Case study

Essência das Tapas · Maia

Essência das Tapas: petiscos to share under the string lights, in Maia

In Outeiro de Vermoim, in Maia, Essência das Tapas serves Portuguese tapas and petiscos made for sharing. Dineora designed a website that first sets the table, terracotta dishes, bread, olives and wine, then leads straight to the menu, takeout or delivery ordering and table booking.

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The Essência das Tapas website shown on a laptop and a phone
Restaurant
Essência das Tapas
Location
Maia, Outeiro de Vermoim
Cuisine
Portuguese tapas and petiscos
Designed by Dineora
Website, online menu, takeout ordering, delivery, table booking

Tapas and petiscos in Outeiro de Vermoim

Essência das Tapas is located in Outeiro de Vermoim, in Maia, Portugal. Its sign, a blue and white medallion hung on a wooden board, reads: “Tapas & Francesinhas”. The menu is split into five sections. Tapas and starters open the meal: olives marinated with herbs and garlic, fresh cheese, plain or with quince paste, pastéis de bacalhau, pastéis de Chaves filled with meat, peixinhos da horta, those green beans fried in batter, chicken coxinhas. There is also piri-piri chicken, grilled chicken skewers, bifanas, pork sandwiches, and a lasagna bolognese.

The main courses include arroz de marisco and bacalhau com natas; the desserts, a chocolate mousse and a cheesecake. The wines have their own section: house wine by the glass or by the bottle, white or red, and a Quinta Nova selection in white, red and rosé. The website is written in Portuguese.

Second title of Essência das Tapas in the dining room with string lights, with “Um espaço para partilhar bons momentos”

The challenge: conveying the spirit of sharing

Tapas are meant to be shared: several small plates in the center of the table. The Essência das Tapas website had to convey this way of eating even before the menu is read, with its terracotta dishes, its light of bulbs and its phrases about conviviality.

The menu is long and varied: small Portuguese bites, grilled dishes, rice and cod dishes, desserts, wines. The challenge was to make it easy to browse, with a thumbnail and a short description for each dish, and to keep the two useful actions on every screen: booking a table, or ordering for pickup or delivery.

Essência das Tapas home page on a phone: Reservar and Pedir buttons, sign, brush title and table of tapas
Tapas cassoles on a phone, with “Mais que uma refeição, é convivência”
Art direction board for the Essência das Tapas website

Terracotta, wood and tile blue

The palette blends the warm browns of wood and terracotta, the amber of filament bulbs and a sky blue, set in brushstrokes under the titles, which echoes the blue of the sign. The visuals set out tables of petiscos: garlic shrimp in an earthenware cassole, potatoes covered in red sauce and aioli, slices of chouriço skewered with toothpicks, olives, bread in a basket and a bottle of olive oil, then fried bites on a board, strips of grilled meat on slate and a platter of flowered makis.

The name of the restaurant is drawn with a brush, in large white letters underlined in blue; a handwritten script accompanies the small phrases, and a chalk slate displays “Comida que junta pessoas”. The buttons are painted: Reservas in white letters on a midnight blue oval, Pedir in blue on a cream background decorated with blue scrolls, like glazed tile.

A home page you browse in small phrases

The home page opens in the dining room, under the bulbs, with the sign on the wall and a table loaded with tapas. Around the title, short phrases set the tone: “Boas tapas, melhores conversas”, “Pequenos sabores, grandes momentos”. Further down, the terracotta cassoles fill the whole screen, with “Tradição em cada petisco” and “Mais que uma refeição, é convivência”.

A second scene returns to the dining room to say “Um espaço para partilhar bons momentos”. Next comes a large sharing table, fried bites, grilled meat and a platter of makis, under “Combinações incríveis, sempre diferentes”, then a gallery of images: fried eggs on fries and ham, grilled meat on a board, a dining room with blue and white striped walls.

Sharing table: fried bites on a board, grilled meat on slate and a platter of makis, with “Combinações incríveis”
The Essência das Tapas ordering page on a laptop and a phone

“Menu e Pedidos”: ordering takeout or delivery

The ordering page opens on the title “Menu e Pedidos”, painted with a brush and underlined in blue, under a medallion mixing a glass of red wine, olives and grapes. The deep brown setting is woven with scrolls of foliage, rosemary, garlic cloves, chili peppers and olives. The menu is read on cream cards, in copper frames fitted with a handle, like serving boards.

A bar at the top of the screen leads to the five sections: Tapas e Entradas, Pratos Principais, Sobremesas, Bebidas and Vinhos. Each dish has its thumbnail, its name, its price, its description and a round button to add it to the cart. The cart fills up as you read; you then choose to pick up the order at the restaurant or have it delivered, and pay online.

Essência das Tapas ordering page on a computer: title “Menu e Pedidos” and a setting of scrolls, garlic and olives
Essência das Tapas menu on a phone, Tapas e Entradas section, with the cart bar at the bottom of the screen

Essência das Tapas's menu: a few dishes

Dishes as they appear on Essência das Tapas's online menu, with the restaurant's own names, descriptions and prices.

