There’s a pastry shop in Lisbon that sells such a special chocolate cake, that it’s pretentious enough to declare itself the best in the world. As to make it official, the name of the shop is “O Melhor Bolo de Chocolate do Mundo” (“The World’s Best Chocolate Cake”).

Yes, it’s good, it’s sweet, it’s chocolaty, it’s yummy, it’s addictive — but best in the world? The audacity of the name sure does work in peaking anyone’s curiosity to go there to try it. If you’re a chocaholic, you’ll probably want to do just that when you’re in Lisbon. It’s located away from the beaten tourist path, but it’s easy to reach if you step off tram 28 at its final stop in the neighborhood of Campo de Ourique/Prazeres. Place an “X” on your map by Rua Coelho da Rocha, and it’s easy to find. The supposed best chocolate cake in the world is found on number 99.

The cake’s creators’ path to world domination is just beginning, now that someone asked to take its recipe and name outside Portugal. A new shop has opened across the Atlantic in São Paulo’s Rua Oscar Freire, the Brazilian mega-metropolis’ version of 5th Avenue, and two other shops are about to open in the same city.

In true São Paulo fashion, the South American shops are much bigger than their European counterparts.  In the Portuguese capital the shop is tiny with only a couple of tables where you can sit and allow your tastebuds to judge its supposed superlative quality. Could it really be the world’s best?

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 12:36 am and is filed under Food & Drink, Lisbon in the World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.