Mandarin Oriental Ritz

“Fresh Elegance”

I stayed for 2 nights to fully enjoy the hotel. It’s on a lovely quiet street in a great location across from Prado. I love this hotel as its timeless elegance is fresh and relaxed with fabulous touches of decorative elements , and I could spend all day in the palm court. Begin with delicious bre… lisää

I stayed for 2 nights to fully enjoy the hotel. It’s on a lovely quiet street in a great location across from Prado. I love this hotel as its timeless elegance is fresh and relaxed with fabulous touches of decorative elements , and I could spend all day in the palm court. Begin with delicious breakfast buffet including many offerings and high tea is lovely. The cocktail bar is called Pictura with wonderful modern art and bartenders who shake and stir sophisticated cocktails with hospitality. Concierges including Ana are wondeful, fulfilling every request. Down to the spa/ pool area where the attendants offer you tea&towels on stylish loungers and manager Luciano couldn’t be more attentive. Front desk checkin / checkout seamless And the doormen whistle for my taxis with smiles Room great with big soaking tub bathtub and modern touches Loved it

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“A Five Star Experience”

This is an amazing hotel. The epitome of customer service. Fantastic location next to the Prado. Food is fantastic. It was worth every dollar. The rooms are gorgeous and the hotel is spotless. My only suggestion is improve the fitness center. Simply not enough machines.

“Mandarin Oriental at it's Finest”

The Mandarin Oriental Ritz Madrid is one of the three hotels opened by legendary hotelier Ceasar Ritz in continental Europe. It was shut down for a complete renovation after Mandarin Oriental hotel group acquired the property and re-opened it back in 2021. Ritzy and Glamorous, it’s widely considere… lisää

