Rigoletto serves a generally Italian/American fusion type menu with a generous 500 yen appetizer section and also offers filling entrees. The drink menu is expansive and reasonably priced, especially for Roppongi Hills. The bar counter and restaurant service can admittedly be slow - I think they try to run the place on the minimum number of staff possible but they do try their very best. There are two sections - the bar area, mainly standing room only, where many foreign bankers in the building seem to flock to, and the sitdown restaurant area with many tables and booth seats that overlook Roppongi from the 5th floor on the west side of Roppongi Hills or that are adjacent to the open kitchen. Be warned that Rigoletto is almost always crowded and the loud atmosphere may not appeal to everybody.

This is a fun bar for drinks after work. Cheap for Roppongi (500 yen for most standard drinks), very friendly staff and usually a good crowd. The food is tasty and you can have it at the bar or in the restaurant. And it stays open very late. My only slight negative is that the restuarant does not admit children at lunchtime during the week.

Chose Rigoletto for lunch after noticing their Roppongi Hills lobby ad featured a burger and fries. If you call yourself a Bar and Grill you better have a burger and I find ordering a basic burger is a great way to evaluate a grill for the first time.

Overall the food was good but what makes my review "very good" is the combination of the good food, a great lunch value due to several "sets" offered on the menu, and the atmosphere which offers a clean modern room and hip good looking patrons and staff, the latter providing very good service.

The Food:

What I love about dining in Japan are the "sets." For those of you that have never visited Japan, many restaurants offer a "set" which consists of a main dish and then other items - usually a drink (ice tea, small glass of wine), soup, salad and maybe coffee. Sets are usually the most cost effective option, particularly for lunch. On this day I ordered several sets - the burger and a seafood pasta. We ordered a salad with grilled fish as well.

The sets arrived and the first thing to call out was that portion size was good. I mention this because as an American in Japan, used to huge American size portions, I sometimes find Japanese portions a bit disappointing (although I don't miss the huge, sweaty, wheezing Americans squeezing their obese bodies past my chair - and driving up my insurance premiums with their type II diabetes, bad backs and other issues).

Okay, exsqueeze me, back to the restaurant review:

The burger set was good and served on a great bun dusted with some granular material (corn meal maybe?). Fries were thin vs. the larger streak fries that I prefer and were not as crispy as I like. But overall a good burger. The pasta set was also was good - some kind of bi-valve shellfish, light broth. Pasta was well cooked. Nothing amazing but a good, solid pasta dish. I enjoyed a glass of ice jasmine tea and my wife had a glass of wine with her set. Note that the "glass" of wine was more like a shot glass of wine, very small.

I should note that Rigoletto offers an impressive wine cellar. In fact they walked us through it on the way to our table and I'm certain the small glass of wine was more a function of the set we ordered rather than a stingy pour.

The salad was really good. Unlike a typical entree salad you might get in the U.S. this one contained a wide variety of typical salad items (lettuce, tomato, etc.) as well as items you don't see such as broccoli, green beans, several types of mushrooms - all dressed with a light vinaigrette.

The Atmosphere & Service:

Upon entering Rigoletto you immediately notice the bar and open kitchen. The place was busy for lunch, packed with a combination of younger good looking office workers and ladies out for a nice lunch with friends. No salary man types here. The decor is light and modern, not a dark "grill" look or sports bar look. This is after all Roppongi Hills - a very swank, hip location in the heart of Roppongi - a famous area for nightlife (aimed at foreign tourists) made more popular among Japanese by the opening of the massive Roppongi Hills complex in 2003 - a super modern, super hip and expensive complex of shops, restaurants and the amazing Roppongi Hills Hyatt. The service was great. Attentive, young hip waiters and waitresses paying attention.

I LOVE Rigoletto!
It`s a simple as that. Enough said...

Rigoletto Bar and Grill is the place where I do eat twice or three times a week my lunch, go for drinks in in the evening after work or to start the weekend, celebrate my friends birthdays or go for dinner with my dates, family and best friends.

The staff is so outstandingly friendly (and in Japan to say sth like this, really does mean sth!) and knows your name after a couple of visits (and your drinking habits..), the drinks -from the cappuccino after lunch to the Cosmopolitans in the evening- excellent and at top prices (500,- for a Cosmo, 2500 for a very good bottle of wine), the FOOD absolutely delicious (hand made pasta and stone oven pizzas, a great selection of 500yen tapas, the best burgers in town and much more!) and the atmosphere with the open kitchen, long two sided bar counter, two private party rooms, the huge main dining area and the window seating area is always lively but never disturbing.
During daytime for lunch and coffee break you`ll find the Roppongi Hills working crowd next to housewives with their kids and in the evening the bar is the meeting spot for an after work drink before you`ll get your table to have diner with your co-workers or friends or a date. Food and drinks are very inexpensive for the location and very high quality, the wine list long and good for reasonable 2500yen/bottle! Try the pasts (my top favourite is Bolognese) and their Rigoletto burger rates for me as the best in town!

Rigoletto is my kitchen, I am there all the time and I never get tired of their food or drinks and always look forward to the special friendly treatment of the staff.

HIghly recommended when you are in town!! Book a table in advance to make sure you`ll get seated, otherwise you might wait a little during peak times. But you can always shorten the waiting time with a good drink at the bar.

Attention: the smoking section is quite small but you can always get up to smoke at then bar counter.
Rigoletto Bar and Grill Roppongi Hills has several outlets in Tokyo (I know the Marunouchi one and like it as well, slightly different menu but same wine list, nice but different atmosphere)