Nova Era Bakery

Review is only for the Portuguese tart, which I think is the best in the city. Custardy with a crispy shell. Sweet but not overly… you should definitely try one. Would love to warm it up or try it fresh one time.

Nice bakery with friendly staff and very cheap food&drinks. It is a great place to get a bread for home or to grab some of their delicisous pastries and a coffee.
There is more then bakery and pastry products they offer… salads, sandwiches, soups,… and beer too!

Located in the centre of Portugal town provided fresh bread, sandwich, coffee and desserts to neighbourhood customers. Honestly, their desserts were too sweet and Portuguese tart was not delicious at all. But their bread were really fresh and aromatic. I can’t help to eating it while the aroma of baked flour flying into my nose.
I found there was a stone oven inside but no pizzas on menus. Ohh, please. Don’t let the oven lie idle, use it to made freshly baked pizza for us!

Everything I’ve ever eaten here is good: tarts, pastries, bread. I finally got around to trying some of the bread just recently and it’s very tasty and flavourful. The corn bread and flax bread roll are my new favourites. I find the prices very reasonable as well.

Popped in during Dundas Street West festival and found seats with excellent Portuguese tarts (as usual!) and served delicious lattes.

Decent location, usually pretty busy! The espresso is on point! That’s typically what I order. They have a variety of baked goods, pastries, coffee, sandwiches, and loaves of bread or buns to purchase and take home. It’s very affordable.

One of the greatest pleasures of living in downtown Toronto west is the Portuguese bakeries. Incredibly reasonably priced sandwiches, pastries, custards and meaty extras make my world go around, and Nova Era delivers all of this goodness.
My go to lunch here (and a lot of bakeries in my hood) is the tosta mista. If you aren’t familiar, it’s a big soft roll with ham and cheese that they press down to a grilled panini-​like thing, and it’s crunchy, gooey and always satisfying. Pair it with one of their daily homemade soups? Done.
They also make entire cakes daily, and sell slices on the cheap, if you have a sweet tooth.

Love egg tarts.

Strong delicious latte. Mini Sagres beer from Portugal. Tosta Mista, which is grilled ham and cheese sandwich are really good here. Fresh bread baked here and traditional Portuguese sweets. Great spot for a quick inexpensive lunch, beer and coffee.

Very disappointing.
6 servers working 6 tables and the bakery counter — and my partner and I were the only table eating food, all others coffee only… and nobody came out to ANY of the tables the whole time we were there, to ask if anyone needed more coffee, if food was good, zip. Nothing. Gossiping and kvetching in between ringing out occasional bakery customer.
Went in at about 10:30am. Had (2) ham and cheese on toasted croissant sandwiches and a Portugese tart, with coffee.
Croissant was burnt black. Ham and cheese was cold and unmelted. Coffee barely hot.
Tart was ok. Unimaginative.
After 20 minutes of zero contact, not even eye contact, we split.
5 seconds after we walked from table, a server swooped over and cleaned table. Whew! For a second, I thought maybe we were invisible! HaHa

Classic three-​and-​a-​bit stars. A resounding ‘it was quite good but could be much better’ verdict.
Maybe my expectations were too high. I had heard great things about the relative cosiness of this café (seriously, why is it such a rarity in Toronto to have cafes with sofas and armchairs???) and its value for money. As such, I didn’t mind travelling some distance on a lazy Saturday wanting to try it out.
The ‘cosiness’ let me down a bit. Although having two small tables surrounded by sofas and armchairs is impressive by Toronto’s generally utilitarian ‘grab n go’ style cafes, it still wasn’t anything remarkable. That being said, a cosy chair is a cosy chair and I jumped right in alongside my amazingly-​priced Americano (2.45 for a medium) and crème donut (99 cents!)
The espresso in the coffee was really good and a nice change from the bitter dark roasts which are so popular these days. The espresso was slightly sweet in what tasted like a medium-​to-​dark roast. Really good and refreshing. The crème donut was a really generous size for the price and quite delicious — crispy on the outside with sugary, thick cream on the inside.
The prices were pretty outstanding. As well as the 99 cents crème donut, Nova Era offer breakfast sandwiches for 2.50, HUGE slabs of tiramisu for just 2.20 and lunch wraps and sandwiches for something around the 4 dollar mark. I literally thought I was seeing things! Absolutely fantastic value to be found here on all products.
Unfortunately, the service was unwelcoming and generally poor. It was my first time in the café and I wanted to browse the menu and the baked goods and see what was on offer before ordering. I was put under pressure to order ASAP even though the place wasn’t busy. Despite the fact that it was a very cold day outside, I was craving an iced coffee. I noticed the menu listed iced cappuccinos and iced coffee, so I was a bit taken aback when I ordered an iced coffee and was sharply told ”we don’t have that.” Ok. Maybe take it off the menu then? The donut and Americano was brought to the table in surly silence by another staff member, and when I went to pay at the till, there was a bit of hullaballoo about me having to produce a receipt listing the items that I ordered. This wouldn’t have bothered me, only I never received a receipt initially when the food was delivered to the table, so all the drama about asking me to show them one was a bit awkward.
The entire place was a bit grimy and the walls could definitely use a repainting. The fact that customers have to be ‘buzzed’ into the washroom by staff sort of contributes to the grimy, anti-​customer friendly feel.
The produce was very good and the prices were great. If I lived nearby, I think I would definitely be a regular in the mornings for a take-​out coffee and treat. But the general vibe of the staff and atmosphere of the café ensures that I won’t be in a rush to return here for some leisurely weekend laziness any time soon. Easily a four-​star for a take-​out place, but considerably less if you want a more relaxing experience — which I definitely did the day I visited.

