Benvass Residential Restaurant is a local Espargos buffet with tasty home-style food, honest prices and a genuinely local vibe. Popular with locals and guides. Ideal for a solid lunch without tourist-trap nonsense — as long as you’re not too precious about flies.
Where you eat the way locals actually eat
In Espargos, far from the beach scene and the five-language laminated menus, you’ll find Benvass Residential Restaurant. It doesn’t try to charm you. It just wins you over with simple, well-cooked food and prices that still feel like they belong in real life.
A neighbourhood restaurant built around a buffet
Benvass runs mainly as a buffet-style restaurant, popular with locals and often chosen by guides who’d rather avoid the usual tourist traps. The format is straightforward: pick from the buffet, eat without drama, pay without surprises, and carry on with your day.
Several reviews mention a set menu around €15 that includes a main choice from the buffet, dessert and coffee, with a reduced price for children. On this island, that’s not nothing.
If a place is busy with Cape Verdeans at lunchtime, it’s usually a very good sign.
Simple, tasty, no theatrics
The buffet gets consistently high marks: well-cooked chicken, hot dishes, and vegetarian options like vegetables, lentils and salads. There’s enough variety to keep it from feeling repetitive.
This isn’t “creative cuisine” and it’s not trying to be. It’s honest, well-seasoned food designed to feed people — not to perform for social media.
The coffee is also mentioned more than once as surprisingly excellent.
Friendly, local, relaxed
Staff are usually described as kind, attentive and easy-going. The vibe is clearly local: indoor seating, decent decoration, and a functional, cared-for feel.
More than one person points out that many travellers pass through Espargos without ever realising this place exists — which, frankly, is part of the charm.
THE “BUTS” · Worth knowing beforehand
It’s not flawless. A recurring theme in reviews is flies around the buffet — mentioned seriously by some, more casually by others. In Cape Verde it’s not unheard of, but it’s something to factor in before you sit down.
There’s also an isolated, very harsh review that doesn’t match the overall pattern. Based on volume and consistency, it reads more like an exception than the rule.
Not a place for delicate food snobs — but great for travellers with common sense.
WHO IT’S FOR
– Anyone who wants to eat well without overpaying.
– People who prefer a local room to a tourist set.
– Families and groups who like quick, clear options.
– Travellers who understand buffet dining has context.
A straightforward place that delivers
Benvass doesn’t promise anything extraordinary — and that may be exactly why it works. Good food, reasonable prices, friendly service, and the feeling you’re somewhere genuinely local. In Espargos, that’s a strong offer.
Sometimes eating well is simply not overcomplicating it.
