Top image: Pastéis de nata, the Portuguese custard tarts that are Pastelaria Adega’s signature. This photo was taken in Italy in 2023 and does not show the bakery’s pastries. Photo: Andy Li (CC0) via Wikimedia Commons
Pastelaria Adega, the Portuguese bakery at 30 E. Santa Clara St. in downtown San José, will sell its last pastries there on Wednesday, Nov. 25, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Nov. 9. Three days later, on Nov. 28, owners Carlos and Fernanda Carreira will start selling the bakery’s goods out of Adega, their Michelin-starred restaurant at 1614 Alum Rock Ave. in Little Portugal.
For the bakery, it is a return to where it started. The Carreiras first ran Pastelaria Adega as a Saturday pop-up at Adega, and opened the downtown spin-off in 2019 after lines formed around the block, they told the S.F. Chronicle.
“It’s just becoming a little too expensive to operate in downtown,” Carlos Carreira said. “So we’re going back to our roots where everything started as a pop-up.”
What the menu says
According to the bakery’s website as of Nov. 12, a single pastel de nata is $4, a box of six is $21 and a box of 12 is $36. Malassadas, the Portuguese filled doughnuts, are $5 each, $16 for four and $24 for six. The site lists rotating November flavors that include matcha and PB&J. The S.F. Chronicle reported that the nata come in flavors from plain to lemon and ube, that malassada fillings include hazelnut chocolate and guava cheesecake, and that the bakery also makes bolo de arroz, a rice flour muffin, and Portuguese breads.
Most of that menu moves to Adega. Customers will be able to order online for pickup or delivery the next day, five days a week; the bakery will be closed Mondays and Tuesdays. The website lists downtown walk-in hours through Nov. 25, a weekend brunch at Adega on Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., free parking behind the restaurant, and Thanksgiving pre-orders for pickup on Nov. 25 only. The bakery’s phone is (408) 320-2936. Hours and prices change; check before going.
Who’s behind it
The Carreiras opened Adega in Little Portugal and built it into what the S.F. Chronicle calls “the first restaurant in San Jose to earn a Michelin star.” The South Bay Chronicle examined the restaurant in a Reported Table column on Adega on Nov. 1.
Their daughter, chef Jessica Carreira, will run the weekend brunch, which she hopes will feature classic dishes with Portuguese twists, perhaps an eggs Benedict with bacalhau, or salted cod, the S.F. Chronicle reported. A coffee bar will serve drinks including a pastel de nata latte. She has also taken the bakery to farmers markets in Walnut Creek, at Santana Row and in San José’s Japantown.
The family said the downtown location had become a hurdle. Parking on the busy street is hard to find, delivery drivers cannot legally stop out front for a few minutes, and some customers have complained about safety outside. “We are listening to our customers and the feedback has been, ‘your location really is not the greatest,’” Fernanda Carreira said. The markets and the move, she said, are “a way for us to reach other people that don’t necessarily want to come downtown.” Hoodline also reported the move.
What the critics have said
The S.F. Chronicle calls the bakery “San Jose’s best-known destination” for pastéis de nata and malassadas. Its parent, Adega, was the first restaurant in San José to earn a Michelin star, according to the same report.
The record
Santa Clara County’s environmental health open data, last updated in October, lists four inspections of the downtown bakery since mid-2025:
- Sept. 24, 2026 (routine): score of 69 and a yellow “conditional pass” placard. Inspectors recorded two critical violations: one live cockroach crawling out of a corner guard by the mop sink, and potentially hazardous food out of temperature, a chicken pot pie on the display counter at 81°F and custard creme at 51°F. The person in charge sealed the gaps where the cockroach was seen. Other violations included cockroach droppings and a dead cockroach behind loose corner guards, mold-like build-up on the ice machine, warewashing water at 110°F (a repeat), a walk-in cooler draining into a plastic tub (a repeat), an espresso machine wiped without sanitizer and a leaking water heater.
- Sept. 25, 2026 (follow-up): green placard. The inspector noted no evidence of cockroaches, that the gaps had been sealed and that pest control company EcoLab had treated the facility the day before and noted no activity. The bakery was allowed to switch the pastries from time control to hot holding at 135°F or above.
- Feb. 6, 2026 (routine): score of 89, green. Four violations, none critical, including a missing food safety certificate and hot water at 112°F.
- June 4, 2025 (routine): score of 76, green. Violations included one critical (dishwasher chlorine at 0 ppm, with dishes sanitized at the three-compartment sink). The inspector wrote that “failure to correct repeat violations will result in further enforcement actions.”
Adega itself, at 1614 Alum Rock Ave., scored 95 with a green placard on April 2, 2026. Inspectors recorded two minor violations: sanitizer test strips that had expired in 2012 and paper towels stacked in the restrooms instead of in dispensers. Records after mid-October were not yet posted.
The long view
The move is a small sign of a larger problem for downtown San José. A bakery with lines around the block and a Michelin-starred parent decided it could not make the downtown numbers work, citing rent, parking and street conditions. Its answer is the model many South Bay food businesses are moving toward: fewer storefronts, more online orders and pickup, farmers markets and weekend events in a space the family already controls. For Little Portugal, it means more foot traffic on Alum Rock Avenue. For downtown, it means one fewer reason to come.
The Reported Table is built from published menus, public records and other critics’ published reviews. The Chronicle does not award stars and our reporters do not claim tastings.
Sources
- San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 9, 2026
- Pastelaria Adega website (checked Nov. 12, 2026)
- Hoodline, Nov. 2026
- Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health, inspection records for Pastelaria Adega (open data)
- Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health, inspection records for Adega (open data)
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