as a final word on which desserts are objectively best. Instead, it celebrates local food traditions and the people who care enough about them to rate, comment, and share their opinions. For curious eaters, it's a map to follow.
