You come to Stadium Fast Foods for burgers, chicken and fish meals served on Portuguese buns in Bloemfontein's Langenhoven Park. The kitchen has been making rib patties, chicken fillets and hake since 1980, when the recipes arrived from Brazil near Maracanã Stadium.

The menu runs from breakfast to family platters: toasted sandwiches in the morning, then burgers on freshly baked buns with caramelised onions and your choice of sauce. Chicken comes as wings, drumsticks or strips with chips; fish as snoek or hake fillets with rice. Family meals bundle four burgers with large chips, or ten wings with sides.

The dining room sits in The Park Shopping Centre on Dirk Opperman Street, where the smell of grilled meat and fried chips fills the space. Orders come quickly — this is fast food that knows its business. The place stays clean, the bathrooms are kept up, and the tables turn fast.

What makes it work is the Portuguese bun, slightly sweet and sturdy enough for the rib patty it carries. The same dough appears in the breakfast toast and the footlong rolls later in the day.