I read the reviews about this hotel which said it was old, past its prime, but made a reservation there because I was told it was in a great location. In fact the only good thing is that it is across a large square from Plaza Indonesia which is nothing more than a large new modern garden variety shopping mall with Starbucks, Gucci, Ferragamo, bulgari, and all the other stores you find in new high end malls. I love the Mandarin Oriental chain for its charm and class but this hotel had none of it. It should really have a name of Motel 6. The lobby of the hotel is good and the staff are very friendly but the rooms are very old, dingy and as the other reviews said, the carpets are pathetic. The pool was very nice and the meals okay. On my return trip I stayed at the Shangra La which is outstanding. That is THE place to stay in Jakarta. If I ever go back to Jakarta that is the place I will stay.

I visit Jakarta quite often, business and pleasure, and usually stay at "The Mando".

Last occasion was last week, and as usual, great service at check in and check out, staff are polite and attentive, and speak good English.

The Italian restaurant, Zigolini, is one of the best in town, maybe Ambiente at the Aryuduta has slightly better food but lacks atmosphere - odd for a restaurant with "Ambiente" as its name - while Zigs is always lively, the food's good enough and a decent winelist, and just has that buzz that a restaurant needs.

Xin Hwa is one of the best Szechuan restaurants I know anywhere in SE Asia, it knocks Szechuan restaurants here in Singapore into a cocked hat, and extremely good value for money.

The rooms are fine, but tired. The place needs a major renovation, and the whispers in town is it's on the cards, sooner rather than later I would recommend

The following is my review during our stay at the Mandarin in Jakarta in Oct 2006.

We booked our room through AMEX for a standard room and when we contacted the hotel via email to confirm our reservation, we were told that our room has been upgraded to a Club Level Room with the 'Welcome Statue' view. The hotel is situated smack dab in the middle of Jakarta's Central Business District, right across from the Hyatt and Plaza Indonesia. Most high-end shopping centers are within less than 20-miles away, although given the horrendous Jakarta traffic it might take you an hour to reach a 10-mile destination. But that's another story altogether :-)

Because of recent bombings in Jakarta almost every building there has a security checkpoint and all visitors/guests must go through a metal detector gate as well as a bag hand-search before entering a building. Each car (except taxis) must also subject to trunk inspection before entering the lobby drive-through area, so be forewarned!

After we're done with the security, we were greeted warmly by the staff at the check-in desk and it was relatively uncrowded.The lobby has traditional Indonesian arts & craft design elements to it with marble surface. My husband wanted to upgrade our room to a suite and got it for an extra fee for a suite on 25th floor. In the elevator, I started noticing how old everything looked upon closer inspection. When we were shown our room, my heart almost sank when I saw the old & visibly well-worn carpeting, The suite has a good view of the city with Javanese hand-crafted furniture made of (I think) teak wood which was stained coffee dark. It has a separate living room with TV, sofas, kitchennette, bedroom, and bathroom with separate shower/bathtub. Don't get me wrong, everything was clean but it's quite old and well-worn which gave me quite a shock since we just checked-out of The Oriental Singapore (a hotel under the same chain but has much much better quality and look) before we arrived in Jakarta. The staff told me that they're doing some renovation on the lower floors and in the afternoon, the paint smell was so strong we couldn't stand it anymore and asked to be moved to another suite far away from the smell. We were given another suite on the 26th floor. This time it has an extra restroom in exchange for the kitchennette. The furniture and carpeting were better although they still looked old.

The next day, we went down to the cafe for breakfast and it was buffet with selections of asian and western cuisines. There were Indonesian chicken porridge, Indonesian fried rice, some bakery selections, juices, made-to-order eggs, etc. The food was okay although the restaurant has a nice garden surround view. It didn't provide significant separate area for non smokers so we were forced to endure stinking smoke smell from smokers all around us (trust me, those Indonesian cigarettes were stronger smelling and awful!!). Even our suite smelled like stale cigarette because they didn't have a non-smoking suite! Overall, I didn't find any fault with the service but I was very disappointed with the old and worn hotel and no separate non smoking area. I was only there for 2 days but would definitely have moved to another better hotel for the same rate (later I was told that other better choices were the Grand Hyatt across the street, or Shangri-La). I will not stay there again.

Having stayed in a few 5 star hotels before, the Mandarin definitely requires some upgrading. However, the staff are extremely friendly and the restaurants of a high standard. It is good value, and if you have the budget stay on the Club Floor. The atmosphere is cosy and the bedrooms in good condition. Its location is OK, but no matter where you stay in Jakarta you need a sence of humour - the traffic is awful!