Typical Nordestin food
Avenida Baía dos Golfinhos is the street the whole village is built around, and at number 774, across from the Loja Ecológica, a door opens onto a wooden dining room. The walls are a collection: the owners have gathered pieces that tell the story of the cangaço, the chapter of the sertão the Northeast keeps retelling. The cooking points the same way —carne de sol, goat, baião de dois— and the dish the house is named after comes in four versions.
Message them on WhatsApp and ask which escondidinho to order
| What it is | Northeastern Brazilian cooking |
|---|---|
| Where | Avenida Baía dos Golfinhos, central Praia da Pipa |
| Address | Av. Baía dos Golfinhos 774, across from the Loja Ecológica, Praia da Pipa, Tibau do Sul (RN), 59178-000 |
| Hours | Every day, 12:00–23:00 |
| The room | Themed, with a collection on the history of the cangaço |
| Service | Table in the dining room · kerbside pickup · delivery |
| Payment | Cards accepted |
| On the menu | Escondidinhos · carne de sol · goat · baião de dois · moquecas · pasta · vegetarian option |
| To drink | Regional cachaças · beer · caipirinhas · fruit juices · wine by the glass · coffee |
| Plus code | QXC2+99 Praia da Pipa, Tibau do Sul |
| +55 84 99122-9589 | |
| @otaldoescondidinho | |
| Website | otaldoescondidinho.com.br |
The menu is written in the house's own dialect: the sections are called Pra Cumeçá, Pra Cumê Rezano, Pra Aumentá and Pra Adoçá, and they set the order in which the table gets used.
This is the line the house is named after, and it runs to four versions: carne de sol, garlic shrimp, shredded chicken and vegetarian, the last with carrot, broccoli and green beans. All four are built the same way: the filling underneath, the mash over it, the gratin on top. You pick the mash from macaxeira (cassava), potato or jerimum, the Northeastern squash, and it comes with rice or straw potatoes. Each one is ordered as a single portion or as a portion for two, so a table can take two different escondidinhos and try both.
The starters are the longest section on the menu, and they are where goat turns up, which few menus in the village carry: goat coxinha with a spiced sauce and goat kibbeh in cream. Beside them sit the cashew-meat coxinha, the carne de sol kibbeh in cream, the crisp pork with a rapadura barbecue sauce, the moqueca fritter, shrimp with catupiry, carne de sol with fried cassava and the tapioca cubes with chilli jam.
The mains come for one or for two, and they are the dishes that explain the cooking of the sertão. There is baião de dois and there is rubacão, its cousin from Paraíba. There is bode arretado, the costelinha de porco gonzagão —the name nods to Luiz Gonzaga— the steamed beef rib and carne de sol three ways: steamed, on the griddle and with queijo coalho. The section closes with grilled fish and the matuto da praia.
The moquecas are served for two, with rice and pirão on the side: fish, or fish and shrimp together, plus bobó de camarão with banana farofa. The pasta carries the sertão onto the plate: the sertão nordestino is penne with carne de sol and queijo coalho; the mar do sertão is penne and shrimp; and the plantain gnocchi comes with a carne de sol ragù.
Sides get a section of their own: cuscuz plain, with vegetables or stuffed with carne de sol or chicken, banana farofa, carne de sol paçoca, feijão verde, black beans, straw potatoes and rice.
Dessert stays in the Northeast too: cartola gratinada, tapioca pudding with burnt coconut, cocada brûlée and a bolo de rolo carpaccio with ice cream — the Pernambuco roll cake, sliced thin.
The bar is the other half of the regional argument. There are fourteen cachaças on the list and a good share are Northeastern: Samanaú silver and gold, Gabi clove-and-cinnamon and Maria Boa come from Rio Grande do Norte; Matuta, Serra Preta and Volúpia from Paraíba. Labels from Minas Gerais and São Paulo round out the list.
On that base the bar builds the caipirinha, plain or special, the caipifruta, the caipiroska, a mojito, a cuba libre and a tropical gin. Beer comes in long necks and 600 ml bottles, craft included, and there is red and white wine by the glass.
By day the fruit takes over: fresh juices of acerola, cashew fruit, mango, passion fruit, lime, pineapple and pineapple with mint, plus mixed and orange. And there is coffee, small, large or with milk, for the end of a long lunch.
The dining room is wood, with laid tables and warm light, and what sets it apart is the collection: the house calls its space themed, and the pieces on the walls tell the story of the cangaço. That turns the wait between courses into something to look at, and it is why a table here lasts longer than the meal does.
The house puts it in its own words: it values the culture of the region and Northeastern cooking, with good music and a welcoming room. The other thing it declares is its suppliers: it works with small producers, visits them and picks one by one what goes on the menu. Its verified listing also marks it as an LGBTQ+ friendly business, a statement from the house itself.
It opens every day at 12:00 and closes at 23:00. That is eleven straight hours with the kitchen on, no break between lunch and dinner, and it changes how you use the place: you can walk in at two in the afternoon, straight off the beach, with a quiet room and the full menu available.
Midday and early afternoon are the long-table hours, the ones that order a baião de dois for two and stretch it out. The evening is when the room fills: with the kitchen working until eleven, a dinner that starts at nine still reaches dessert comfortably. If you are coming as a group or in high season, message ahead on WhatsApp.
It sits at Avenida Baía dos Golfinhos 774, the village's main street, across from the Loja Ecológica, which is the landmark the house gives out itself. The plus code is QXC2+99 Praia da Pipa. The avenue is a single run that drops from the entrance of the village down toward the sea, so you can walk there from anywhere in the centre.
From the sand at Pipa Beach you climb any of the ramps up to the avenue and arrive in a few minutes on foot; from Centro Beach the walk is shorter still. If you are still planning the trip and have not worked out how to reach the village, see how to get to Pipa and the transfer options from Natal.
Anyone who wants to try Northeastern cooking and does not know where to start. The menu reads like a map: baião de dois, rubacão, carne de sol, goat, moqueca and cuscuz, all on one table and all available as a single portion or a portion for two.
A family or a group that wants to share. Nearly the whole mains section comes in a version for two, and the sides are ordered separately, so a table of four puts together its own round.
Anyone eating without meat. The vegetarian escondidinho is on the menu under its own name, with cuscuz and vegetables, a simple salad, feijão verde and banana farofa around it.
It is a Northeastern dish: a base of shredded meat hidden under a mash and gratinéed on top. Here you choose the mash from cassava, potato or jerimum squash, and the filling from carne de sol, shrimp, chicken or vegetables.
Yes. Monday to Sunday, 12:00 to 23:00, with no break between lunch and dinner.
Yes. The vegetarian escondidinho with carrot, broccoli and green beans, plus cuscuz with vegetables, a simple salad and feijão verde among the sides.
The mains and the escondidinhos come in both sizes: a single portion or a portion for two. The moquecas and the bobó de camarão are for two.
Yes. The house does delivery and kerbside pickup alongside table service, and it is also listed for ordering through an app.
Yes, cards are accepted.
Fourteen labels: from Rio Grande do Norte, Samanaú silver and gold, Maria Boa and Gabi clove-and-cinnamon; from Paraíba, Matuta, Serra Preta and Volúpia; and from Minas and São Paulo, Salinas, Seleta, Boazinha, Sagatiba and the three Cabarés.
At Avenida Baía dos Golfinhos 774, across from the Loja Ecológica, in central Praia da Pipa. Plus code QXC2+99.
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