Restaurante Ponta do Barravento

You come down a stairway cut into the cliff vegetation and, as you step onto the sand at Cacimbinhas, a roofed wooden structure appears with a field of white parasols lined up towards the water. That is the place. The kitchen works with oysters — that is the category the house uses to describe itself on the map — and the rest of the coastal repertoire: lobster, shrimp, moquecas and fish. It serves from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon, every day of the year.

Message them and get a table in the shade

Barravento at a glance

What you eat

The house describes itself on the map as an oyster bar and restaurant, and that is where to start. The oysters arrive open on ice, in a clay dish, with lime on the side: you eat them with your fingers, one at a time, while the rest of the table makes up its mind.

The rest is a long seafood menu, written on the house's own photographed card. It reads in blocks, and each block solves a different kind of table.

Lobster and shrimp

This is the top of the menu. Lobster comes two ways: grilled, with potatoes and rice, and as lobster moqueca. Shrimp has four entries of its own — Greek style, Bahia style, shrimp moqueca, and the one that carries the house name, camarão Barravento, served inside a pineapple with Greek rice. There is also a mixed moqueca, which is how you avoid choosing at all.

Fish, broths and salads

From the fish come fish moqueca and breaded fish. To begin, or for a table that comes down early and hungry, there is shrimp broth and fish broth; and three salads — tropical, plain and vegetable — which at a midday table in the sun are worth more than they look.

Meat, chicken and pasta

Not everything here comes out of the sea, and that matters when the table is mixed. There is carne de sol, steak parmigiana, steak in madeira sauce and beef or chicken stroganoff; tropical chicken and breaded chicken; and spaghetti bolognese, with garlic and oil, with shrimp or with chicken. Nearly everything comes with macaxeira, the cassava that goes with everything in the Northeast.

Petiscos, for picking without sitting down to lunch

This is the block a beach house uses most: breaded shrimp, garlic shrimp, carne de sol with cassava, steak with chips, frango a passarinho, fish strips, calabresa sausage with onion and chips. One platter in the middle of the table and two hours of shade will carry a whole afternoon without a main course.

What you drink

The drinks list is built on fruit. There are caipifrutas, caipirinha and caipiroska, and a run of cocktails with names of their own: Coco LoKo, the Barravento cocktail, piña colada, cuba libre and Hula Hula. For anyone not drinking there are alcohol-free cocktails, juice by the jug or the glass, and coconut water. And there is beer, which at a table on the sand at eleven in the morning is almost a category of its own.

The natural order of a table here runs like that: coconut water while the shade arrives, a dozen oysters with lime, a caipifruta when the sun gets serious, and a moqueca in the middle to share.

The room

The house is a roofed timber structure set straight onto the sand, open at the front to the sea with the red cliff rising behind it. The tables fold and are dressed in green, yellow and blue; the chairs are white and get stacked to one side when nobody is in. There is no ceremony to it: you walk in in your swimsuit with sand on your feet.

In front of the structure runs a field of white parasols lined up towards the water, and that is the second room of the place: you can eat at the table under the roof, or order to your parasol and eat watching the break. From the top of the cliff you see the whole thing at once — green roof, palms, parasols and turquoise water — and that is the picture that explains the place in a second.

The way in says something too. There is a hand-painted board that welcomes you and asks you to leave your worries outside, and an archway with the beach access sign. It is a two-minute walk down through the vegetation with the sound of the sea rising.

When to go

Open seven days, 8am to 5pm. There is no closing day, and that is the biggest practical advantage it has: in a village where a good share of the kitchens rests one or two days a week, here any day is a service day.

The hours, on the other hand, set the terms. It closes at five, so this is not a dinner house: it is late breakfast, long lunch and an afternoon on the beach. Opening at eight in the morning puts it in a rare and useful spot — you can come down early, before the beach fills, have a coffee or a broth, and hold your parasol from the start of the day.

At Cacimbinhas the tide also has a say. At low tide the strip of sand in front of the structure opens out and the tables sit well back from the water; at high tide the sea comes up and the space narrows. It is worth checking the tide table before you come down, especially with children or if the plan is a whole day.

Where it is and how to get there

It sits at Avenida Antonio Florencio 112, on Praia de Cacimbinhas, at the foot of the cliff. From the top you arrive by car or motorbike along the road that links the village to Madeiro, and then walk down the steps. The access sign announces it from the entrance: it is the same path everyone uses to reach the beach.

This is the northern end of the arc of beaches: walking from Praia do Madeiro at low tide, you can reach it along the sand. Coming in from Natal, from the airport or from another beach along the coast, look at the transfer options to cover the stretch to the area and move on foot from there.

With a dog, and without paying for shade

Two things the house announces on its own entrance board, and both change the shape of the day. The first: the beach set-up carries no charge. Parasol, showers, toilets, hammocks, bag storage and a small beachwear shop are there for anyone eating at the house. On a beach where every service usually has its own price, that simplifies the mental arithmetic of the day.

The second: dogs are welcome. The house states it has its own pet area and, on top of that, arrangements with hotels and guesthouses in the area that take animals. If you travel with a dog, it is one of the few places on this coast that puts it in writing at the door.

The house also states that it welcomes the LGBTQ+ community and that it identifies as a women-led business. Both are attributes the house itself files on its listing, and they say a good deal about who runs it and who is expected there.

Who it is for

For anyone who wants a full beach day rather than just a meal: come down early, take a parasol, eat oysters at midday and head back up when the sun eases.

For the table travelling with a dog that had already given up on eating anywhere but the pavement: here there is room for the animal and shade for everyone.

And for the group looking for somewhere to celebrate facing the sea without a closed function room: the house handles weddings, birthdays and get-togethers on the sand.

Frequently asked questions

Is Barravento open every day?

Yes. Seven days a week, 8am to 5pm. It has no closing day.

Can you have dinner there?

No: it closes at five in the afternoon. It is a late-breakfast, lunch and beach-afternoon house.

Do you pay for the parasol?

Its own entrance board announces parasol, showers, toilets, hammocks and bag storage at no charge. What you pay for is what you eat and drink.

Can you bring a dog?

Yes. The house states it has a pet area and arrangements with hotels and guesthouses in the area that take animals.

Do they deliver?

No. They serve in the house and for takeaway; home delivery, no.

What is worth ordering?

The oysters, which is the category the house uses for itself. After that, from its menu: lobster grilled or in moqueca, camarão Barravento served in a pineapple, mixed moqueca, or a platter of petiscos to share.

How do you get down to the beach?

Down a stairway cut into the cliff vegetation, from the signposted access on Avenida Antonio Florencio. It takes a couple of minutes on foot.

Can you hold an event there?

Yes. The house advertises space for weddings, birthdays, get-togethers and religious events.

Ask them if there are oysters today