Kitanokaze Saryou — Hotel in Hakone

Summary: Terrible food, suite lacks privacy (see pictures), bad service, and be prepared to walk a long smoke filled hallway to get to your non-smoking room. This was the most expensive place I’ve ever stayed at (800 USD per night) and also the worst place I’ve ever stayed at. Especially when compared to another ryokan in Hakone I stayed at in 2016 that cost less and was better in every way. Save yourself the misery, stay at a different ryokan.||||Food was terrible:||Too much sodium was used on all the dishes.||Sashimi was rubbery and tasteless. I’ve eaten all different grades of sashimi, from 2 michelin star to depachika discounted sashimi. This was worse than sashimi bought from a United States discount grocery store.||Sashimi was served with horseradish “wasabi” instead of real wasabi. Which is not fine for an 800 USD a night ryokan, in Japan. Real wasabi is not expensive, but it needs to be freshly grated for best flavor.||The rest of the dishes lack any real flavor of the ingredients. Tsukemono was tasteless, the onions and corn in the main beef dish was tasteless. Chicken soup tasted like it was just a piece of dried up chicken in hot salted water. The carrots were dried up and had no carrot flavor.||Portions were really small, and it was stretched out over 2 hours. Which would be acceptable if the food was good, but it was not. I suspect that the ryokan is only in this to make alcohol money - pump you full of sodium for 2 hours so you keep paying for more drinks. It was 700 yen for a cup of tea, so we asked for water, which we didn’t get until 15 minutes into the dinner. ||Before you make an assumption about an American that doesn’t appreciate kaiseki, we stayed in Gora Hanaougi in 2016, which cost 650 USD a night. The food was amazingly delicious. We ate some vegetables that we have never seen before and still do not know the name of, but we didn’t care - it was just really good. They also served quality ingredients that highlighted the flavor of the ingredients themselves. ||Before you make an assumption that I just don’t appreciate a general haute cuisine, I’ve had meals at michelin star restaurants and they were fantastic. Even when served things I thought I wouldn’t like, I always eat everything and I am amazed how good it is. ||Before you make an assumption that I’m just spoiled, I enjoy all “levels” of food. It’s not always about the most expensive thing - I love a fresh salad, or some plain cold soba noodles, a toasted croissant, a bowl of rice with seaweed. The food at Kitanokaze Saryo was just really bad. The sashimi was the most telling sign the food was all about looks and not about taste. It’s bad because they started out with bad ingredients and then just add salt to everything.||The food was so bad that we went out to eat somewhere else afterward. We also skipped the rest of the meals in this place since we didn’t want to sit for 2 hours and torture ourselves. No, we didn’t get our money back. Not once did any of the staff ask how our stay was or if they could make it better.||||||Suite lacks privacy:||Two windows look into the suite.||One looks into the sitting area of the suite.||One looks through the broken fencing into the hot springs and outdoor shower, where you are naked. The whole point of paying for a private onsen was because my significant other was not comfortable with the lack of privacy in public onsen.||Yes I know the house is inhabited because lights were coming from the windows on the first night we stayed there.||While sitting in the onsen by myself, I can hear people talking to the right side even though they were speaking in soft indoor voices. I can also hear the squeaky screen doors from other rooms and presume they can hear mine. ||||Bad service:||Can’t find someone to inform them we did not want breakfast (see pictures of the staff room I took). I was alarmed also by the fact they didn’t lock any of their computers, which means that another guest or any staff member can look at any guest’s information. ||The reason why we looked for someone so late in the evening is because we had to try to help my mother in law in her room. Her air conditioning was not working and it was 25 C in her room.||While we spoke to a nicer lower level staff (presumed because of uniform differences) about the air conditioning, the more senior staff came out of the office and just GLARED at us. ||We were harassed about not wanting breakfast and dinner. Since we could not find anyone to inform that we did not want breakfast since their food was bad, we decide to try to relax and soak in the indoor hot tub in the morning before we went out for the day. The phone rang twice, which we initially thought were kind reminders that we would be forfeiting breakfast if we did not show up at our allotted time. We were ok with this since we didn’t want breakfast. The doorbell to our room rang and after 30 seconds persistent knocking. I realized then that they were not going to go away unless I answered the door, so I quickly wrapped a towel and told the person that we didn’t want breakfast. I repeated it several times and I also said no dinner. The person asked me if my mother in law also wants no dinner, I said I don’t know, she is in a different room, please ask her. The person seemed confused so I said that I am showering at the moment and I would come out later to talk about no dinner. The person acknowledged. 5 minutes later the person rang the doorbell and knocked on the door again, this time my husband answered the door and he was shocked that the person tried to push open the door and into the door. The person asked about breakfast, again, to which he said no to, several times. He also said no dinner. The person keeps asking no dinner in various forms (example: you want to cancel dinner?) and the answer was the same. Then the person asked about my mother in law’s room and if she wanted dinner. My husband said he doesn’t know, because she is in a different room and to ask her. As we were leaving for our activities, we were once again accosted about not wanting dinner. We confirmed we did not want dinner and we were once again asked about making a decision for my mother in law, who has her own room. We were then asked about when we would return, which we said we didn’t know (because we didn’t know when we would return from getting dinner). We said we don’t need our rooms serviced, to which they acknowledged but still demanded a return time. We again said we didn’t know. I later found out from my mother in law that she actually told someone about not wanting breakfast the evening before and they kept calling her too!||Not once did anyone ask about our stay. ||I paid full price, no discount for their terrible food or service. ||I handed a staff member a list of my complaints written down. So they can improve if they want to. I didn’t even get a fake apology. I just got an “oh ok”. ||||This is just such a huge let down for a ryokan, which is supposed to be the pinnacle of Japanese hospitality and dining. Save yourself the heartbreak,...

