diff --git a/google/cloud/bigtable/row_data.py b/google/cloud/bigtable/row_data.py
index 0e07ff268..0a0bd96e4 100644
--- a/google/cloud/bigtable/row_data.py
+++ b/google/cloud/bigtable/row_data.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 import copy
 import time
 
+import google.api_core.exceptions
 import six
 
 import grpc
@@ -507,7 +508,15 @@ def _read_next(self):
         try:
             return six.next(self.response_iterator)
         except grpc.RpcError as grpc_error:
-            raise exceptions.from_grpc_error(grpc_error)
+            # TODO: this needs to be moved to a more general location (ie interceptor)
+            e = exceptions.from_grpc_error(grpc_error)
+            # Sometimes GOAWAYs are surfaced as INTERNAL errors, which makes
+            # them unretriable. This patches that behavior
+            if e.grpc_status_code == grpc.StatusCode.INTERNAL and (
+                "rst_stream" in e.message.lower() or "rst stream" in e.message.lower()
+            ):
+                raise google.api_core.exceptions.ServiceUnavailable(e.message)
+            raise e
 
     def _read_next_response(self):
         """Helper for :meth:`__iter__`."""