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Maná Doce Sabor — an open carne de sol esfiha with lime wedges and a sweet chocolate and strawberry one
Maná Doce Sabor — a tray of open esfihas with carne de sol and coalho cheese, with lime wedges
Maná Doce Sabor — a ham pizza with tomato, onion and green olives, served in its box

Maná Doce Sabor

Pizzas, fatay, cakes and more!

At number 788 on Avenida Baía dos Golfinhos, in Praia da Pipa, a round lit sign hangs among the palm fronds: MANÁ DOCE SABOR, pizzas e esfihas. Underneath it there is a timber-roofed veranda with curtain lights falling from the edge and woven fibre lanterns over the tables. What comes out of there are open esfihas — carne de sol, coalho cheese, calabresa — and, on the same tray, the sweet ones with chocolate and strawberry. It opens every night.

Order your esfihas for tonight

Maná Doce Sabor at a glance

TypePizzas and esfihas
AreaAvenida Baía dos Golfinhos, Praia da Pipa
AddressAv. Baía dos Golfinhos 788, Tibau do Sul (RN)
Opening hoursSunday to Thursday 6pm–11pm · Friday and Saturday 6pm–midnight
Closing daysNone: open seven days a week
SeatingCovered veranda over the avenue, with numbered tables
ServiceTakeaway · delivery
PaymentCredit and debit cards accepted
Contact+55 84 99217-8966

What to eat

The menu runs in two columns and both are worth reading in full, because the house does two different things with the same dough.

Esfihas, the house speciality

There are three families. Open esfihas are small discs of dough with the filling exposed and the rim baked golden: carne, cheese, calabresa, marguerita, chicken, chicken with bacon and cheddar, chicken with catupiry, ham, portuguesa and carne de sol, with catupiry available as an extra. They arrive several at a time on paper, with lime wedges in the middle: a format built for a group picking at the table.

Closed esfihas are the bread-roll version, filling inside: carne, chicken with catupiry, chicken with cream cheese, calabresa with cream cheese, four cheeses, marguerita and costelinha.

And the sweet esfihas, the half the house is named for: chocolate, chocolate with strawberry, romeu e julieta, dulce de leche, cartola and nutella. The chocolate and strawberry one arrives with the fruit sliced thin and arranged over the cream, and it is the one you see most often on the tables.

How to order

Esfihas are ordered by the piece, and that changes how a table is built. Instead of choosing one dish and sticking with it, you order several and put together a round: two or three savoury ones per person to begin with, then add whatever is missing. It is the format that works best when everyone wants something different, and the one that lets you try the carne de sol, the cheese and the calabresa in the same run.

The ending is on the same menu: the sweet esfihas are ordered last, come out hot and are eaten by hand just like the savoury ones. You do not have to move on somewhere else for dessert, which on Pipa's main avenue is a practical advantage.

Pizzas

The list comes in two sizes, P and G, and covers both the classics and the regional flavours: mozzarella, calabresa, portuguesa, chicken, chicken with catupiry, tuna, prawn, prawn with catupiry, ham, marguerita, bacon, carne de sol, carne de sol with catupiry, four cheeses, barbecue short rib and two nordestinas, one plain and one with catupiry.

There are also sweet pizzas — chocolate, chocolate with strawberry, romeu e julieta, dulce de leche, nutella and cartola, the last one with banana, cinnamon, coalho cheese and condensed milk — and pizzas brotinho, the small size, in mozzarella, calabresa, ham, portuguesa, chicken and carne de sol.

The menu is rounded out with pastéis, salgados and sharing portions, plus drinks: 300 ml juices, soft drinks, beers and water.

The setting

The place sits on the avenue, its front wall painted red with the number 788 visible on it. The thing to look for is the round lit sign hanging from the structure: a white disc with the name in red inside a crest with a chef's hat and, underneath, the line "pizzas & esfihas". At night you pick it out from a distance, through the fronds of the palm growing in front of it.

The seating is a covered veranda framed in timber and tile, open to the street. Curtain strings of white lights hang from the roof edge, and three woven fibre lanterns drop between the beams to give the place its warm light. Tables and chairs are folding wooden pieces, and each table carries its number on a black stand next to the condiments and the napkins.

This is a spot on the avenue's flow: you eat facing the street, with the traffic of Praia da Pipa in front of you and vegetation closing the back. There is no enclosed dining room and no air conditioning; everything is open air, under the roof.

When to go

It opens every night at 6pm. Sunday to Thursday it serves until 11pm, and on Friday and Saturday it stretches to midnight. There is no closing day, which in a village where many kitchens rest one or two days a week is a concrete advantage.

The hours make this house an answer to two different moments. The first is the early dinner: at six in the evening, when you come back from the beach hungry and most restaurants have not opened yet, there is service here. The second is the long weekend night: on Friday and Saturday the kitchen runs to midnight, so it settles the late hunger too.

For a big table the format helps: esfihas are ordered by the piece and the flavours simply add up, so nobody has to agree on a single dish. And if the idea is to finish with something sweet without moving on, the menu carries six sweet esfihas and six sweet pizzas, which is more dessert than most places offer.

Where it is and how to get there

It sits at Avenida Baía dos Golfinhos 788, the main street of Praia da Pipa. You can walk up from the centre of Pipa along the avenue without turning off, and from Baía dos Golfinhos you climb the same street, which puts it on the way back from the beach.

If you are arriving from Natal, from the airport or from another beach along the coast, look at the transfer options for the drive into the village, then move around on foot.

Takeaway and delivery

The house lists takeaway and delivery, and that is its strength: esfihas travel well, arrive in a box and are eaten with your hands, no cutlery needed. For the night nobody wants to leave the guesthouse — or for a table put together in an apartment with friends — it is the most practical format on the avenue. Orders go through WhatsApp.

If you would rather eat there, the veranda has numbered tables, condiments on the table and napkin holders. And paying is straightforward: the house states that it accepts credit and debit cards.

Who it suits

A table that wants something other than pizza without leaving the format: open esfihas are ordered by the piece, and two people can work through four or five flavours.

Anyone who wants an early dinner: it is open at six in the evening, every day of the year.

And anyone arriving late on a Friday or Saturday who needs a kitchen running until midnight.

Frequently asked questions

Is Maná Doce Sabor open every day?

Yes, all seven days, always from 6pm.

How late does it serve?

Until 11pm Sunday to Thursday and until midnight on Friday and Saturday.

Can you have lunch there?

No. The house opens evenings only, from six.

What is an open esfiha?

A small disc of dough with the filling exposed, baked until the rim turns golden. Here there are ten savoury varieties and six sweet ones.

Is there sweet pizza?

Yes: chocolate, chocolate with strawberry, romeu e julieta, dulce de leche, nutella and cartola.

Do they deliver?

They do, and they do takeaway as well. Orders go through WhatsApp.

Do they take cards?

Yes, credit and debit.

What is cartola?

A north-eastern flavour that appears here both as a pizza and as an esfiha: banana, cinnamon, coalho cheese and condensed milk.

Are there tables to sit at?

Yes, on the covered veranda facing the avenue. The tables are numbered and carry condiments and a napkin holder.

Where exactly is it?

At Avenida Baía dos Golfinhos 788. The landmark is the round lit sign with the name, hanging among the palms.

Message the house and ask about the sweet esfihas

Days and hours

  • Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday - Friday - Saturday - Sunday
  • 18:00 - 23:00

Location