RIGOLETTO SMOKE GRILL & BAR — Restaurant in Kyoto

I went here because we craved a good Italian meal after having 10 days of great Japanese food on our holiday. Wow, did it disappoint. It was one of the worst meals and food I've ever had.

4 dishes. 3 were terrible, one was mediocre Starters: Chicken wings- (supposedly spicy) dry, tastless, tiny Ham Croquettes- not the worst I've had but not really restaurant standard

Mains: Spaghetti bolognese - bland, no tomato sauce, greasy. Pasta was cooked correctly, though it was not a bolognese, it was just beef mince and pasta with herbs.

But the worst thing we had was the Affumicata pizza. On the first bite, I spat it back out. No tomato base, no base at all actually. It was just cheese on top of dough and the toppings on top, which would have been lovely if there was a tomato base.

I questioned this pizza with the waitress who went into the kitchen to ask, when she returned she alluded to the fact. "Thats how they cook their Affumicata pizza"

I've had this pizza before in Italy with a tomato base, so I'm not quite sure of their logic there. Even if it had a white base, it would have been edible. This was the first dry pizza I've ever had

Anyway, it was an extremely disappointing meal. Avoid and go somewhere else in Gion or Kyoto. There's loads of great restaurants in the surrounding area. This restaurant is not indicactive of the google...

Everything we ate was delicious; at first we were worried we might have gotten carried away with all the food we ordered, but none of it felt heavy and we were able to eat our way through Margherita pizza, croquettes, 2 servings of bread and butter (ordered for my picky 11 YO, but we all devoured it), shrimp ajillo, chicken meatballs (the meat eaters loved these), Kyoto Vegetable Peperoncini (delicious!!), Wagyu Beef Bolognese (my sister enjoyed this very much), Josper Grilled Sword Fish (my mom's dish, but I got to savor some of the sword fish too and it was delicious). We also enjoyed some delicous cocktails and were surpised at how inexpensive our entire meal was. The staff was very friendly and paid just the right amount of attention to us. I loved the decor and comfy seating. We were too full for dessert, but did get a special treat. We were lucky enough to see a Geisha dining in the restaurant. We tried to be super calm about it, but could not resist going up to the 2nd fl to catch a glimpse. Overall, Rigoletto gave us everthing we were looking for: delicious food and drinks, attentive and professional staff and a great ambiance. We'll definitely come back the next time we...

Food is tasty. But Burrata served without bread and six tasty lonely quarter cherry tomatoes. Venison is very tasty. Service is overwhelmed. Meals appear at random times.

Drinks are fine but expensive. An underwhelming evening. Boss guy running the place gives you the rules on reservation....10 Pct extra surcharge for orders after 10pm....in addition to seating charge of 300yen....

Nice ambience. This restaurant could be run so much better....first food and drinks arrived over 30 minutes after we sat down....no freebie snack up front or even a glass of water. Water does arrives at the end.

Not coming back.

Japan can be so so much better than this. Japan is better than this.

Finally...find the pork in the arrozzo pork thing. Tasty all the same.

Glass of wine comes in .1L portions....

Nice people serving ...not their fault....

Makings of a really good restaurant but not there...