The Mandarin Oriental Tokyo

For the last leg of our Japanese adventure, we stayed at the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo — a stunning high-rise hotel located in the heart of Tokyo’s financial district.

It was a very plush, luxurious ending to our Tokyo trip. For our first 8 days in the country, we’d been go go go! First, based out of a 4 level Airbnb in the Shinjuku neighborhood, and then in the superb Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. For over a week we’d explored the sights of the city, the Tokyo Disney Resort, and walked almost 50 miles. By the time we made it to the Mandarin Oriental, we were very much ready to slow the pace and relax.

And there’s no better place to do some relaxin’ than a 5 star luxury hotel! Especially one with the service and attention to detail as impressive as the Mandarin Oriental.

The Mandarin Oriental is located in the top 9 floors of the 34-story Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower. It’s just 2km from the Tokyo Imperial Palace, and very close to Tokyo Station, so getting around the city is easy peasy.

Our Room

We were housed on the 36th floor, on the Mt. Fuji side of the hotel. It was mostly hazy during our stay, but we did get a chance to see the famous mountain peeking above the skyscrapers on our last morning.

The room came with all the bells and whistles: comfy bed, seating area, binoculars (for the epic views!), a massive bathroom with a spa tub, Japanese style pajamas, and complementary tea and cakes upon arrival. The interior was modern and sophisticated, with clean lines, bamboo floors and massive windows.

Breakfast at K’shiki

The Mandarin has something like 10 restaurants, so you’ll never run out of food options.

For our first morning at the hotel, we had breakfast at K’shiki, a restaurant right off the main lobby. It’s an Italian place, but in the mornings they have a comprehensive breakfast buffet, with Japanese and Western options. There were so many choices, and everything was exquisite!

Usually, buffet fare is a notch or two below made-to-order food, but that wasn’t the case here. In fact, this was probably the best buffet I’d ever experienced.

We grabbed platefuls of fruit, dim sum, sausage, and rice from the buffet, and then ordered a couple cappuccinos.

We also ordered a couple omelets on the side.

So much food!

And it was all phenomenal.

The Oriental Lounge

The Oriental Lounge is a relaxed dining area right across from K’shiki, which specializes in afternoon tea (and cocktails). We stopped in here after spending a day sightseeing in Asakusa, and loved it so much that we came back twice more.

For our first visit, we indulged in the afternoon tea platter. Plus cocktails, of course. They made the best cosmopolitans!

Of course, the little tea cakes and scones weren’t enough grub for us so we got burgers too…

Eating against this amazing backdrop.

For our second visit, we did a repeat of the burgers and drinks. Speaking to the hotel’s fabulous attention to detail, our server remembered exactly what we’d ordered the night before (burgers!), and how (no tomatoes! add bacon!) — very impressive.

They even gave us these cutesy complementary macarons as we finished off our drinks. Big heart eyes.

And, finally, we visited the Oriental Lounge one last time on the day we flew back to Los Angeles. It was the perfect bow topper to an amazing Tokyo adventure.

Overall, we’d highly recommend the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo. It didn’t quite match the “magic” of the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel (for us Disney nerds, anyway), but the service was unparalleled.

We’d experienced a couple snafus over our three night stay, but the hotel staff always went above and beyond to sort everything out. We had really loud neighbors our first night and the hotel manager immediately address the situation. We were also charged for wifi (which was supposed to be included) and for the mini bar (which we didn’t touch), something we didn’t notice until we were taking a taxi to the airport.

When Mark mentioned this in a TripAdvisor review, the hotel reached out, refunded the charges, and offered vouchers for future visits. Talk about service.

We’d certainly stay here again!

xo,