We stayed here in Jan 2011, so please keep in mind some of the things below may have changed.

We had 3 nights stay here after 7 days in Langkawi on our way back to Sydney.
Everything started very well when we were greeted at the airport for our transfer to the hotel, which turned out to be a luxury mercedes, icy cold water, newspapers etc provided. (had thought that I booked normal transfer, so it was a nice surprise). When the car pulled up at the hotel, the doors were opened for us and we were greeted by name and asked to follow the lady directly up to our room for check-in. On the way she informed us that we had been up-graded to a suite because the hotel was fully booked. Fantastic!
But the lady who checked us in went from being extremely friendly to unfriendly in a matter of minutes. Not sure why.
The suite was huge and lovely with great views over the park and pool. We decided that we should spend most of our time in the suite seeing as we weren't likely to get this opportunity again any time soon. The only thing in the room that I thought was not up to standard was that they didn't provide fresh milk for tea/coffee.

And you could hear noise from neighbouring rooms and the corridors. This noise actually kept me awake most of the last night we were there, some young people partying in their room. I was not at all happy about this, especially as we had to get up at 5am to catch our flight.

The staff as I've mentioned were either great or indifferent with their attitudes. The breakfast buffet food was Ok, but the tea and coffee were very poor. And overall we didn't enjoy the experience at the buffet because the staff at the time tried to rush us, even though the place wasn't full/ not about to close etc. The other patrons of the hotel were quite rude and pushy as well, but that is not the fault of the hotel. The food in the hotel was pricey as well.

However, there were some exeptional staff, including the manager who personally emailed me and had his assistant manager phone me about the issues that I raised in the feedback to the hotel. Also I must thank the lovely staff who made us full breakfast and delivered it to our room at 5am exactly on time, so that we didn't miss out before we left for the airport.

So overall the hotel is very good. The location can't be beaten. It connects to the shopping centre under the towers, overlooks the park, and is only about 10 minutes walk to the major shopping areas and restaurants. I would recommend this hotel, especially if you can get a special deal on the room rate.

Although not at the level of perfection of its sister hotel, The Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, The Mandarin Oriental KL was outstanding in everyway. Rooms are handsome and have every amenity. I had a magnificent view of The Petronas Towers from my room. The staff is friendly and very helpful. My travel partner had a bad fall in their lobby and hotel employees ran from all over to assist him, including summonsing a medic and a bag of ice. Their buffet restaurant offers excellent fare at all meals including from their a la carte menu. Prices are very reasonable for the level of service you are getting. I would definitely stay here again.

I stayed at the hotel 2 for nights recently. The service was very efficient and I have to highlight the superb breakfast at Mosaic Restaurant. It offers the biggest variety of food an beverages I've seen for long. Restaurants at the hotel where quite pricy in general though. The hotel rates where quite affordable and compared to the other 5-star choices in that area it was the cheapest.
The room was very good too.
A place to enjoy a calm afternoon would be the infinity pool they have. Great view of the city and the park.

Summary: Despite the several mistakes that the staff made, the Mandarin Oriental in KL is very affordable and therefore good value. For this reason, I give it 4 stars.

This is my first stay at a Mandarin Oriental hotel. It is truly a 5-star hotel, but it did fall short of my expectations of the famous Mandarin Oriental brand. I have listed pros and cons below.

Pros:
- Overall friendly staff and service. They are efficient and many of them went out of their way to be helpful (Their names were Xavier, Danny, Julian.)
- Porters outside the hotel were very well trained. For example, we took an early flight out on the morning of our departure and were in a cab at 530 am. We were pleasantly surprised when the porters packed breakfasts for us to take on the long ride to the airport.
- The restaurant Mosaic had an amazing buffet, both for breakfast and dinner. I strongly recommend eating here at least once.
- Location is great. It doesn’t get better than this in downtown KL.

Cons:
- 3 mistakes that the staff made during my interactions with them:
1. They forgot to input my mother’s name as well as mine into our booking as I specifically asked them to. As a result, my mother had a hard time checking into the hotel – not a good start to a vacation.
2. When I asked for price of transfer they responded to my email with a confirmation of a booked transfer – they mistook an enquiry for a booking.
3. Got our wake up call wrong - I asked for a 630 but they called at 6 am. Luckily it was earlier and not later, or we could have missed our plans for the day. They offered apology and free breakfast. Apology was accepted but we declined the offer of breakfast.

All of the above mistakes are pretty basic things that a 5-star hotel should not have gotten wrong.

- The rooms are clean but the furniture and bathroom facilities are run down.

- The concierge was snooty when I asked him to book a restaurant. I did not understand why.

- One of the staff members working at the buffet tried to chat me up and tried asking more than once where I was staying – this is quite inappropriate.

Conclusion: This is still a prestigious establishment but is in need of a revamp. In particular, the staff needs to be better trained to provide better service. I would come back but would make an adjustment to my expectations of the service.