Come have a New Zealand dining experience! International cuisine with personal touches by Chef Karla de Sá.
On Avenida Baía dos Golfinhos, at number 844, there is a restaurant with a bamboo ceiling, exposed brick walls and, at the back of the room, a wine cellar of its own: a wall lettered with grape names — tempranillo, malbec, tannat, pinot noir, sauvignon blanc, torrontés — and bottles racked on wood beneath it. Manaaki opens seven days a week from 6pm to midnight, cooking steaks, pasta, risotto, fish and shellfish, and mixing its own list of drinks.
Book your table at Manaaki on WhatsApp
| Type | Restaurant · steaks, pasta and seafood |
|---|---|
| Area | Avenida Baía dos Golfinhos, Praia da Pipa |
| Address | Av. Baía dos Golfinhos, 844 — Tibau do Sul (RN), 59178-000 |
| Hours | Every day, 6pm–midnight |
| Seating | Covered dining room under a bamboo ceiling, wine room at the back |
| Bookings | Yes, accepted |
| Service | Dine-in · delivery |
| On the menu | Dinner · dessert · sharing plates · late-night food |
| Bar | Bar on site · cocktails · happy hour · wine cellar |
| Accessibility | Wheelchair-accessible toilet |
| Payment | Credit card and debit card |
| Contact | +55 31 99878-4026 |
| @manaaki.restaurante |
This is a sit-down restaurant with waiters, the kind built for staying. You walk in, you are seated, a long bound menu arrives with its sections laid out, and you order in waves: something to share while you decide, then the main, then dessert.
The house lists dinner, dessert, small plates and late-night food. That last one is the detail worth remembering: with the kitchen open until midnight, this is one of the few addresses in the centre where you can still order a proper plate after eleven.
The longest section of the menu is beef. There are sharing boards with a selection of cuts — picanha, carne de sol, filé mignon, maminha, contrafilé — served with cassava or chips, plus two-cut and three-cut versions that come with farofa, vinaigrette and garlic bread for the table. The format is built around sharing.
Among the mains are the parmegianas of filé mignon and chicken, with rice and mash or with pasta in tomato sauce; the Argentine picanha with rice, chips, farofa and vinaigrette; the ancho steak with mash and gratin vegetables; carne de sol with cassava; pork picanha in a peanut-and-coconut sauce; and maminha with chimichurri.
The seafood side runs just as long: shrimp in a four-cheese sauce, shrimp in a cashew crust, salmon in passion-fruit sauce or in caper and lemon, and white fish fillet in a cashew crust, with pesto and shrimp, or simply grilled with salad and vegetables.
Off the printed menu, the house also makes pizza: the shrimp one comes from a rectangular tray, cut into squares, whole shrimp scattered between the mozzarella and leaves of basil. It is the dish that best sums up this kitchen: seafood handled without ceremony.
There is a full page of fettuccine: northeastern with shredded carne de sol, in tomato sauce with filé mignon steak, with garlic and olive oil and ancho steak, four cheeses with shrimp, bolognese, al limone with salmon or with shrimp, with pesto. And another page of risotto: shrimp, courgette with cashew, gorgonzola with filé mignon, lemon with white fish, leek with salmon, sun-dried tomato with basil and shrimp, mushroom with shredded short rib, and a northeastern one with carne de sol and queijo coalho.
To begin, the petiscos: queijo coalho popcorn with chilli jam, strips of fish or chicken with chips, filé mignon in gorgonzola or mustard sauce with toast, pork belly with chilli jam, pastéis filled with shredded beef, with shrimp and catupiry or with cheese, cassava boiled with garlic and local butter, peeled garlic shrimp, chicken wings and fish croquettes. There are also house burgers of 150 grams, all beef, and the Manaaki salad with lettuce, tomato, carrot, cashew, parmesan and basil, which comes on its own or topped with shredded chicken or filé mignon.
The wine room is what sets the house apart: a section of its own, bottles on show and a wooden table beside them, under a wooden sign reading Adega. Reds and whites are sold by the bottle.
The drinks list carries house names: the Manaaki Drink of vodka, passion fruit and strawberry; the Chapadão, with vodka, passion fruit, ginger, basil and lime; the Tibau, vodka, passion fruit and coconut blended with condensed milk; and the Pinacola, rum, coconut milk, pineapple and condensed milk. Add caipirinhas and caipiroskas in strawberry, lime, passion fruit, pineapple or cajá, Moscow Mule in three versions, Aperol Spritz, Campari with orange and fruit batidas. There is beer, spirits, coffee and happy hour too, with a bar in the room itself.
The room sits under a bamboo ceiling carried on wooden beams, with lamps hung low and plants between the tables. The walls are bare brick, and one of them carries a painted mural reading "A vida é melhor de chinelos" — life is better in flip-flops — which sets the tone fairly: you eat here in sandals and without ceremony.
The house describes itself as casual, romantic and quiet, and it takes both groups and visitors passing through. With the lights low and the wine room lit at the back, it works for dinner for two and for a long table alike.
It opens every day of the year at 6pm and closes at midnight. There is no day off, which in Pipa counts for something: in low season, when several places in the centre shut two days a week, there is always a kitchen running here.
For a quiet table, between 6pm and 7:30pm. For the room at full tilt, after 9pm. And if a long afternoon on the beach ran away from you, the kitchen until midnight solves it.
It takes bookings, and they are worth making in high season or for a party of more than four.
One practical note: the menu is long, and the pasta, risotto and meat-board sections come in one-person and two-person sizes. For a table of two, ordering a board and splitting it works out as a full dinner with less repetition in the middle than two separate mains.
It stands on Avenida Baía dos Golfinhos at 844, the main street of Praia da Pipa, along the run of shops. You can walk there from almost any guesthouse in the centre and from the path down to the beach: no car and no taxi needed.
Being on the avenue makes it easy to string together: dinner here, then on foot along the same street, which is what nearly everyone ends up doing.
The house lists a wheelchair-accessible toilet, a detail that appears on very few listings in central Pipa and one worth having to hand when travelling with someone who needs it.
For the table that cannot agree: with meat boards, fish, shrimp, pasta, risotto, pizza, burgers and salads on the same menu, it is hard for anyone to be left out.
For late eaters: the kitchen stays open until midnight, seven days a week.
And for wine drinkers: the cellar with its bottles on display and the house drinks list make it worth staying on after the plates go.
Yes, seven days a week, 6pm to midnight. It has no closing day.
The kitchen runs until midnight and the house lists late-night food.
It takes bookings. In high season, or for a party of more than four, send a WhatsApp message to +55 31 99878-4026.
Meat boards and cuts, parmegianas, fish and shrimp, pasta, risotto, pizza, house burgers and salads, plus plates made for sharing.
There is. The house keeps a cellar in the dining room, with reds and whites by the bottle, alongside beer, spirits and cocktails.
Yes: the two-cut and three-cut meat boards and the whole petiscos section are built for the middle of the table.
Yes, the house lists a wheelchair-accessible toilet.
There is, alongside table service in the dining room.
Credit card and debit card.
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