Lord Stow's Bakery

The Macau egg tart, from the source

The Portuguese egg tart people queue for in Macau started at this counter in Coloane in 1989. Andrew Stow, an Englishman who had moved to Macau in 1979, worked it out himself: Portuguese pastry technique crossed with the English custard tart he had grown up with, which is why the result belongs to neither tradition exactly. He had been a pharmacist, had helped run a health-food business and had managed a Portuguese restaurant at a Macau hotel before he opened the bakery. The tart is still the order: a crisp, shattering shell holding a silky custard, scorched on top, made without additives or preservatives. Handmade cookies are the other signature, and the wider counter runs to European-style pastries, breads, cakes, buns, sandwiches and coffee.

Old Coloane, not a hotel lounge

The mood is half the reason to go to the original shop. Coloane village keeps a slower pace than the rest of Macau, and the bakery sits in that heritage setting as a rustic, welcoming room closer to a countryside stop than anything polished. Over the years it became a destination in its own right, mentioned in the same breath as the Chapel of St. Francis Xavier when people describe the village. The format matters too. The main store is a counter with no seats inside; Lord Stow’s Cafe sits just around the back for anyone who wants a tart and a drink sitting down. The bakery comes first and the cafe supports it. Later branches in hotels and shopping centres sell the same tart, but the original is where the atmosphere is.

Order the egg tart, warm

Start with the Portuguese egg tart, because everything else here descends from it. Its quality signals are specific and easy to check: a pastry shell that flakes rather than crumbles, a silky filling that is not over-set, and baking done in-house across both the bakery and the cafe. Andrew Stow’s work was recognised in 2006 with Macau tourism merit honours, and he is credited with helping reshape how the city is understood through its food. After his death that year his sister and business partner took over, and the family has run it since. The tart travelled as well: branches opened in Osaka and Manila in 1999, and a Hong Kong hotel partnership later put the pastry on a cafe menu there. It also sits at No. 37 on the Opinionated About Dining casual ranking for Asia in 2026. At the source the order stays simple, though. Egg tart first, then cookies, a bread or a European-style pastry with coffee.