I live in the neighbourhood, and it’s really a love/​hate relationship. Depending on the time of day, the people working, or the people inside, your experience can definitely change. Many of the staff are rude or unaware that their presence is needed, and sometimes they pretend dealing with something in the back is more important than serving. I buy bread here, mostly because it’s easier than going to the grocery store. But sometimes I would rather go all the way to the store to avoid this place. Obviously they have the custard tarts that everyone loves, but their other pastries are so mehhh. As a pastry lover, it’s a bummer.

Came here w my boyfriend and his Portuguese family and we agreed these are the best egg tarts outside Portugal! Crispy and flaky crust and perfect amount of filling. Ask for some cinnamon to sprinkle on top and it’s perfection.
I was so excited to try all the other pastries– they were good but a little off. The toasted coconut tart and beer tart (w coconut egg and sugar) were calling my name, as was the deer hoof (coconut, custard, cinnamon) so I brought those home. The coconut tart and beer tarts had delicious fillings, but the crust was too tough. The deer hoof pastry was a little dry. Overall good flavors and I would actually order them again (and I’m picky). Maybe those little things will be different next time!

I like the sour dough bagette, its well priced and a nice alternative to the standard Portuguese style bread in the neighborhood.
Only thing I don’t like is the service is often slow and not overly friendly.

A Portuguese friend showed me this place over a decade ago, and it remains exactly the same, consistent. Pastel de nata are the best here. Always fresh (she gets mine from the back) Sausage rolls and coconut bread are great snacks and if you have more time to wait the girls will make you a nice cold cut sandwich or grilled panini. The breakfast sandwiches have processed cheese and are a little disappointing when you see the fridge full of way better stuff to put in the English muffin (which again you are better off with their home-​made buns). The fresh bread selection is the fantastic, although the flax one always has a fishy essence, weird, but honestly all the others are perfect. Service with a smile, obrigado!

I love this bakery! Donuts are under a $ 1.50 and the chocolate glazed and sugar donuts are big and delicious. I like simple donuts, and when done right, they are heavenly. I was not a fan of their cream puffs and cinnamon buns though. They tasted stale.

One of my favourite things are Portuguese Egg Tarts. When I discovered that they were available right around the corner from where I was staying, I couldn’t be happier.
As I entered the bakery, there it was, in the glass case near the door: a whole heaping tray of the golden yellow egg tarts! I got in line right away and ordered one dozen. All for myself. Because when else would I be able to eat all these tarts?
I brought them back to my place, heated one up, and indulged in a delicious custard-​egg filled tart. The custard’s consistency was just perfect, and not too sweet. The layers of flaky pastry crust was light and so buttery.
These were so good that I had to go back the next day. In case you were wondering, I didn’t finish the initial dozen all to myself. I bought another half dozen, so that I could bring it back to Vancouver with me to enjoy the Portuguese goodness.

I’ve posted a pic of my favourite snack at Nova Era, the cabbage soup with fresh, melt-​in-​your-​mouth Portuguese bun. The no-​nonsense staff here are incredible and can almost read my mind as soon as I come in. They have table service off to the the left as you come in so there is no need to stand at the counter trying to decide what to have. I haven’t seen a menu, but walking by the display cases will give you some great ideas. The pastries are delicious! The tarts of course, but I’ve also tried something that looked like a donut but was flakey pastry instead of dough, now that’s a treat. The seating area is spacious and pleasant with a combination of modern and vintage rolled into a very comfortable experience. I had the pleasure of sitting at the one table in the corner front (to your left as you walk in) which is directly in front of a huge picture window with an amazing view of Dundas looking west (see my pic). A lottery ticket kiosk sits unassumingly on the wall to your left as you come in. On the right of the til is another large seating area that has comfy looking couches, similar to a suburban rec room, with a large serving opening from the kitchen area facing the room. What a concept! I could live here. There is even some kind of a funky oven in the back of the room that looks functional although I haven’t seen it in operation. See my pics. (And next door is a great beer store). The coffees offered are the old school versions of what Starbucks tries to sell you as trendy and cool, but here they are no big deal, just part of the experience and not overpriced so you can have more than one. That’s the way these people roll and I LOVE THAT!

I was on the hunt for some cake after a late Friday night dinner, and randomly ended up at this place because it was open at 11pm (bonus).
This place as that really homey feeling and is completely unpretentious.
What we ate:
— The java was spectacular. (Coffee and cappuccino)
— The strawberry shortcake felt like someone’s grandmother just whipped it up in the back!
— Almond tart was a yummy little bite.
— Kaiser roll: Delicious
— While there I picked up some cold cuts and cheese, can you image that the total bill for all of this was only 15 $?
I will definitely be back for another cake fix!

I love European bakeries and have an affinity for family run Portuguese ones predominantly for one thing, Portuguese tarts! They may look like Chinese egg tarts that have been accidentally burnt to a crisp, but they maybe one of the most omnomeriffic™ things in the world.
I was introduced to my first tart as a child by some Portuguese related family of mine and I’ve been addicted to them ever since.
On my recent trip to Macau, I went on a crazy hunting trip for these little suckers where some of the best in the world are made. Unfortunately THE most well known place there «Annie’s Bakery» was closed, but I still packed in 3 or 4 from several places (and if you happen to know the calorie count for these bad boys you’d know that’s about a days worth).
The ones from Nova here are as favourably comparable to any of the ones I had in Macau. They’re crispy, light, and the filling wasn’t ridonckulously sweet.
Best part is they serve «Canadiana Coffee» a la Tim Hortons like coffee, but if you’re a connoisseur they have traditional espresso’s, latte’s and other italian/​french sounding names for coffee.
If I was retired and living in the neighbourhood, I’d be there every day and have one of these bad boy tarts till my heart explodes so I could die in a yummy peace.