Originally Posted by
loaxley
Thank you so much for this fantastic thread
KI-NRT. I’ve read the entire post and most of the replies at this point.
My girlfriend and I will be in Japan in late December and have one free day/night during which we would like to stay at a wonderful ryokan. Based on our tastes, trip routing, and room availability we have narrowed it down to Beniya Muyaku or Hanamurasaki.
KI-NRT I read your review of Beniya Muyaku. I don’t see a review for Hanamurasaki in the post, but it sounds like you have been there. Do you have a preference between the two? If I had to prioritize two things that we value the most, it would be food and general “luxuriousness”. In case this impacts your answer, Hanamurasaki is completing a renovation of several of their rooms which will be complete in October. This is what the room at Hanamurasaki that we would book (Art Suite [Natsu-5] with private open-air bath and sauna) looks like post-renovation:
Whereas, at Beniya Muyaku, the two most premium rooms (Wakamurasaki Suite and Byakuroku Terrace Suite) are unavailable on our date - all the other room types are available. Of the available room type, the Zen Style Executive Suite appears to be the most premium option that we would book:
If anybody has stayed at both (or even either) and can offer some insight, it would be greatly appreciated. Pricing is relatively comparable, so I am not factoring that into my decision. Who knew this could be such a difficult decision!
Tough call. Aesthetics and room wise, that's a personal decision. Looking at the post-renovation photos, it does seem like the Natsu Suite - while humongous - has a lot of empty, unusable space. Note that we stayed at Hanamurasaki in 2018, so it's been a while.
Neither property offers meals in one's own room; however, at least in Hanamurasaki it's not a completely open and exposed dining room - there are semi dividers for some amount of privacy, although it doesn't offer much in the way of noise insulation (although probably a bit better than Beniya Mukayu.)
The key thing to note about Hanamurasaki is its a-la-cart kaiseki dinner system... to me, it's weird. Basically, they give you a base amount of "points" which can be used to order from a massive menu, with each dish costing a certain amount of "points." Exceed the allotted points and you have to pay extra. The problem with this system is that it's hard to know what is worth getting and what is not (and there are no photos of the dishes.) And, who knows whether the dishes you ordered is too much or too little food. I just wish the executive chef would just serve what he/she recommends, rather than putting the onus on the guest. However, for people with numerous allergies or unique preferences, the system might be preferred.