Above Columbus Circle

Some hotels you visit. The Mandarin Oriental New York is one we return to. We've stayed multiple times. We've also walked into the Lounge dozens of other times — when we were in town for something else, staying at Soho House or somewhere downtown — just to taste that ultra-pampered MO feeling for a couple of hours over a martini, some caviar, a wine and cheese plate, the city laid out below us. That, more than anything, is the test of a great hotel: not whether you stay there once, but whether you keep coming back to the lobby even when you're not.

The MO sits above Columbus Circle, perched on the upper floors of what used to be the Time Warner Center. Every window looks out at Central Park. Every meal has a view. Every corner of the property — from the spa pool to the meeting rooms to the new speakeasy — was built around a single architectural conviction: if you're going to be at this elevation in midtown Manhattan, you'd better do something with the view.

They do.

The View, Everywhere

You arrive on the 35th floor. You check in. The elevator opens onto a lobby — yes, the lobby is on the 35th floor — and the first thing you see is the park. Not framed by a window. Filling a wall of glass that runs the length of the room. Trees, then the reservoir, then the buildings of the Upper East and Upper West Sides framing it like a Renaissance painting set in midtown.

Then they take you to your room. And the view continues. Floor-to-ceiling glass, the same park, but now from your bed, your desk, the chaise by the window. We've stayed in the Premier Central Park view room and it earns the name. At sunset, the Trump International Hotel & Tower across the way catches the last light and turns gold; the park goes navy; the city behind it begins to switch on. It's a show, every night. Free with the room.

Premier Central Park View Room · Sunset over the park

The Room — The Sleep, the Robes, the Pampering

Here's the part of the review that matters most to me, because it's the one I've personally tested over many stays. The bed is one of the most comfortable I have ever slept in — and I have slept in a lot of beds. I have allergies, and at MO they always address them before we arrive: hypoallergenic everything, the bedding adjusted, the room prepared without us having to ask twice. We always sleep deeply here. The kind of sleep where you wake up and can't quite remember what city you're in until you open the curtain and the park is still there.

In every room, two plush spa-luxe bathrobes and matching slippers wait in the bathroom — ready for the moment you unwind. The bath is stocked with the very best bath products — not the usual hotel-issue minis, but proper sized vessels of the actual Mandarin Oriental amenities. It is, without exaggeration, the most pampered I feel in any hotel anywhere in the world. The level of comfort and relaxation MO delivers, night after night, is unmatched.

Welcome amenities · The kind of arrival that earns return visits

The Lounge — The Reason We Keep Coming Back

The MO Lounge is the heart of this property and, frankly, one of the great rooms in New York. Soft lighting, deep furniture, a kitchen that opens onto the floor, and that wall of park-facing glass behind every table. We have eaten and had drinks here through room service or in the Lounge itself anytime we didn't already have a reservation elsewhere — because we knew it would all be A+. After enough stays, you stop hunting for restaurants when you're already here. The hotel's kitchen is the destination.

For breakfast, in-room dining multiple mornings, I order the wellness breakfast: the Açaí Bowl with granola, seasonal tropical fruit, and toasted coconut, mixed fruit and berries, a bran muffin alongside a double espresso. We usually also split a Griddled Belgian-Style Waffle — house-made strawberry-yuzu compote, Vermont maple syrup, vanilla whipped cream — as a little treat one of the days. For dinner in the Lounge or via room service, any of the pasta, the burger, or the steak with truffle fries followed by a slice of New York cheesecake for some decadence — it's always sheer NYC perfection.

Espresso martinis at the Lounge · The skyline does the rest

The Amenities — Pool, Spa, Wine Cellar, Event Spaces

We've explored all of it. The fitness center is serious. The pool is a sky-high stunner — laps with skyline. The palatial event and meeting rooms perch one level above the Lounge with the same jetliner views of Central Park. There's even an impressive private dining and lounge area with a glass-walled wine cellar that will make any wine lover blush. (It has made several blush in our presence.)

The glass wine cellar · Private dining

Event & meeting space · The same view, in business attire

Bringing the Hotel Home

At some point during a stay this comfortable, the question becomes inevitable: Can I have this every night? For years the answer was no. The MO bed, the MO bedding, the MO robes, the MO bath products — they belonged to the hotel.

That has changed. Mandarin Oriental Home has now made available the luxury products used in its properties — the beds, the linens, the spa robes and slippers, the bath and body line, the candles and signature fragrances that make my body melt. All of it is now available from MO Home — and these are the kind of things that make memorable gifts for the people who matter most. The lavish comfort is now mine to enjoy at home, or wherever I am, every night. It is, genuinely, the closest thing to staying in an MO suite — except the suite is now my own.

The reception · Grand staircase · The arrival that earns the return

The Closing Argument

You can stay anywhere in midtown Manhattan. You can stay at any hotel in the city, frankly. The Mandarin Oriental NYC is what we choose, and what we keep returning to, because it does the unfashionably old-fashioned thing of being excellent at every individual detail — the view, the bed, the robe, the breakfast, the cocktail, the staff who remember your name, the pool with the skyline behind you. None of it is novel. All of it is rare.

It is a 5 Star Travel Guru Top Pick for 2026. We will be back.