Restaurant located on Madeiro Beach
Praia do Madeiro is the beach on the far side of the cliff, and you reach it down a long stairway from the RN-003. At the foot of those steps, on the sand, there is a bar with green parasols and a counter stacked with crates of fruit. The house is called Madeiros Drinks and it does exactly what the name says: fruit cocktails, from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon, with seafood alongside.
Ask them for a table with a parasol
| Type | Bar and restaurant on the sand |
|---|---|
| Area | Praia do Madeiro, at the foot of the steps |
| Address | RN-003, Praia do Madeiro, Tibau do Sul (RN) |
| Hours | Every day, 9am–4pm |
| Seating | Parasols and loungers on the sand, with its own bar |
| Service | Eat in · takeaway |
| Kitchen | Fish, shrimp, tuna, chicken and petisco boards |
| Bar | Fruit cocktails, served in the house glass |
| Contact | +55 84 98714-5164 |
| @madeirosdrinks |
The kitchen works the coastal repertoire and serves it on a big plate, built for a table that has just come out of the water. What follows is what the house shows in its own photographs.
The dish that opens the list is whole grilled fish, served with rice, salad and cassava chips — the thin fried batons that come with almost everything here. There is a more worked version: fish in passion fruit sauce, with potatoes and sun-dried tomato, which puts the same fish in an entirely different register.
Grilled tuna arrives with grated salad and carrot, a fresh and light plate, and it is what you order when you do not want to sit down heavy mid-morning. The shrimp comes on skewers, with cassava chips and salad: you eat it with your hands, straight off the stick, which is the format that works best under a parasol.
The petisco board is the group order: fish strips, carne de sol, cassava chips and two dipping sauces, all on one platter in the middle. It is what you ask for when the table does not want to commit to a main course and the afternoon has barely started.
For anyone who does not eat fish there is grilled chicken, with rice, salad and the same cassava chips. It is not a filler plate: in the house's photos it arrives the same size and with the same sides as the rest.
This is the heart of the house, and it is in the name. The counter is the main piece of furniture: behind it sit stacked crates of fruit and a shelf of bottles, and the drinks are built right there, in view. The photos show a run of colourful fruit cocktails — pineapple, orange and citrus — served in a tall glass packed with crushed ice, and the house glass carries the full brand printed on it.
The caipirinha turns up with the house's little flag planted in the glass, which is the detail that turns a drink into a photograph. And the format sets the terms: everything is served to the parasol, so the drink reaches your lounger and you never have to leave the sand.
That mechanic shapes the day: a petisco board in the middle, two fruit cocktails, the fish when hunger gets serious, and the parasol until four.
The house sits on the sand, not in a dining room. There is a roofed timber structure, green parasols lined up towards the water and loungers beneath them, with the cliff rising behind and flags on the pole. The sign with the name faces the beach.
Inside the structure is the bar, and it is what sets this house apart from its neighbours: it is not a service hatch, it is a bar built with the fruit crates on show, the bottles on the shelf and room to work in front of the customer. It is a cocktail bar planted on a beach.
Praia do Madeiro helps: it is a calm-water beach, sheltered by the curve of the cliff, with clear water and little surf. That is why a bar like this works here and not on a break beach.
Open seven days, 9am to 4pm. Seven hours, all of them in daylight, with no closing day in the week. It is one of the houses that solve the day you did not plan, because you never have to find out whether it opens.
The hours say the rest: it closes at four, so this is not a sunset bar and not a night one. Cocktails here are a morning and midday affair, which is when the beach is full and the sun is hard. If you are after sundown with a drink in your hand, this is not the house.
The tide governs the width of the beach. At low tide the strip of sand in front of the parasols opens out and there is room to spare; at high tide the water comes up and the bar sits tighter against the cliff. It is worth checking the tide table before coming down, especially if you arrive early and plan to stay all day.
It sits on the RN-003 at Praia do Madeiro, at the foot of the descent. From the top you arrive by car, by motorbike or by transfer, then walk down the steps to the sand. It is the same access everyone uses to reach the beach.
From Praia do Madeiro there is nowhere to get to: the house is on the beach. And if you are coming from Natal, from the airport or from the village centre, look at the transfer options to cover the stretch to the descent, because there are several kilometres of road between the centre and Madeiro.
For anyone spending the day at Madeiro who wants to eat and drink without climbing back up the steps: the house is on the sand and serves to the parasol.
For the table coming off the beach with a midday appetite, after whole grilled fish with rice and salad, on a big plate and with no ceremony.
And for anyone travelling for the cocktails: there is a real bar here, fruit on show, on a beach where that is not common.
Yes. Seven days a week, 9am to 4pm. It has no closing day.
No. It closes at four in the afternoon, so it is a morning and midday house.
You can. There are parasols and loungers on the sand and service reaches them. There are also tables under the roofed structure.
Whole grilled fish with cassava and rice, the shrimp skewers, or the petisco board if there are several of you.
Yes: grilled chicken with rice, salad and cassava chips, and the carne de sol that comes on the petisco board.
No. They work in the house and for takeaway; home delivery, no.
Down the stairway that drops from the RN-003 to the sand at Praia do Madeiro. The house is at the foot of the descent.
Several kilometres by road, so it is worth going by car, motorbike or transfer. On foot from the centre it is not an everyday walk.
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