See the full menu

A booking between bricks and slates

The Reservas button opens a window that fits on a single screen. In the center, a dark wooden panel carries the name of the restaurant in golden capitals, an olive branch and a welcome phrase, “Pequenos prazeres, grandes encontros”. Around it, the table is set: shrimp and small green chili peppers in a cassole, olives, bread, ham and cheese on a board, a glass of red wine, a lantern, a slate written in chalk. A kraft paper tag, pinned to the brick wall, lists the phone number, the Instagram account and the address.

The form asks for the full name, phone, e-mail, date, time, number of guests and a special request, then is submitted with a painted button, the same midnight blue oval as in the header.

The Essência das Tapas website on a phone resting on a set table

On a phone, the same table in portrait

On a phone, the “Reservar” and “Pedir” buttons stay at the top of the screen; the first switches to a terracotta-colored oval. The sign, the brush title and the small phrases stack above the table, then the tapas cassoles scroll by, each with its handwritten phrase.

The booking form is recomposed into a column, under a slate that announces “Boa comida, boas companhias”, and the ordering page keeps its copper frames, with the cart bar, styled like a wooden tag, at the bottom of the screen.

Essência das Tapas booking form on a phone, fields in a single column under a slate
Essência das Tapas — Website screenshot

A website prepared for searches in Maia

The website is prepared for the searches people make in Maia: a restaurant, a tapas restaurant, tapas in Outeiro de Vermoim, wine, or the name Essência das Tapas, alone or with the word menu. It also answers anyone looking for good tapas nearby. The texts, the page title and its description, in Portuguese, use these words with the neighborhood and the city.

A detailed presentation page completes the home page, and the full menu can be read as text on the ordering page. Nobody can promise a spot on Google: the work consists in giving search engines accurate, structured and consistent information.

Essência das Tapas gallery: fried eggs on fries and ham, grilled meat on a board, platter of makis

A website for a tapas bar in Maia: petiscos to share, ordering and booking online

In a house of tapas and petiscos, people order to share: marinated olives, fresh cheese with quince paste, cod pastéis, peixinhos da horta, bifanas, then a seafood rice or a cod in cream for the whole table, and a bottle of the house wine. A tapas bar website must let a group build that table, with takeaway or delivery ordering and a booking for the party. That is the Essência das Tapas site, in Outeiro de Vermoim, Maia, near Porto.

  • A petisco budget, not an agency one: no quote to negotiate and no commission on orders, deliveries included.
  • At the table before the first round: the house’s name is enough, and the menu, visuals and ordering pages are ready in minutes.
  • Wood, terracotta and a stroke of sky blue: amber filament bulbs, a chalkboard saying that food brings people together, buttons like glazed tile; the portrait of the house, not of a catalogue.
  • A new petisco, a wine run out: the owner updates dishes, wines and prices from his own panel, and the site shows it straight away.
  • From kitchen to table, no third party: orders, deliveries and bookings arrive directly at Essência, with no agency or platform on the way.
  • From Maia to the world: the site speaks several languages and shows the restaurant’s currency, as for houses in Lausanne, London or Sydney.

For a tapas bar in Maia, it is a site that invites sharing: a table of petiscos built on the phone and delivered, or booked for the group.

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Learn more: Restaurant website builder · Online ordering system for restaurants · Restaurant booking system · QR code menu for restaurants

The result: a table of petiscos, from the home page to the cart

The Essência das Tapas website feels like an evening of petiscos: terracotta dishes in the center of the table, phrases about sharing, a glow of bulbs. Behind this setting, the essentials stay simple: a complete menu, takeout or delivery ordering, and a table to book on a single screen.

The website in pictures

Screenshots of the live website, on a computer and on a phone.

Essência das Tapas home page on a computer: brush title, blue sign “Tapas & Francesinhas”, shrimp, olives, bread and red wine
Essência das Tapas menu on a computer: pastéis, peixinhos da horta, piri-piri chicken, bifanas, in copper frames
Terracotta cassoles: garlic shrimp, potatoes in sauce, chouriço and olives, with “Tradição em cada petisco”
Essência das Tapas booking form on a computer: dark wooden panel surrounded by tapas, wine and a slate
Essência das Tapas — Website screenshot

Essência das Tapas: practical information

Address
Essência das Tapas - Maia, Av. D Manuel II 1169, 4470-334 Maia
See the address on Google Maps
Cuisine
Portuguese tapas and petiscos
Services
Online ordering for pickup · Delivery · Online table booking · Online payment
Menu sections
Tapas e Entradas · Pratos Principais · Sobremesas · Bebidas · Vinhos
The restaurant's website
dineora.io/essencia-das-tapas

Questions about this project

Who designed the website of Essência das Tapas?

The Essência das Tapas website was designed by Dineora: art direction, home page, online menu, ordering page and booking form.

Can you order from Essência das Tapas online?

Yes. The “Menu e Pedidos” page presents the whole menu in five sections: you fill your cart, choose pickup at the restaurant or delivery, then pay online.

Can you book a table at Essência das Tapas on its website?

Yes. The Reservas button opens a single-screen form: full name, phone, e-mail, date, time, number of guests and special request.

How does a tapas bar let customers order dishes to share on its site?

By presenting each tapa and petisco as a small portion with its own image, which the customer adds as many times as needed to build the table, before choosing pickup or delivery.

Can a tapas bar keep its wine list and bookings without a booking platform?

Yes: wines have their own section and bookings reach the owner directly through the site, with no platform and no commission taken by Dineora.

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