A tall-rimmed Neapolitan dough and savoury and sweet crêpes in a courtyard with a flower mural, in Pipa. Monday to Saturday, 6pm to 11pm.
Trio does two things out of the same kitchen: Neapolitan-style pizza, with a tall leopard-spotted crust, and crêpes, savoury and sweet. It is on Rua do Céu, in a courtyard with a stone floor, folding wooden chairs with red cushions and a hand-painted flower mural on the back wall. It opens at night only, Monday to Saturday, and rests on Sundays.
| Type | Pizzeria and crêperie |
|---|---|
| Area | Rua do Céu, Praia da Pipa |
| Address | R. do Céu, 109 — Praia da Pipa, Tibau do Sul (RN) |
| Hours | Monday to Saturday 6pm–11pm · closed Sunday |
| Seating | Open-air courtyard with small tables and a room inside |
| Service | Dine in with waiters · takeaway · curbside pickup · delivery · contactless delivery |
| On the menu | Traditional and speciality pizzas · savoury crêpes · sweet crêpes · small plates · dessert |
| To drink | Beer · wine · spirits · coffee |
| Diets | Vegetarian options stated |
| Payment | Debit card · contactless from your phone · meal vouchers |
| Contact | +55 84 99474-2016 |
| @triopizzaecrepe |
This is a sit-down restaurant with table service and a printed menu in three blocks: traditional pizzas, speciality pizzas and crêpes. The pizza comes on a wooden disc and is cut into slices; the crêpe comes on a plate, folded into a triangle, with pesto and cherry tomatoes to the side.
The dough is Neapolitan in style: a tall, puffed rim with dark marks from the oven and a thin centre. In the house's own photographs you can see the blistered, charred edge and the cheese running right to the rim, which is how a long-fermented dough shows itself.
There is a house rule worth knowing before you order: when you ask for a half-and-half pizza, you pay the proportional price of each flavour rather than the price of the dearer one. It is written on their menu, and it changes how a table of two who cannot agree builds an order.
There are seven traditional ones: prawn with cream cheese and bacon; vegetarian with hearts of palm, broccoli, courgette, rocket and sun-dried tomato; mozzarella with fresh tomato and olives; margherita with house pesto; pulled beef rib with onion; six cheeses, crossing mozzarella, parmesan, blue cheese, gouda, emmental and camembert; and shredded chicken with cream cheese.
The speciality ones number eleven, and this is where the menu gets specific: smoked coppa with rocket; fior di latte with sun-dried tomato pesto; parma with cured ham, gouda, caramelised pears and rocket; mortadella with pistachio and gouda; carbonara with parmesan, bacon, egg and pepper; all'amatriciana with bacon, fior di latte, sage and calabrian chilli; black angus sausage with onion and spinach; pastrami with camembert and mustard sauce; an "aurora nordestina" of pumpkin cream with bacon, coriander and pesto; strips of beef fillet with mushrooms; and pepperoni with emmental.
Read the card as a whole and the logic shows: no two pizzas repeat exactly the same cheese. Premium mozzarella is the base, and on top of it come fior di latte, gouda, camembert, emmental, parmesan and blue cheese depending on the case. It is a menu built around cheese before cured meat, an uncommon decision, and the one that explains why there is a whole six-cheese pizza on it.
The other half of the menu is crêpes, and here the house repeats several of the pizza fillings: chicken with cream cheese, prawn with cream cheese, pulled beef rib, margherita, a vegetarian one with grilled courgette, broccoli, sun-dried tomato, hearts of palm and rocket, and mozzarella with tomato and oregano.
The sweet crêpes are three: dulce de leche with cashews, dark chocolate, and one of artisanal guava paste from Minas Gerais with canastra cheese. It is the close of the meal and the reason this house also works for someone who ate elsewhere and comes only for dessert.
Among the savoury ones, one is worth a second look: the pulled beef rib crêpe. It is the same filling as one of the traditional pizzas, and served on thin batter it becomes a completely different dish. If you are with someone who does not want pizza, that parallel menu is what makes the table work anyway.
The house states beer, wine, spirits and coffee. The menu also carries a short block of malt whiskies: Royal Salute, Dalmore and Macallan. It is a narrow, clear offer, built to accompany the kitchen rather than to compete with it.
The courtyard is what sets this house apart: an irregular stone floor, folding wooden chairs with red cushions, small tables each with a potted succulent, a bed of purple-leaved plants, and the back wall hand-painted with flowers and stems on pale blue. There is also a concrete step that doubles as a bench, and an entrance with a few stairs.
The house describes itself as quiet and states that it works for tourists. It is a small courtyard of tables for two, not a room for big groups: that describes an evening here fairly well.
The tables are small, each with a little plant on it, and they face the mural. Sit facing the painted wall and you eat looking at blue and white flowers; sit with your back to it and you watch the stone street instead. It is a silly detail and it changes which chair is worth asking for on arrival.
It opens Monday to Saturday, 6pm to 11pm, and does not open on Sunday. That is the detail to note: Sunday is precisely the night many people go looking for pizza, and here there is no service.
Since the kitchen starts at six, the first hour is the calmest in the courtyard and the best bet for a table for two without a wait. Later the courtyard fills and the pizzas start coming out in batches: if you arrive at nine, count on some delay.
It is at Rua do Céu 109, in Praia da Pipa. It is a street in the centre, a few minutes on foot from almost any place to stay in the village, and you recognise the courtyard from the pavement by the flower mural.
If you are coming up from Praia da Pipa, it sits on the way into the centre. If you are arriving from Natal, from the airport or from another beach along the coast, look at the transfer options for the long stretch and then get around on foot.
The house works all four ways: dine in, takeaway, curbside pickup and delivery, with contactless delivery. For a pizza, which travels well, it is the obvious answer on the night when nobody wants to go out.
Three things the listing does not record, and which therefore do not get written here: it is not stated whether it takes bookings, there is no information on a children's menu or high chairs, and nothing says whether dogs are allowed. If any of the three decides your evening, ask on WhatsApp before going.
Wi-Fi is not stated either, nor is parking: Rua do Céu is a street in the centre, so arriving on foot is the sensible plan.
For the table of two that cannot agree: the house charges half-and-half by proportion, so ordering two flavours is not a penalty.
For anyone looking for vegetarian options that are more than a single line on the card: there is a vegetarian pizza and a vegetarian crêpe, plus the margherita, the six-cheese and the fior di latte.
And for dessert: three sweet crêpes, including one of guava paste with canastra cheese, which is a close that belongs to this country rather than the usual brownie.
No. It opens Monday to Saturday, 6pm to 11pm.
No. The kitchen starts at 6pm.
By the proportional price of each flavour, not by the dearer of the two. The menu says so itself.
Yes: a vegetarian pizza with hearts of palm, broccoli, courgette, rocket and sun-dried tomato, and a vegetarian crêpe with the same filling.
They do, three: dulce de leche with cashews, dark chocolate, and guava paste with canastra cheese.
They do, with contactless delivery, and they also do takeaway and curbside pickup.
Yes, by debit card, contactless from your phone and with meal vouchers.
Yes, the front courtyard is open air.
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