Hands tearing warm bread over a wooden table scattered with chilli flakes and sea salt

Whole prawns piled high on a blackened metal tray, split and charred from the grill

Flames licking a grill grate loaded with peri-peri chicken halves, orange and black

A young child laughing with peri-peri sauce on her chin, eyes bright

Green matapa stew in a clay pot, coconut milk swirling on the surface

A cold 2M beer bottle sweating on a wooden communal table at golden hour

Garlic butter dripping from split wood-fired prawns onto red Mozambican soil-colored tiles

Overhead view of communal table with dishes shared between hands reaching in from all sides

Mortar and pestle with crushed peri-peri chillies, red oil pooling at the base

Maputo · Mozambique · Est. 2019

This is how
Maputo eats.

Scroll to enter

Overhead view of an open wood-fire grill loaded with marinated prawns and chicken, smoke rising

"My grandmother's notebook crossed the Mozambique Channel in a plastic bag. The marinade recipe is on page 7, stained with peri-peri oil."

— Chef Amara Nhantumbo, Founder

The Kitchen

Recipes that crossed the channel

Piri began with a plastic bag of notebooks and the smell of chilli smoke on everything we owned. The peri-peri chillies are crushed by hand every morning. The marinade has not changed since 1987.

We serve the food of Mozambique's coastline — prawns that arrive whole and leave the grill split, blackened, trailing garlic butter. Matapa the way it's made in Maputo: slow, coconut-heavy, argumentative about timing.

The communal tables are intentional. You should be close enough to reach across and steal a prawn.

Heat LevelAuthentic

Reserve Your Table See the Full Menu

What we cook

From the grill to your table

Whole grilled tiger prawns split and charred on a metal tray, garlic butter pooling, smoke visible

01 / Camarão grelhado

Wood-Fired Prawns

They arrive whole. They leave the grill split down the spine, blackened at the edges, trailing smoke and garlic butter across the tray.

Whole tiger prawns marinated 6 hours in hand-crushed peri-peri, lemon, and butter. Grilled over hardwood until the shells char and the flesh firms. Eat with your hands. There are no instructions beyond that.

Heat

02 / Folhas de mandioca

Matapa

Someone's grandmother is arguing about whether the coconut milk has reduced enough. She is right. It has not. Wait another twenty minutes.

Cassava leaves pounded until silky, slow-cooked with coconut milk, roasted peanuts, and dried shrimp. The recipe is from Inhambane province. It takes three hours. We make it every day.

Heat

03 / Frango à Zambeziana

Peri-Peri Chicken

The fire is the third ingredient. Without the char, without the smoke getting into the skin, it is just chicken. With it, it is the reason you came.

Half chicken butterflied and marinated overnight in our 1987 peri-peri base: bird's-eye chillies, garlic, lemon, and olive oil. Grilled over open hardwood flame until the skin blisters. Served with xima and pickled vegetables.

Heat

Overhead view of a communal table covered in shared dishes, hands reaching in from every side at golden hour

Under a corrugated tin roof, at golden hour.

The Table

Everyone eats together

The communal tables seat eight. The portions are sized so you have to share. The 2M beers arrive cold and sweating. The smoke from the grill gets into everything — your clothes, your hair, your memory.

We are open Wednesday through Sunday. Lunch starts at noon. The kitchen closes when we run out — usually before 10pm on weekends.

Hours

Wed – Fri12:00 – 22:00

Saturday11:00 – 22:30

Sunday11:00 – 21:00

🍷

The Adventurous Couple

Tired of the same Thai-and-Italian rotation. Ready to argue over the last prawn.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

The Diaspora Family

Craving matapa and xima on a Sunday afternoon. This table is yours.

📸

The Food Blogger

Hunting for the next place that makes your followers book from the comments section.

Peri-Peri·Camarão Grelhado·Matapa·Frango à Zambeziana·Xima·2M Beer·

Wood fire grill glowing orange and red at night, charcoal embers and smoke

The Fire is Ready

Bring your appetite.

We'll handle the fire.

Tables fill fast on weekends. The peri-peri prawns run out by 9pm. Book early, arrive hungry.

Reserve Your Table →See the Full Menu

No form on this page — you'll be taken directly to our booking system

This is howMaputo eats.

Recipes that crossed the channel

From the grill to your table

Wood-Fired Prawns

Matapa

Peri-Peri Chicken

Everyone eats together

The Adventurous Couple

The Diaspora Family

The Food Blogger

Bring your appetite.

We'll handle the fire.

This is how
Maputo eats.