The Mandarin Oriental Ritz Madrid is one of the three hotels opened by legendary hotelier Ceasar Ritz in continental Europe. It was shut down for a complete renovation after Mandarin Oriental hotel group acquired the property and re-opened it back in 2021. Ritzy and Glamorous, it’s widely considered as the #1 luxury hotel in Madrid so it’s a must try for me. I booked it directly with the hotel and enjoy some extras like a complimentary room upgrade and breakfast. The reservations team at this hotel confirmed an upgrade for me from Palm Court Suite to a Park Suite pre arrival. Arrival I arrived from Rosewood Villa Magna courtesy of their house car and upon arrival I am escorted to the reception desk for check-in. The hotel manager Mr Ferdinand also introduced himself to me and welcome me to the hotel. My butler introduce herself to me and escorted me to the room. I was delighted to learn that I have been further upgraded to the Turret Suit, a spectacular 78sqm suite. The Turret Suite The suite first eye-catching moment was when entering the living area. It’s round with 3 large french windows and a gothic looking chandelier. There’s a full-size dining area that can sit 6 people, comfy sofa and full size minibar and a first for me, minibar with a spare empty fridge compartment so you can store you own food and drinks. Why nobody else have thought of that? The bedroom is just as dramatic, with a large king size bed with the most sumptuous linens, and flanged by two side tables, enough closet space for a traveling diva, it’s own work desk and a large TV. Then we come to the bathroom which has gold plated fixtures and very spacious with a large sunken tub and separate showroom, and of course full decked-out in sumptuous marble. Everything works as it should and I particularly love the walk in shower, the relaxing living area and the comfortable bed. There’s not much of a view as it’s a low floor so the view got block by trees mostly. Still it’s nice to see the greens outside the window waking up in the morning. Common Areas and location The hotel have a really beautiful lounge called Palm Court with sumptuous sofa and decked out in luxurious classic furniture. A glass ceiling let in natural light. It’s instantly relaxing to just lounge there to have coffee, afternoon tea or whatever one fancies. Immaculately dressed serving staff are on hand to take orders and bring me anything I need. Despite being quite full, they generously assigned me a 4 seater sofa table at the corner which I really appreciate. Next to the Palm Court is the Spanish fine dinning establishment Dessa, where I had my morning breakfast and also tried out for lunch. I tried having a late lunch at the Palm Court. As I already mentioned, the ambience was great and relaxing and the food very nice as well ( ordered a seabass and some desserts ). The lunch at the Dessa was fantastic, a 7 course fine dinning affair which uses simple local ingredients but due to the creativity of the chef, managed to make very thing look and taste very fresh and special. I especially love the dessert called “the Pine”, some kind of minty ice cream pair with white flakes that was so delicious I ordered twice. Apparently, the restaurant made that for just for me. Morning breakfast at the Dessa is another affair though. There is large buffet spread of cut cut meats, varies pastries and bread, juices and yogurt and other usual breakfast goodies. There’s even a separate menu for hot items. The quality range from good to average to being completely off. Not feeling very well, I ordered a chicken congee but what turned out was really “rice water”. I would have expected a chain like Mandarin Oriental to have chefs properly trained on how to prepare authentic Chinese Food. The hotel also a bar which opens at 5pm called Pictura. It appears to be very popular. I went in to have a look and ordered a mojito which taste good. When comes to the later afternoon, and evening, the hotel has a very lively atmosphere. Especially I stayed over a weekend, so most of Madrid’s high society were having a wonderful time in the hotel. The hotel location right next to the Prado and other historic sites means it is an excellent place to explore all the cultural heritage that Madrid has to offer. I was able to visit the Prado in one of the mornings. Service It’s a Mandarin Oriental. That basically one need to know and expect from this hotel for service. From check-in to check-out, baring one incident, service is immaculate, discrete, always polite and always efficient. I really loved the whatsapp system they used for service calls to my butler. It’s so easy to just type out a quick whatsapp message on your phone and having it done when I am back to the room. In my opinion this should be mandatory in all top tier luxury hotels. It is efficient, hassle free and avoid any potential cases of miscommunication by phone. Service at all the Palm Court and Dessa were both excellent. Warm, friendly and even more so in Dessa. Staff were always on standby to bring what I need, answer my questions about food and allergies etc. On the 2nd day of my stay, I had a pre-arranged ticket to visi the Prado. I had no idea that the Prado was one of the largest museum in Europe. It has a 15,400 sqm of exhibition space and more than 2,000 paintings. Even before my ticket entry time, I can see from my window already large crowds gather at the Prado Museum waiting to get in because it’s a Saturday and peak visiting hours for the museum. I got a bit nervous about my visit. I do not want to wait in the open air under the already warming mid day sun and then find myself got lost inside. The solution is to get a guide. That’s an excellent opportunity to test out how good the hotel concierge really is. I approached the lone concierge Mr Javier at the concierge task. I told him I needed a tour guide asap for my visit to the Prado. I need the guide to be a professional and experience guide. I also need a guide who is well learned about the history of the paintings on exhibit. And I need the guide within 2 hours and on the busiest day of the Prado on a Saturday morning and tourist activity in general. Javier said he will try his best. I am not having high hopes given how unreasonable my request is. Guides in European cities are often booked weeks in advance and who will be available given such short notice and still meet all my criteria? Well, no worries. In about hour later, Mr Javier rang me in my room and told me the guide was found and will meet me at the hotel lobby. The tour was great. My guide was not only good with history, he has connections with the museum staff and I was able to skip all the lines and enter like a VIP. About the only time the hotel did not deliver in service was on the 1st morning breakfast at the Dessa. While the buffet spread was fine, the staff did nothing other than taking down and bringing me my orders. There we several tables when I had my breakfast at 7:30am but majority of the time, the staff including the manager was just chit chatting away in Spanish in the morning and largely ignored the guests until they are called or waved down. I do not have issue with restaurant staff doing some chit chat when they are free but not at the expenses of ignoring the guests. It’s not that they are not doing their job, just that after experiencing such excellent service from everyone else, I was expecting that bit of “extra” from the breakfast staff. Before I checked out, I was also shown a selection of rooms and suites by the friendly Duty Manager Sara. I told the opportunity to feedback to her that the water bottles provided in the suite were really hard to open. It has to be peeled off manually and it’s a metallic aluminum strip and is a real hassle to open. I was given a complimentary one way airport transfer as part of my MO fan benefit and was very pleasantly surprised that my ride has been upgraded to a Maybach limousine. Conclusion I cannot fault the hotel in anyway for my stay, at least without resorting to nitpicks. It’s simply Mandarin Oriental at its finest. It’s also unquestionably the best in Madrid. Yes it cost a lot but also delivers a lot. A perfect 5/5 and if I ever returned to Madrid again, this is the only place I will stay.

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“Everlasting paradise-family style”

When my days are over and I land in the everlasting; may it please be the piano bar under the stars where the concert pianist with facile fingers plays “the hills are alive”. John - the bartender who listens to me and hears what my heart desires crafted the perfect drink to punctuate the week. Unkn… lisää

When my days are over and I land in the everlasting; may it please be the piano bar under the stars where the concert pianist with facile fingers plays “the hills are alive”. John - the bartender who listens to me and hears what my heart desires crafted the perfect drink to punctuate the week. Unknown to me when I visited this property was-this is a welcome to the Spanish family feeling. I certainly know now where to come home in Madrid.

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