Originally Posted by KI-NRT

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.