After an unimpressive visit to Sky Bar at Trader's Hotel to celebrate my partner's birthday, we decided to visit to Marini's on 57th. Took a taxi to Marini's which is located on the 57th floor of a building immediately adjacent to the Mandarin Oriental hotel. Upon entering the building, we had to take three elevator rides (changing elevator banks twice). At the 56th floor, before the final elevator ride to Marini's, we spotted Nobu restaurant and made a mental note to come back and try Nobu's but never did. Maybe next trip? Anyway, we finally got out of the elevator on the 57th floor, and were met by a pleasant but harried restaurant staff member who asked us if we preferred indoor or outdoor seating. We replied "indoor" and she led us through the noisy and frenetic premises, which were busy with all the "beautiful people" hobnobbing and wanting to be seen. Finally we arrived at a table and were given drink menus, at which point, the staff member promptly disappeared. Only then did we look around and realize that this was actually an outdoor table. The truncated view of a portion of one of the Petronas towers immediately adjacent was interesting, and a different perspective, but we were not really too impressed. We decided on our drinks, and were waiting for a waitress to show up to take our order, when a couple of gentlemen sat at the next table and lit up cigars. Now, I have smoked a few stogies in my day, but we were just not in the mood to sit there inhaling what to us was malodorous second-hand cigar smoke. So, after about 5 more minutes of waiting fruitlessly for a waitress, and enduring smelly cigar smoke, we decided to just pack it in and leave, which we did. Not an impressive experience at all. Now that we have been to both Sky Bar and Marini's on 57th, we will not care to revisit either. "Been there, done that." Just not impressed. Maybe our expectations were too high?
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