The Shongololo Lounge lounge in Johannesburg may feel more like a convenience store than a Priority Pass lounge, but it offers a unique amenity at O.R. Tambo International: sealed meals ready to eat.
Shongololo Lounge Johannesburg (JNB) Review
Location + Hours +Access
This lounge is located in Terminal A (international) and is quite a walk from passport control and security. Following the signs for Gates A7-18, go past the Air France lounge, down an escalator, and you’ll find the lounge on the left side. It is operated by Menzies and is currently open daily from 6:00am to 12:30am. In addition to accepting PriorityPass membership or purchased access for R300 (about 20USD), it partners with a number of airlines for their premium cabin passengers:
Food + Drink
The focal point of this lounge, at least for me, was the wide selection of pre-packaged food. Although the plastic is wasteful, I rather like this style versus a buffet. Sadly, I wasn’t hungry but selections included:
- Penne Stroganoff
- Pasta with broccoli
- Butternut and bean tagging with couscous
- Beef wors with mash with tomato Sheba (Boerewors is South African sausage)
- Mince pie
- Mini vegetarian pizza
- Chicken quesadilla
- Macaroni and cheese
- Spaghetti bolognese
- Beef patty with scrambled eggs, mushrooms, and tomato
- Asian beef stir fly
Guests were advised to use the lounge microwave to heat up their meals and warned not to remove food from the lounge. A press to grill panini sandwiches was also available.
Packaged snacks, sandwiches (including paninis), rusk (a light, dry biscuit), water, coffee, tea, soft drinks, beer, wine, and hard liquor were available.
Seating
Plenty of seating throughout the lounge and it was not crowded at around 8:00pm during my visit.
Restrooms + Showers
No showers were available, but restrooms were clean (though showing their age).
CONCLUSION
I only stayed for a few moments as my flight was boarding, but I do think the individually-wrapped portions are a nice alternative to a free-for-all buffet. At the very least, the food looked fresh and edible. If you’re hungry or thirsty, this lounge has an impressive variety of options.
How would you review the Shongololo Lounge in Johannesburg?
The Mashonzha lounge also offers pre-packed food options similar to this.
Is that open? I stopped by and saw it was closed before my trip home – and I dislike that lounge anyway for the smell of cigarette smoke.
It keeps really weird hours but it was the only lounge that stayed open through the pandemic.
I like that concept! If it were repeated in a Japanese airport the food might actually be pretty darn good, though nothing in your pictures looked all that bad.
The Shongololo lounge and always been a nice, comfortable option for those who had access and wanted to avoid the crowds in the Baobab. It is also quite convenient if your flight is leaving from that wing, as many do.
HI Matthew, my brother and I sampled most of the packaged meals last year and I can say that the worst one I had was still average, the rest were above average and some of them were as good as restaurants.
Thanks for the report. The food did look very decent.
It’s possibly the worst lounges at ORT airlines like Qatar and Etihad I expect have little option … Emirates have own lounge which pre COVID days was excellent in my opinion Bidvest is a far better