In central Macau is a hidden gem, the first South African restaurant in town, serving comfort food cooked from the heart. We meet entrepreneur head chef-owner Denver Govender and wife Vanessa who together bring the best blend of South African and Macau hospitality to their customers.
Coming from several generations of chefs, for South African Denver Govender, culinary skills are in his blood. Learning to cook at a young age and quickly realizing that his passion and talents also lie in the kitchen he enrolled in Durban’s exclusive Fusion Cooking School which has an annual intake of only 12 students. With his Advanced diploma in hand he worked at the Kruger National Park before deciding to take up job opportunities in the USA. Little did he know that this decision would change his life forever. While working as a chef in Florida’s Walt Disney World Resort fate played her hand and he met Maria Vanessa Fajardo from Macau who was on a 6-month internship as part of her International Tourism Management degree at Macau City University.
It was an appreciation of hospitality and good food that brought Denver and Vanessa together. Cooking and catering are very much part of Vanessa’s background too. When her parents moved to Macau from the Philippines in the late 80’s they established the now famous bakery, Anak Philippine Bread (at the junction of Rua da Alfandega and Rua da Felicidade) where queues of customers can be seen at the door each morning waiting for their favourite fresh warm donuts and ube pandasal. Others in the Fajardo family also have a love of cooking; Vanessa’s brother and wife run a desert and takeaway shop. Then there’s a new restaurant Anak Philippine Restaurant which her sister is helping run.
In 2015 Denver followed his heart and joined Vanessa in Macau. They married and soon became proud parents of their adorable daughter Aria who is now almost four.
The family live in a 4/F walk-up on Rua Central. “Compact but works well for us as is a super convenient location to shopping and our various work commitments” Vanessa smiles. Made up of two apartments combined into one it has a spacious dining-living area, 3 good-sized bedrooms, small galley kitchen, one ensuite bathroom and a toilet-shower room that doubles as the laundry. “And this apartment benefits from having a double balcony, outside space is important to us for our pets” explains Denver. Both he and Vanessa are animal lovers and active supporters of local animal charities. “Our sheep dog Kara is blind and comes from Masdaw and our two cats, 14 year old Otto is from Anima, Elsa we found on the streets 7 years ago.”
After several years as chef at the Hardrock Hotel in City of Dreams and then heading the kitchen at Italian-Asian bistro Fantasia, Denver began yearning to have his own place. “Being a parent changed my priorities. I knew that having my own restaurant would be very time consuming but it does also give me flexibility for a work and family life balance.”
In early 2021 he and Vanessa found a cozy space for a restaurant to call their own, tucked down the charming Travessa do Becos just a few yards off Rua dos Mercadores,. “A shout out to our fantastic construction company, Fabrica Obra de Decoracao Son Heng /順興室內裝修工程廠 who did a very professional job back and front of house” says Denver.
It’s a family affair; Denver runs the business and Vanessa manages the restaurant’s social media presence. Featuring South African cuisine and named after their daughter, ‘Aria by Chef D’ officially opened on 19th May 2021. These were the challenging times at the height of Covid in Macau until travel restrictions eased in late 2022. Nevertheless Aria has grown in popularity and built a reputation for delicious food at affordable prices, especially their excellent set lunches. “We are the first South African restaurant in Macau, we are unique and we add to the diversity of cuisines here” says Denver. Best-selling dishes: tuna salad, pork ribs, sea bass, spicy wings and specialty Boerewors – a grilled, coiled sausage of pork, beef, whisky, coriander and a host of other herbs, the name a reminder of South Africa’s colonial years from the mid 1600’s so the cuisine is a blend of Dutch, African, French, Indian and Southeast Asian influences, with a focus on hearty, flavourful and satisfying dishes. “We import the best of South African meat; all our sauces and bread are homemade and our pastries and desserts are made to order by baker friend Yuki. (Dear readers, the brownies are out of this world!)
Looking ahead for 2025, what’s the plan? “To a certain extent we are victims of our own success and the restaurant with a maximum of only 16 seats is really not big enough. We initially chose the small size due to our budget (construction and 5 tier licensing costs were about MOP100,000) but also to test the waters – which has now been proven; people are interested in sampling South African cuisine. We’re getting calls from the Mandarin, from other hotels, asking to arrange dinner reservations for their guests. We simply can’t accommodate enough, during the holidays we have to turn away customers. So we’re now looking to expand, definitely on Macau-side where we are close to the offices for lunchtime trade and relatively easy for the tourists to find us …. watch this space!” laughs Denver.
“We’ve never done any paid promotions” adds Vanessa, “we only do seasonal advertisements on Instagram. Other than that, we have patrons from Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and locals of course coming to us from reviews on Trip Advisors and Google Review. We’re proud to have maintained a 5-star review for over a year on Google Review.”
Denver has other projects on the boil; he will continue to teach the occasional master class in South African cuisine at the Macau University of Tourism and is in the process of writing a cookery book to share his life recipes. Vanessa recently completed her Masters in Integrated Resorts and works with the guest services team in the newly branded Londoner Grand,
So what is it about Macau that this couple love? “It’s my home, I was born here” stresses Vanessa. “And we appreciate that it’s culturally integrated – Aria attends school at Luso Sir Robert Ho Tung where she is learning Chinese and Portuguese – and it’s a very safe place to raise a family.” “I love the mountains, the greenery and I grew up by the ocean” says Denver, “so for me Hong Kong is special. I’m active in work and in sports. I run, do CrossFit, dragon boating, football and I’m in the gym most days. Last December we both ran in the 21K Macau Marathon and last month we completed the 2025 Sands China Macao International 10K. I’m a strong believer that taking care of the body helps take care of the mind.”
Text and photos by Suzanne Watkinson for the March-April 2025 Macau Closer magazine
