Gravity Worx, Hakuba (Nagano-ken)

At the end of our snowboarding lesson on Day 2 of our Nagano trip, we were starving. Especially since we'd skipped out on lunch break in favour of having a longer lesson time. When we asked around for recommendations on where to eat in Hakuba, several people mentioned Gravity Worx. This place is also recommended in the Lonely Planet Guide, so we just had to try out this restaurant. It is located near the Hakuba eki (train station) so it's quite convenient to get to.

Gravity Worx serves pizza and pasta, made with organically grown ingredients. It is such a lovely and cosy place, which was very welcoming compared to the cold snowy evening outside. We noticed that the interior was somewhat Aussie-like, with didgeridoos, Australian cooking magazines and books on display. Apparently the chefs that work at the restaurant are Australians. It certainly seems like Hakuba is a popular place for Aussies! The hostess was friendly and spoke English really well. The food was excellently prepared, and was delicious.

The back of the restaurant where the bar and the door to the kitchen were; and huge organic tomatoes:


Our group chillaxing; and my cup and pot of mint tea, which was quite potent and delicious:


Starters

Herb bread and garlic bread - toasty warm and tasted oh-so-good:


Mains

I ordered spaghetti with "fresh tomato sauce with tuna and ovengrilled veges". Tuna flakes, grilled onions, pumpkin and carrots were a good combination in this pasta dish:


Rob went for a pizza made with "sundried tomatoes, mushrooms and bacon". The pizza crust was deliciously thin and crispy:


Kim ordered penne with "basil cream sauce with chicken and mushroom" - it looked good, and was tasty too (although being cream-based, I wouldn't be able to have a whole plate myself):


Richie's order was a "fresh tomato, basil pesto, garlic, bacon and black olive pizza" which was as yummy as Rob's pizza:


Dessert

Of course, we had to have some dessert to finish the meal. Rather than having a dessert each, we decided to order three to share.

Orange-nut cake with yoghurt and ice-cream - the citrus frangrance from the orange rind complemented the nuttiness of the cake. The plain yoghurt and vanilla ice-cream were a nice finish to this dessert:


Belgian Chocolate Cake (actually, on the menu board, it read "Bergin Choc Cake", and it took us awhile to figure out what 'bergin' actually was). So rich, moist and chocolatey. There is an option to have this cake with ice-cream as well, but I think having the ice-cream would have made it OTT:


Apple pie with ice cream - made with puff pastry rather than the usual crusty rustic pastry. Add three scoops of vanilla ice cream, and you have a wonderful plate of dessert:



This was the perfect place to chillout and relax after a hard day of snowboarding in the freezing cold and enjoy good gaijin tucker.