Ellen
November 7, 2023
Lack of Service and mediocre food
The hotel is up a steep sloping street and in a quiet area. It has a traditional feel and the cafe is really nice and the hot springs, however there is no view, unless you pay for the private baths upstairs. The whole place could use a bit of a facelift, but more of an issue was the lack of service and the quality of the food, particularly dinner. We arrived too late for the 6:30 seating and was given the 7:00 p.m. seating. Clearly the appetizer box had been sitting out for a long time and the kobo croquet was dry and tasteless, the apple, kabocha and daikon (?!) tart was one of the worst combos of flavors I have ever had and the chicken was dry. The breakfast was better, but the chicken left over from dinner was served as some new dish and was worse than the night before. We were not offered coffee or tea with breakfast and when we asked for salt, pepper and milk were told that they didn't 'have' them, which of course they do. We went to the cafe after breakfast to get another cup of coffee and the machine was out of beans.
One of my friend's I was traveling with lost her phone and we asked the front desk to check the restaurant and cafe and were told that no one had found it. My friend went down in the morning and checked under the seat where we were sitting and, there it was.
Just for a bit of perspective, I have lived in Japan for 30 years and chose this hotel because I wanted to stay within my friend's budget, and feel it was still too much for the experience.