West Wood — Restaurant in Gotenba

I came in with low expectations as my first experience with Italian food in Japan was a bit disappointing. Suffice to say my expectations were shattered to smithereens.

It was quite quiet when I came in, with only 1 family sitting in the restaurant. The owners were a husband and wife team who worked both in and out of the kitchen. As we sat down we were offered English menus. They were of reasonable quality. We ordered a “homemade meat sauce pasta”, a Teriyaki chicken pizza and a salad with smoked salmon.

OMGG THE PIZZA GOES. AND IT GOES HARD. The inclusion of porcini mushrooms makes this instantly better than many Italian restaurants in Melbourne, whose “wild mushroom risotto” just contains cheap buttercup mushrooms. Both the quality and quantity (the pizza was LOADED with toppings) were off the charts. There was plenty of each topping and it was delicious. Both the roast teriyaki chicken and the variety (Porcini, Brown Shimeji) of mushrooms had a wonderful roasted flavour to them.

The pasta was a bit less special. The spaghetti was cooked a bit too firm for my liking, just before al dente. The sauce however was quite nice, though not spectacular.

The salad was good. The smoked salmon was not too salty.

In regards to the pizza (and to a lesser extent the other dishes), don’t expect to taste Italy. But do expect deliciousness. Do note however, the last...

We came for during dinner service, and after looking at the menu possibly the lunch service is better. The dinner menu has nothing for children so we ordered a pasta and pizza for them to share. The menu was not in English but did have pictures. During lunch they do a buffet so we will definitely try that in the future. The place was decorated with various things to include a Christmas wreath above the bar. The staff seemed friendly but only came around when called upon. The pizza was quite tasty the only thing that would have made it better is a little less sauce. The meat sauce was ok and tasted like it came from a can. The garlic sauce and cream sauce pastas were quite tasty and had fresh vegetables mixed in with the pasta. The cheese cake was slightly dry it really needed the berry sauce on the side. The chocolate cake was ok, it tasted like ever chocolate cake served...

The raw ham with salad pizza was so great!!! Tomato cream with prawn spaghetti was also good but the pizza was really so so so so so so much greater! Small cosy restaurant located on level 2.

Note that portions tend to be big. We had 2 adults and 1 child. The child couldn't finish even half of the spaghetti (adult size cos no kids set), and every adult only ate half of our spaghetti each while we gulped down the delicious...