If you travel to Ulaanbaatar, you don’t need to spend too much time researching on where to stay — the Shangri-La Hotel in the city centre is a no-brain choice.
For the past many years, I’ve stayed and/or dined at Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts in Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore (where the first Shangri-La Hotel was founded by the super-rich Asian Kuok families, who also happened to be my former employer), London, and of course Hong Kong. The Shangri-La Ulaanbaatar is no difference from its five-star sister hotels elsewhere. At the second when you step into the lobby, you may be surprised how familiar everything feels like — the layout of lobby floor, background music, and even the unique Shangri-La indoor fragrance. Hotel staff are nice and speak very good English, and there is a Chinese restaurant called Hutong where you can even find Peking duck in Mongolia.
I have free and exclusive access to the Club Lounge where you can have an awesome 360 degree view of the city centre. Everything from the "State House", aka the central government office building, to ancient temples or modern public libraries, and the first Irish bar in Mongolia (located in “walking street for bars and restaurants”), are all within your sight -- and walk too. Traffic in Ulaanbaatar is not so desirable, so walking can actually save you a lot of time.
The only small complaint about the hotel is still about traffic. It's hard to find taxi in the morning, so you shall arrange cars in advance.