Pastels, but made fancy with confit chicken. Photos: Sophia Brady.
Grazier Lane in Belconnen was a bit of a surprise. It is a meandering lane running between the new tall apartment buildings with a small Woollies at one end and a smattering of cafés and eateries throughout on ground level.
I hadn’t wandered through this part of Belconnen before, which now feels like a miss.
Mr B Pastel sits along the lane and you know you are close before you reach the door. There is a warm, savoury waft of cooking meat and fried pastry drifting out into the walkway, enough to make you do a double take.
Inside it is small and fills quickly when we arrive for lunch on a cold, blustery Saturday. Brazilian music hums in the background; the whole place feels very chill.
Mr B Pastel is run by Awiri Castro and Leonardo de Marchi Bueno, who introduces himself as Leo. Both are chefs from Brazil who met while working in Canberra.
They started as a market stall in October 2024, cooking the food they missed from home and by November 2025 had opened their Belconnen shop, which allows them the space to do catering and continue with market stalls.
When I ask Leo what the “B” stands for, he answers straight away. “Brazil,” then added, “and brothers, because we see each other as brothers.” His answer gave me the warm and fuzzies, the wholesome response setting the tone for the food to come.
The menu features Brazilian street food, including the restaurant’s namesake, pastels, hot sandwiches, rice bowls, small bites and sweets.
Salgadinhos are light and crisp.
We start with the salgadinhos, small savoury bites that arrive golden and fried. They are light, crisp and disappear quickly. The coxinha is the one I keep going back to, that golden outer layer breaking into something softer, slightly doughy and then a very moist filling of shredded chicken and cheese – delicious and impossible to resist eating just the one.
There are kale, beef and cheese versions as well, all served with chimichurri and a garlic-lime mayo. The chimichurri is sharp and herby and I end up slathering it over everything within reach.
Before the pastel arrives, Leo explains how it fits into life back home.
“In São Paulo, where I grew up, you go to an open-air market, you do your shopping, then you grab a pastel,” he said. “It is a tradition that I miss.”
For lunch, we go with Leo’s recommendation and order the frango catu. “This one is my favourite, mine and my wife’s. It is a traditional pastel combination of chicken and cream cheese, but we confit the chicken here so it stays extra juicy and tender,” he said.
The rectangle pastry arrived nice and blistery, all bubbly. Straight out of the fryer, the pastry is thin and crisp, the filling smooth and rich. It is like the ultimate comforting creamy chicken sandwich, but wrapped in a shattering, golden crust.
The chocolate brigadeiro is elite.
Knowing that Brazilian sweets lean heavily on condensed milk, we lean in and try a selection of brigadeiros.
Made from a base of condensed milk, it has a texture between fudge and truffle, soft and chewy through the middle, and rich. The chocolate version at Mr B Pastel is elite.
To finish, an absolute masterpiece of a cake that I had never had the pleasure of trying previously, Brazilian coconut cake. It arrives wrapped and as you peel back the foil, a fragrant wave of tropical coconut immediately fills the air. The cake itself is beautifully drenched in condensed milk and rich coconut cream.
It delivers an incredibly decadent, melt-in-your-mouth pillowy bite. I inhaled it.
Mr B Pastel is at 16/2 Grazier Lane, Belconnen and is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday to Sunday. Follow them on Instagram to find out which markets they will pop up at next.
Original Article published by Sophia Brady on Region Canberra.
