Lobby Lounge at Mandarin Oriental

Hi, I would have rated this a little lower, but do not want to discourage anybody from a special experience. Overall, I would rate everything at a 4 - not perfect, but perhaps I am a little too critical. Really, its lovely. It is hard to rate the food here because we just had bar snacks, however, we had long pita type chips with dip with our drinks which were nice, but nothing fab. Service was very nice and non intrusive but present, which I always appreciate. We had window side seats, overlooking the park, we booked for 4:30pm in order to watch the lights go down over the city. Very nice and special. The atmosphere is nice although a tad too open into the lobby I thought. 4 drinks, plus the snacks came to about $70 including the tip. I thought it was worth it. I started with a specialty cocktail ($17) but it did not knock my socks off - beers - Stella was $9 a bottle, and snackies ran I think from about $12 upwards. They also serve a lovely little complimentary tray of nuts & olives with your drinks. I brought my dad, who came from Europe for the weekend for a New York treat, and it was perfect. I am returning with my husband in the next month for a special drink before dinner. I would recommend - lovely if you could spring for a bottle of bubbly! P.S. the market in the lower level of the Time Warner building beside the M.O. is fantastic!! It reminded me of Galleries Layfette in Paris.