Rigoletto Italian Bakery and Cafe — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

I was so anticipating coming to eat at this restaurant for months with my friends due to the allergen friendly environment. So one night a few friends and I decided to go check it out. We were going to eat lightly since some of us had already had a meal beforehand. It was the last hour and fifteen they were open. It was a busy night there too we could tell. We were told by the waitress she would be by shortly an hour and ten before closing or so as she was rushing between tables next to us. She did not come over to even offer us water or a drink for what was about 25 min. to 30 min. After that we chose a couple of prepared things to try from the case. She was pleasant and informative to us. However, we didn't get to put our order in till about 35 to 40 minutes before closing. When she left we saw her checking in frequently with tables around us. She did not return to our table till an hour after I'd arrived at which point she told me the already prepped item I had chosen was gone. I'll admit I had already been noticing the slowness and the inattentiveness with the server over the last hour. I asked her to give me a moment. I had chosen my food over 30 min. ago and barely felt able to make another decision. She went along with this. At this point I decided to speak to the manager about the slow service and inattentiveness. She had not even brought the other item I asked for more than 30 minutes ago. So she went to get him. When he came out he was slightly apologetic but didn't seem sincere. I am sure I was already described a certain way even though I was just stating facts and sharing my disappointment after months of waiting to go. I just shared the amount of time it took to get water and how I did not even get the other thing I had asked for when the second thing was unavailable. He actually with sarcasm in his voice said, "I am sorry you didn't get what you wanted WHEN YOU wanted it." I was literally in disbelief this man took my calm objective concern and turned me into a Karen with his tone. He also didn't even offer me the other item. He just offered excuses for why service was poor.

After he left my friends finished eating and paid. I was calm and spoke my piece and thanked him for his time and was relaxing with friends. The waitress came back and started acting like I was unreasonable stating, " I KNOW you're still upset with me. What can I do besides apologize." She still never brought me anything I had ordered. Before her return I was literally laughing with my friends about unrelated things. Personally, I have never been treated so unprofessionally over raising a concern about the service with management. I don't do it often either. But it definitely felt there were assumptions made about my character and intention. And I felt it was surprising to be waiting more than 30 min. for water. Not to mention my friend took some food home to find uncooked meat in it while re-heating. Why raise a concern? To help improve things and because you know there is potential for better. I do hope if I ever return that things are a lot better in all respects. So far, I am not sure all the hype I had heard...

I went to this restaurant before about 7 years ago, after they were on DDD. It was good. 7 years later, it’s a whole different story. They have gotten the small things right and have matured into a very fine restaurant. There’s a quaint look outside that draws you in. Once in, the greeting from the colorfully beautiful cookie case lets you know this place is serious. Although other Italian restaurants in town have similar displays that are good, this seems like it may be best in VB. And I didn’t ask, but let’s just cut to the chase right now, they made all those stuff! There are assortments of Italian cookies and macaroons), a separate biscotti case(never saw that before), a gelato case (of course), and once you get to the dining area, a dessert case that people constantly stand in front of dumbfounded at what to pick. I’ll get to that later. I had the ricotta stuffed ravioli special with sun dried tomatoes and kalamata olives. It was rich and excellent. The ravioli was clearly in house fresh made and was outstanding. I ate it all. My wife had the eggplant Parmesan sandwich on house made focaccia. I had a bite. Perfect! But dessert, the special came with any pick from the main case, except the Lobster Tails (not the seafood kind but a pasty resembling a lobster tail stuff with some cheese and Bavarian cream OMG). So I chose the Bavarian cream pastry pie. It was so good. It’s like a small personal pie loaded with Bavarian cream. It reminded me of the hand pies they used to sell in the stores in New Orleans. Delicate rich sweet and good. Lastly we checked out the Italian grocery store in front. They put a lot of effort to make it feel like you are in the old world. Good specialty Italian products and a very nice assortment of wines. I was so impressed at what this...

I have been going to this restaurant since it has opened and normally consider it a treat to go. However, I have recently been disappointed with what I have purchased here. For my husbands birthday in October I purchased their smallest tiramisu cake. All totaled the cake was around 50 dollars. THIS WAS THE PRICE OF THE SMALLEST CAKE! Around a week ago, I ordered 2 pounds of assorted Italian cookies and, because it was too late before Christmas to order a cake, I ordered a tiramisu log. My bill totaled around 60 dollars. I packaged the cookies for neighbors before sampling them. ONCE I DID, I WAS EMBARRASSED THAT I GAVE THEM AS GIFTS. They were dry and tasteless. The most disappointing thing that happened was when my husband brought the tiramisu cake/log home. I can’t remember the exact cost of this cake but my total order with the cake and cookies was around 60 dollars. The “cake”/log was maybe 8 inches long/2 inches wide(see attached photo with scale). There were no lady fingers in it as promised and mostly whipped cream. The cake/log was enough for maybe 3 or 4 people. To me the quality of the food we have ordered is not what I have experienced in the past. But the main point of this review is to highlight the prices that are being charged. The prices are ASTRONOMICAL AND RIDICULOUS for the amount of food you actually get. It’s almost unethical. It takes a lot for me to give an unsatisfactory review, but here I am. In the past this was one of my favorite...