A note on the words: Grand Mercure Beppu Bay Resort & Spa is an all-inclusive coastal resort in Hiji overlooking Beppu Bay, where the room rate covers the dinner and breakfast buffets, with all-you-can-drink alcohol at dinner. Shochu is distilled Japanese spirits, with local mugi shochu (barley shochu) and imo shochu (sweet potato shochu) flowing endlessly from dispensers at the dinner buffet, while morning brings a whimsical contrast as the liquor station is swapped for Hello Kitty decor. Ryukyu is an Oita specialty of sashimi marinated in sweet soy sauce and sesame, playfully served here sandwiched inside crisp monaka wafers.
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Grand Mercure Beppu Bay Resort & Spa on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello Kyushu, thanks for waiting. It’s Hangover Meshi time (meshi means meal)!
For our stay this time: Grand Mercure Beppu Bay Resort & Spa in Oita Hiji! With a grand-sounding name, I wondered what it would be like, but including the guest rooms, it had quite a seasoned, older feel. (We had a Japanese-style room; the Western-style rooms might be newer). And yet, despite staying on a weekday, this hotel was immensely popular with crowds of people, ha. Four or five tour buses — carrying Chinese tour groups, I imagine — were parked outside, with a staggering number of guests! Being so close to the Asian mainland, the Beppu area is clearly a thriving destination! But when a place is this packed, it means…!
Yes, the dinner buffet becomes absolute chaos, ha!
The buffet hall could no longer hold everyone, spilling out all the way to makeshift tables set up outside, ha. The food is constantly replenished so you can always eat if you wait, but having to hike back and forth from quite a distance made it rather inconvenient!
Well, no use dwelling on what can’t be helped — let’s drink!
Being an all-inclusive hotel, it naturally comes with all-you-can-eat food and all-you-can-drink alcohol.
There are also automatic dispenser machines serving beer and highballs on tap.
At night, it is extraordinarily crowded, ha. On the second day, I lined up a bit before opening and scored a prime table.
Roast beef pita bread sandwiches, and baguettes you slice yourself (you could have sliced them for us, ha).
Foie gras mini-burgers! You ladle over the tomato sauce from the Staub cocotte on the right.
Boeuf braise. It has an unmistakable Western comfort feel that hits the spot!
This is ryukyu — an Oita local specialty — sandwiched in a crisp monaka wafer, apparently. It looks like sushi tucked into a wafer shell. There are top-half monaka wafers laid out on the upper tier; I wonder if you are supposed to close it like a sandwich before eating?
Deep-fried gyoza! While the overall variety is not endless, portions are plentiful, so hearty eaters will leave satisfied! Huge lines formed around the heavier, high-calorie stations, so I stuck mostly to sashimi and salad while making full use of the free-flowing alcohol, ha. Overall satisfaction was actually quite high!
And then, morning! Learning from the previous evening’s experience, we gathered a little before opening!
Yet it turned out far less crowded than expected. With people sleeping in, morning arrivals seem more staggered. This was so much more comfortable! Waking up early is definitely the way to go!
In the morning, Hello Kitty figurines took the place of the shochu bottles, ha.
The contrast is hilarious, ha.
Rolled dashi omelet, chicken nugget-style bites, and more.
Side dishes for rice — creating your own customized rice bowl was warmly encouraged!
It turns out Oita is famous for cold noodles (reimen) — which I had no idea about — and they had a cold noodle station set up too. Noodles, sauce, and a generous array of toppings like takana pickles and kimchi were all laid out.
However, having had quite a bit too much to drink the night before, I focused on gentle dishes to soothe my stomach and ended up with a plate full of vegetables. Salad, cold noodle toppings, and eggs Benedict!
Full and completely satisfied!
The morning was uncrowded and we managed to snag seats with an ocean view, making for a truly refreshing start to the day! The trick is to go early. As for the dinner buffet, go in with a game plan — arriving right at opening is probably best, since arriving later did not thin out the crowd at all.
May you encounter delicious food today too!
Grand Mercure Beppu Bay Resort & Spa (Hotel / Bungo Toyooka Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★☆☆☆ 2.6
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
