Orient Express La Minerva rooftop, Rome: Gigi Rigolatto, the seventh-floor restaurant and bar beside the Pantheon’s dome

Gigi Rigolatto Roma sits on the roof of the palazzo on Piazza della Minerva, and the hotel’s page gives its location in 3 words: «La Minerva Rooftop». In the foreground are terracotta roofs and the dome of the Pantheon; further off, the white marble of the Vittoriano; on the horizon, the cupola of St Peter’s. The terrace is open to the sky, and the indoor dining room, the hotel says, has the same unobstructed view.

The restaurant was brought to Rome by Paris Society and RIKAS Hospitality Group, and the room is by Hugo Toro, the artist-architect who also drew the hotel. The mood he was after is the Riviera, glamorous and a little bohemian, and he is quoted on the page: «The true star here is Rome».

The menu, dated 12 August 2026, is Italian and long. Antipasti begin with crispy calamari and anchovies at €22 and end with vitello tonnato at €30; oysters are €8 each. Among the raw dishes are a red prawn carpaccio at €34 and a bluefin tuna tartare with avocado at €30. Pasta starts with a risotto of tomato and burrata at €30 and tops out with spaghetti and clams at €40; agnolotti del plin with summer truffle and pici cacio e pepe are €36 each, and spaghetti alla chitarra with lobster is sold by weight, at €22 for 100 g.

From the sea come seared tuna at €42, roast turbot with almonds at €54 and sole meunière at €60, with the catch of the day at €16 for 100 g. Meat is a grilled sirloin tagliata at €48, a rack of lamb with caponata at €46, a lemon spring chicken at €54 and the veal Milanese at €64. To finish, an affogato is €12, the tiramisù for sharing €23 or, in the size the menu calls «Alla Grande», €32, and the house lemon ice cream, Il Limone di Gigi, €20.

Inside is the Bellini Bar: 14 seats, Bellinis first, then Negronis with flowers and drinks scented with bergamot or basil, to a soundtrack of Italian jazz and old bossa nova. The restaurant’s own site keeps the bar for guests who arrive without a booking.

What guests write depends on how they got in. In March 2026 one praised the cocktails on the terrace; in July an Italian guest called an aperitivo there a pleasant start to the evening, with an excellent glass of wine; a guest who posted in January 2026 went up to the bar every evening of a stay. 2 accounts are less happy. In February 2026 a hotel guest wrote of being told the terrace bar had no room when, by her account, it did, and in November 2025 an Italian visitor, sent to the counter because the lunch tables were said to be taken, waited about 30 minutes for 6 oysters and paid about €130, tip included, for those, 2 tapas and 2 gin and tonics.

For a drink without a booking, the Divinity Terrace of The Pantheon Iconic takes no reservations for parties of up to 8 and also faces the Pantheon. NOTOS at Six Senses Rome splits its roof between a dinner restaurant and a bar for the afternoon and evening. La Terrazza at the Bulgari looks over another Rome, from Villa Medici and Trinità dei Monti to the Tiber and the Janiculum.