Mandarin Orchard Singapore, formerly the Mandarin Singapore, and Meritus Mandarin Singapore managed by Meritus Hotels & Resorts, is a five-star hotel located at 333 Orchard Road in Singapore. The hotel opened in 1971, occupying a single 36-storey block. It became a landmark for the Orchard Road area when the second block, standing at 40 storeys and 152 metres high, became the tallest building in Singapore at the time of its opening in 1973.Designed by —-, it currently[when?] has over 1,051 rooms and 32 suites, two exclusive Club lounges and two Presidential Suites. In 1980, the South Tower was extended with the help of Lee Sian Teck Chartered Architects. The Orchard Wing was upgraded again in 2003 at a cost of S$52 million. At the top of the Main Wing is the Mandarin Club Lounge, while the taller tower has the Top of the 'M', the tallest revolving restaurant in Singapore.
As of 2011, the 2 tower blocks holds a total of 1051 rooms. The hotel underwent a major S$200 million renovations in 2009 which saw the previous hotel lobby on the first floor and the lower few levels of the hotel revamped to become a shopping arcade known as Mandarin Gallery. The hotel lobby itself was relocated to level 5 beside the swimming pool. Part of the Meritus Hotels & Resorts, Mandarin Orchard Singapore has a sister hotel, Marina Mandarin Singapore, located at the Marina Bay. The hotel specifically targets at the business traveler market, and is thus a popular venue for meetings and conferences with facilities seating up to 1200 people. Voted as one of the World’s Best Places to Stay in the 2004 Gold List of Condé Nast Traveler and into the list of The World’s Top 75 Hotels in 2003 of Institutional Investor, it is the flagship hotel of Meritus Hotels and Resorts.
The Chatterbox restaurant at the hotel is well known for its award winning Hainanese chicken rice. In 2007, the originator of the dish, Steven Low, was laid off after 31 years of service; he promptly opened his own restaurant, serving the same dish at a quarter of the price. The hotel also has a recently renovated shopping complex, Mandarin Gallery, which has branded boutiques such as Montblanc (pens), Emporio Armani, Marc by Marc Jacobs, D&G, Vertu, Just Cavalli and Mauboussin, as well as restaurants such as Ippudo and the one-Michelin-starred Beni.
