We are located in Playa del Centro, with a dazzling view, in a quiet and cozy atmosphere
The dining room at Casarão sits straight above the sand, under a tiled roof carried on exposed wooden beams, with red tablecloths, woven fibre lampshades and a log railing that opens onto the sea. From the table you can see the boats at anchor and, further out, the line of dunes. The kitchen is seafood, and the dish that defines the house is moqueca: the pot arrives steaming, with rice, salad and pirão alongside, and it is built for two.
Message them on WhatsApp and ask whether a table by the railing is free
| Type | Seafood · moquecas and fish |
|---|---|
| Area | Largo São Sebastião, Praia da Pipa |
| Address | Largo São Sebastião, Tibau do Sul (RN), 59178-000 |
| Seating | Covered dining room on wooden beams, one side fully open to the sea |
| Service | Dine in |
| On the menu | Moquecas · peixadas · prawn · octopus · meat · pasta · salads |
| Portions | Main courses are served for two people |
| Payment | Credit and debit cards |
| Phone | +55 84 99915-5712 |
| @casaraopipa_ |
The menu at Casarão is laid out like an old-school fish restaurant: starters to share, main courses for two and a separate list of sides. Nearly everything comes out of the sea.
They are the heart of the house and have a section to themselves. There are four: seafood moqueca, which the menu notes is cooked with coconut milk; prawn moqueca; fish and prawn moqueca; and fish moqueca. All of them arrive with rice, salad and pirão — the broth of the moqueca itself thickened with cassava flour, served in a separate bowl to spoon over everything.
The fish list runs long: peixada ao Casarão, peixada with prawn, fish in prawn sauce, in tomato sauce, in golden sauce, grilled fish, fried fish, breaded fish and the whole fish, ordered according to what came in that day. The peixadas come with rice, salad and pirão; the grilled and fried versions with rice, salad and grilled potatoes.
Prawn repeats the five classic preparations — breaded, in tomato sauce, grilled, in butter and in garlic and oil — and also appears as a starter in a smaller portion. Octopus has its own heading: seafood rice, octopus Casarão style with boiled potatoes, octopus in garlic and oil, and octopus rice.
There is meat and chicken: grilled picanha with rice, beans, farofa, vinaigrette and chips; breaded steak; steak with onions; carne de sol with fried cassava; breaded and grilled chicken. Pasta comes as spaghetti with seafood, with prawn, bolognese and in tomato sauce, plus steak or chicken parmegiana. And there are the two tropical salads, with mango, apple, lettuce, rocket, tomato, carrot, red onion and olives, with chicken or with prawn.
Starters are sharing portions: fish strips with chips, a plate of fried fish, octopus vinaigrette, picanha off the plancha, steak with onions, chicken strips, chips and cassava. There are also broths — prawn, sururu clam and fish — which make the right small plate on a windy night. The extras list runs to beans, grilled potato, pirão, mash, rice, farofa and vinaigrette, in case anything is missing from the table.
For dessert, the house classic is flambéed pineapple with vanilla ice cream: hot pineapple, dark syrup and a scoop on top.
The drinks list is long and built for looking at the sea. Caipirinha and caipiroska, the caipifruta with the fruit of your choice — pineapple, acerola, cajá, cashew apple, mango, passion fruit or guava — the fruit cocktail with condensed milk, and the Ula-Ula, served inside a hollowed pineapple with vodka, pineapple, redcurrant syrup and condensed milk.
From the international side come Aperol Spritz, gin and tonic — plain or tropical, with the fruit you pick — Sex on the Beach tropical, a Swiss caipirinha with condensed milk, and mojito. There is red, white and rosé wine, frisante and sparkling, and beer. To close, espresso.
The dining room is a single span under a tiled roof, with beams and rafters on show and bulbs hung inside coloured woven shades. Tables wear red cloths and face the open side, which has no wall at all: that is where the log railing runs and, past it, the sand. Paper lanterns hang from the beams and a surfboard leans against the yellow wall. At the back, the bar.
It is a beach restaurant in the literal sense: the sea is not a decorative detail, it is half the room. In mid-afternoon the light comes in sideways and the water glints between the logs of the railing; that is the moment to ask for a table on the edge.
Casarão is a long-lunch restaurant. Portions are for two, dishes take as long as a moqueca takes, and the view asks you to stay. If you have the time, sit down with the sun still high and leave as it starts to drop.
Because it stands on the Largo São Sebastião, the busiest point in the village, on weekends and in high season the railing tables are the first to go. A message beforehand is the fastest way to know whether one is still free.
If you plan to go down to the beach afterwards, check the tide table: at high water the strip of sand below narrows and the walk north gets harder.
The restaurant is on the Largo São Sebastião, the square that crowns the path down to the beach in the centre of Pipa. From the main avenue it is a few minutes on foot and impossible to miss, because the largo is the village's natural lookout and everyone passes through it.
Below the dining room lies Praia da Pipa, with the anchored boats you can see from the table, and to the left the coast runs towards Baía dos Golfinhos. Arriving from Natal or from the airport, settle the journey beforehand with the transfer options.
Two people who want fish with the sea in front of them. The main courses are designed to be shared, so the table builds itself: a moqueca, the rice, the pirão and the salad in the middle.
Anyone who comes for the view. It is one of the few rooms in Pipa where the sea is at eye level from your chair, with no climbing and no leaning over a wall.
Groups. The large portions, the sharing starters and the wide room make a table of six work as easily as a table of two.
No. The menu states that main courses are for two people. If you are on your own, the starters and the broths are the way in.
Four: seafood, prawn, fish with prawn, and fish. All come with rice, salad and pirão, and the seafood one is cooked with coconut milk.
It is the broth of the moqueca or the peixada itself, thickened with cassava flour until creamy. It arrives in a separate bowl and goes over the rice or over the fish.
Yes: grilled picanha, breaded steak, steak with onions, carne de sol with cassava, breaded and grilled chicken, pasta in tomato or bolognese sauce, and parmegiana of steak or chicken.
They do. The house accepts credit and debit cards.
It is just above it. The room rests on the Largo São Sebastião and the open side faces the beach, with the log railing as the only boundary.
There is. The house classic is flambéed pineapple with vanilla ice cream: the pineapple arrives hot, with dark syrup and a scoop melting on top.
It depends on the dish. The peixadas and the moquecas come with rice, salad and pirão; the grilled and fried plates with rice, salad and grilled potatoes; the picanha and the carne de sol with rice, beans, farofa and vinaigrette.
The room is roofed but open along one whole side: the railing tables are in the open air, with the tiles overhead and the sea in front.
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