During my most recent trip to Porto in August/September 2026, I wanted to go deeper into what the city has to offer. I’d already visited Porto twice, writing my complete guide to Porto on the back of my second visit, so I’d say I know the city pretty well, but I wanted to do more of what the locals do. I also love Pastel de natas, so when I spotted that Getyourguide does Pastel de nata cooking classes, I was sold. Learning a new skill, meeting a local and getting to eat some delicious natas? Yes please!
Why this class?
We chose a class at Boiler Studio as I also booked onto their Tile Painting class, which was half an hour after our nata cooking. It made sense, with a small amount of time in the city, to have a half day of cooking and crafting. Boiler Studio is easy to find, being a couple of minutes from the cathedral, and they have a lovely dog too (irrelevant to the class, but a bonus for me, I love dogs!)
How long did the class last?
The Pastel de nata cooking class was meant to be two hours, although ours went over and was more like two and a half. This included time for the natas to cook and cool, and time for us to drink cocktails. I also had a bit of time to browse their shop and buy a ceramic fish for my wall (cash only, if you want to buy something from the shop)
How much did the class cost?
We paid £30 each for the workshop, which felt liks a reasonable cost at the time. It included a cocktail (people definitely had more than one, too) and three natas each at the end.
What was the class like?
I enjoyed the class, but it was more of a group thing than a personal lesson. Each step was demonstrated or described by the leader of the class and then two or three people from the group did the step. Every participant got to do something, but no one did all of the steps.
The step where we made our pastry cases (using pre-made by the studios pastry, because the pastry itself takes three hours) we did for ourselves, so no one else’s hands touched my food. The cases were labelled as mine and I got my own back at the end. However, as the custard mixture was a group effort and there were three sets, in the end I don’t know which custard was the one I’d done a little bit of.
I didn’t love the format and would have preferred to do all the steps myself, but I understood this was the way Boiler Studio chose to run the class. My one criticism is that one of the people making the custard made theirs a bit more like scrambled egg than custard, and some of that mixture was in one of my natas. It tasted fine but the texture was not right. The other two were great.
Was it worth the money and time?
I don’t think I’d do the same class again, as I felt like I didn’t do enough of the steps to justify the £30 price tag. I would consider a Pastel de nata cooking class where I did all of the steps. I would do another course at Boiler Studio, if there was a course I hadn’t already done.
I am really looking forward to making natas at home, using the recipe Boiler Studio gave us at the end of the class.
Would you do a cooking class like this in a new city? Which ones would be on your list?
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