With the exception of the #1 spot, one Japanese prefecture is clearly dominating the breakfast game. 

What’s the main factor that you consider when getting ready to book a hotel for your travels? The location, price, and convenience are all common choices, but today we encourage you to focus on one less common factor–the quality of the establishment’s breakfast.

On April 23, TripAdvisor Japan released their latest edition of the “Top 20 Best Breakfast Hotels in Japan 2019.” This year marks the tenth iteration of the list that’s calculated annually using an algorithm based on aggregate user scores. While the ranking takes into account hotels from across the country, it’s interesting to see how certain prefectures seem to shine more than others when it comes to the first meal of the day.

Without further ado, here’s the 2019 ranking:

20. Hotel Ocean Naha Kokusai-dori (ホテルオーシャン 那覇国際通り) / Naha, Okinawa Prefecture

19. Natural Hot Spring Nusamai no Yu La Vista Kushirogawa (天然温泉幣舞の湯ラビスタ釧路川) / Kushiro, Hokkaido Prefecture

18. Hotel Nikko Kanazawa (ホテル日航金沢) / Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture

17. Hotel Okura Tokyo Bay (ホテルオークラ東京ベイ) / Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture

16. Hotel Active! Hakata (ホテルアクティブ! 博多) / Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture

15. Hotel JAL City Nagano (ホテルJALシティ長野) / Nagano, Nagano Prefecture

14. Vessel Hotel Ishigakijima (ベッセルホテル石垣島) / Ishigaki, Okinawa

13. Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport (ホテル日航関西空港) / Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture

12. Hotel Nikko Kochi Asahi Royal (ホテル日航高知 旭ロイヤル) / Kochi, Kochi Prefecture

11. Kobe Kitano Hotel (神戸 北野ホテル) / Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture

10. Hotel JAL City Miyazaki (ホテルJALシティ宮崎) / Miyazaki, Miyazaki Prefecture

9. Tokyo Station Hotel (東京ステーションホテル) / Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Prefecture

The lone Tokyo entry on this list, the facade of this hotel is almost as impressive as the famous station located directly across from it. Here’s what one net user had to say about its impressive breakfast offerings:

“The breakfast buffet in the atrium is open to hotel guests only. I was glad to see that there were plenty of both Japanese and Western-style options, and I regret not being able to try them all! It was bliss to have fresh ham and cheese first thing in the morning.”

8. Kanazawa Sainoniwa Hotel (金沢 彩の庭ホテル) / Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture

7. Shiroyama Hotel Kagoshima (城山ホテル鹿児島) / Kagoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture

6. Hotel Rocore Naha (ホテル ロコア ナハ) / Naha, Okinawa Prefecture

5. Vessel Inn Sapporo Nakajima Koen (ベッセルイン札幌中島公園) / Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture

4. Hotel Clubby Sapporo (ホテルクラビーサッポロ) / Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture

3. Century Royal Hotel (センチュリーロイヤルホテル) / Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture

Ranking in at third this year is a posh hotel in Hokkaido’s capital city. The breakfast buffet includes a staggering amount of different options, including Chinese and dessert-themed offerings. One visitor noted of her experience that it was “The ultimate in delicious breakfast buffets. You can’t get fresh vegetables like that in Tokyo!”

2. La Vista Hakodate Bay (ラビスタ函館ベイ) / Hakodate, Hokkaido Prefecture

The #2 entry on the ranking this year goes to a hotel in Hokkaido’s third largest city. Because the #1 entry on the list isn’t from Hokkaido, that effectively makes La Vista Hakodate Bay the hotel with the most delicious breakfast in all of Hokkaido. Read what one visitor had to say about the food:

“This hotel is all about the breakfast. You can eat as much as you want of your favorite things, and before you know it you’ll have eaten too much. This includes piling the ikura (salted salmon roe) on top of a seafood rice bowl.”

We actually featured La Vista Hakodate Bay’s breakfast on our Japanese-language site in 2016. Click here to view our reporter’s mouth-watering photos from his trip to the establishment.

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1. Hotel Piena Kobe (ホテルピエナ神戸) / Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture 

Hotel Piena Kobe is now the undisputed king of hotel breakfasts for the seventh year in a row. It certainly seems to have a solid claim to that title based on net user reviews such as the following:

“I was floored by the breakfast here. I’ve never had anything better in all my years of business trips and travels. Extreme care is given to each individual dish to maximize its flavor, and even the dessert was prepared with extreme attention to detail. I was more than satisfied just by eating the breakfast, but the staff were also extremely courteous.”

We also sent one lucky reporter to sample the hotel’s breakfast back in 2015. Check out the English-language article from that experience with its wealth of photos.

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With the exception of Hotel Piena Kobe, Hokkaido hotels certainly seem to command the nation’s breakfasts with their unparalleled fresh seafood offerings. We look forward to seeing if a Hokkaido hotel can finally dethrone Kobe in next year’s ranking!

Source: TripAdvisor Japan
Featured image: TripAdvisor Japan
Images: TripAdvisor Japan (unless otherwise noted)
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