Summary: Terrible food, suite lacks privacy (see pictures), bad service, This was the most expensive place I’ve ever stayed at (800 USD per night) and also the worst place I’ve ever stayed at. Especially when compared to another ryokan in Hakone I stayed at in 2016 that cost less and was better in every way.

Food was terrible: Too much sodium was used on all the dishes. Sashimi was rubbery and tasteless. I’ve eaten all different grades of sashimi, from 2 michelin star to depachika discounted sashimi. This was worse than sashimi bought from a United States discount grocery store. Sashimi was served with horseradish “wasabi” instead of real wasabi. Which is not fine for an 800 USD a night ryokan, in Japan. The rest of the dishes lack any real flavor of the ingredients. Tsukemono was tasteless, the onions and corn in the main beef dish was tasteless. Chicken soup tasted like it was just a piece of dried up chicken in hot salted water. The carrots were dried up and had no flavor. Portions were really small, and it was stretched out over 2 hours. Which would be acceptable if the food was good, but it was not. I suspect that the ryokan is only in this to make alcohol money - pump you full of sodium for 2 hours so you keep paying for more drinks. It was 700 yen for a cup of tea, so we asked for water, which we didn’t get until 15 minutes into the dinner. Before you make an assumption about an American that doesn’t appreciate kaiseki, we stayed in Gora Hanaougi in 2016, which cost 650 USD a night. The food was amazingly delicious. We ate some vegetables that we have never seen before and still do not know the name of, but we didn’t care - it was just really good. They also served quality ingredients that highlighted the flavor of the ingredients themselves. Before you make an assumption that I just don’t appreciate a general haute cuisine, I’ve had meals at michelin star restaurants and they were fantastic. Even when served things I thought I wouldn’t like, I always eat everything and I am amazed how good it is. Before you make an assumption that I’m just spoiled, I enjoy all “levels” of food. It’s not always about the most expensive thing - I love a fresh salad, or some plain cold soba noodles, a toasted croissant, a bowl of rice with seaweed. The food at Kitanokaze Saryo was just really bad. The sashimi was the most telling sign the food was all about looks and not about taste. It’s bad because they started out with bad ingredients and then just add salt to everything. The food was so bad that we went out to eat somewhere else afterward. We also skipped the rest of the meals in this place since we didn’t want to sit for 2 hours and torture ourselves. No, we didn’t get our money back. Not once did any of the staff ask how our stay was or if they could make it better.

Suite lacks privacy: 2 windows look into the suite. 1 into sitting area and 1 in onsen where you are naked.

Bad service: Can’t find someone to inform them we did not want breakfast (see pictures of the staff room I took). I was alarmed also by the fact they didn’t lock any of their computers, which means that another guest or any staff member can look at any guest’s information. While we spoke to a nicer lower level staff (presumed because of uniform differences) about the air conditioning, the more senior staff came out of the office and just GLARED at us. We were harassed about not wanting breakfast and dinner. Since we could not find anyone to inform that we did not want breakfast since their food was bad, we decide to try to relax and soak in the indoor hot tub in the morning before we went out for the day. Phone calls, knocking and almost barging into the room, coming after us as we went out. I had to truncate because google reviews has a char limit. Not once did anyone ask about our stay. I paid full price, no discount for their terrible food or service. I handed a staff member a list of my complaints written down. So they can improve if they want to. I didn’t even get a fake apology. I just...

We probably spent over $1000 total at the ryokan for our one-night of lodging, one 30-minute massage, one 1-hour massage, and a couple of alcoholic drinks at dinner. We booked through Rakuten Travel website, which indicated that we were getting a "Traditional Ryokan" style, "non-smoking" room. We received a smoking room. When we asked for a non-smoking room (my husband has bad allergies), the staff informed us that all rooms at the ryokan were smoking rooms, but they would try their best to "freshen up" the room for us. We endured the smoke stench the entire stay. Additionally, we thought we were getting a traditional style room, but were assigned a western style room. We also asked about this, but they were unwilling to change the room without an additional ~250 USD. We opted to stay with the western style room, since we were already spending so much money and could not afford another $250, just for lodging. Despite our great disappointment, we decided to not fuss with the hotel about this, since the false advertisement may have been the booking website's error, and not the hotel's error. ||||The food presentation was spectacular, though the taste mediocre. Some of the cooked seafood items were obviously old. The service during dinner and breakfast was great though. Our server was very patient with us and explained all the different dishes. ||||The massages that we paid an arm and a leg for were also not that great. Not to mention that it was a very long struggle to communicate with the spa on what type of massage we wanted. I'm not one of those Americans that expect all countries I visit to speak English, but suggest that the spa consider having a massage menu with the basic names in English would have been nice. E.g. "Swedish massage"||||Having said all the above, my husband and I decided to have a good attitude and make the best of the our stay there anyway. Our stay was in November, so it was quite cold, but we spent a lot of time jumping in and out of our private open-air onsen. Mostly because the smoke stench was unbearable for us inside the room, but we still found the onsen to be very relaxing and probably the best attribute of the ryokan. We were awake at 5am, and continued our dips in the onsen until breakfast. ||||The wifi worked great. ||||Lastly, we did not find Hakone to be that interesting. The boutique museums that were nearby seemed out of place and had nothing to do with Japan. My suggestion is to skip Hakone all together... save the travel time to and from Hakone, and find a Ryokan either in Kyoto or in the...