Papa Boa Rivonia — Restaurant in Gauteng

A casual restaurant with very warm and friendly service.

We hosted for the first time with friends who were here from Australia and wanted to eat Portuguese food and we all had a lovely time.

Prawn & chicken rissoles were beautifully creamy inside and crisp and crunchy outside.

The chickpea salad which was very light dressing and beautiful balance of flavours.

The grilled calamari was so fresh. These were our starters and enticed us to order prawns as one of the mains, which were equally fresh. We requested to have them de-shelled (as the 3 people who were going to share them are relatively new to eating seafood) and they very kindly obliged.

We also had a grilled chicken and I tried a bifana sandwich for the first time. Beautifully grilled pork, nice sauce and super soft bread - made for an excellent sandwich.

With all the jet lag all around, coffees were ordered and they were excellent - we are fussy about our coffee.

They had a good selection of port wines and it was a lovely way to wrap up the meal with some crème caramel.

I’d love to go back and try some more of the regional specialties...

Always good food (being portuguese myself). So it pains me to submit this review. COCKROACHES...YES.. A FEW OF THEM. We have eaten there a few time (more than thrice) and the big problem with this restaurant is ALWAYS the management is poor at best. The owner (who manages) doesn't seem to be bothered and won't leave her meal to address guests when she's been asked for. In this particular case with the cockroach, the best she could offer was a frankly, insincere apology. After taking a picture and on our way out she could could not avoid us as she was by the exit, and upon hearing that there were cockroaches on our table, she displayed no shock or no surprise which was quite telling. All she offered was an enquiry as to whether we had reported the cockroaches to our waiter and that an apology. It's absolutely clear to me that not much will be done about this issue and therefore I will never set foot in this establishment again. It's very disaapointing that it was mother's day and I wanted to treat my wife to a nice meal. R1000 later...it turns out I treated a couple of cockroaches to...

My husband and decided last minute to go out and have a New Year's Eve dinner. As it was not planned we were dressed rather casual. We went on line and based upon the reviews and the fact that the operating hours clearly stated the restaurant was closing at 9pm and we arrived at 8pm we assumed we would be assisted.

Upon entering the restaurant instead of being greeted and apologizing that the kitchen was closed we were asked "how we could be assisted"??? I was not calling a customer service department, I do believe it was very obvious we were there to dine. When I informed her we were there to have dinner we were informed the kitchen was closed. There were about three tables and I do understand that it is New Year's Eve and staff want to go home but we have never felt this belittled in our lives. We are in the hospitality industry ourselves and I am rather disappointed by such service. How do you ask a potential customer walking into a restaurant how they can be assisted? I am not sure if we were not dressed accordingly but nevertheless I believe the hosts attitude was very...