The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong

Fifteen Queen's Road Central is the address of Hongkong Land's Landmark complex, and the hotel that shares its name occupies a tower at its heart. The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong opened in 2005 as the group's second house in the city, one block from the original Mandarin Oriental on Connaught Road. Where the older hotel trades on its 1963 pedigree, this one was conceived as a more private luxury hotel in Hong Kong: a lift up from the shopping arcades, no grand lobby, and a floor plan that favoured fewer, larger rooms.

History

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and Hongkong Land, both part of the Jardine Matheson family of companies, developed the hotel together during the redevelopment of The Landmark in the early 2000s. Its 111 rooms gave it the largest standard rooms in the city at opening, a deliberate contrast with the compact rooms common in Central. Amber, the restaurant on the seventh floor, opened with the hotel under the Dutch chef Richard Ekkebus and received two Michelin stars in the first Hong Kong and Macau guide, published for 2009. It has kept them since. The rooms were refurbished in 2016 and 2017 under the Hong Kong designer Joyce Wang. In 2018 the hotel added PDT, an outpost of the New York speakeasy, and Somm, a wine bar. Amber closed for several months in 2019 and reopened with a new kitchen and a menu that dropped dairy and cut sugar and salt.

Architecture and design

The hotel sits inside a commercial tower rather than a building of its own, and the design works around that. Guests enter from the Landmark atrium or from the street and rise by lift to reception. Peter Remedios drew the original interiors, with dark timber, lacquer and a palette borrowed from the group's fan motif. Wang's refurbishment brought lighter tones, brass and stone, and a bath set on a plinth in many of the rooms. Windows look onto the office towers of Central rather than the harbour, which gives the place an urban, almost domestic feel.

Rooms and suites

Every room measures at least 450 square feet, and the entry category, the L450, is named after that figure. The larger L600 and L900 rooms follow the same logic. Bathrooms take an unusual share of the floor plan, with a deep tub and a separate rain shower. Suites on the upper floors add a dining area and a dressing room. All rooms have a Nespresso machine and a tablet for in-room ordering.

Dining

Amber is the reason many people book. Ekkebus's cooking is French in technique and Japanese in sourcing, and the dining room was reworked in 2019 with timber latticework and a counter facing the kitchen. MO Bar on the same floor serves breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea and turns into a cocktail bar at night. PDT occupies a corner reached through a telephone box, in the manner of the original on St Marks Place. Somm pairs small plates with a long list of wines and sakes by the glass.

Wellness

The Oriental Spa spans two floors and holds treatment rooms, a hammam, a vitality pool and a heated indoor pool. A Pilates and yoga studio and a fitness centre sit alongside. The spa takes non-residents by appointment, which is uncommon for the group in Hong Kong.

Weddings and events

The hotel has no ballroom. Private dining rooms at Amber and a boardroom serve small meetings and dinners of a few dozen guests at most. Larger weddings and conferences go to the sister Mandarin Oriental on Connaught Road, which has a full set of function rooms.

Location

Central MTR station is directly beneath the Landmark complex, and Hong Kong station, the Airport Express terminus, is five minutes away on foot. Hong Kong International Airport is about 35 kilometres west on Lantau Island, 24 minutes by Airport Express. The Peak Tram lower terminus and the Star Ferry pier are both within a short walk, and the galleries of H Queen's and the bars of Lan Kwai Fong sit on the surrounding streets.