Hehe, personally, that's just what I like about mental ray. It can capture any feel you want, if you know how to use it. With vray I always felt confined to a single look.
When it comes to flexibility mental ray takes the cake, however I don't really like it very much because it is so slow and inneficient at times. Indoors specially.
Well it really depends oh how you set it up. Have you seen my Seaside interior? 2 and a half hours on an relatively old desktop and a laptop. I wouldn't call that slow.
wonderful render, great work. cheers
looks nice
great lighting