Review: Dickie's Bar, Mayfair ★★★★★

Located within Mayfair's much-celebrated fine dining restaurant, Corrigan's, is a quirky new spot for cocktail enthusiast: Dickie's. The mind behind the drinks menu there is Gregory Buda – mixologist from the best bar in the world.

With the looks of a post-modern hunting lodge, Dickie’s is an interior design dream – mirrored and wood panelled walls, a metal antler sculpture, feathered lamps with birds feet sticking out – giving the room a wholly different feel to that of the restaurant.

Titled 'Dickie's Game Book', the menu is the bedtime story dreams are made of and is inspired by the restaurant's owner, Richard Corrigan. The pages depict Corrigan's groundsmen searching the vast expanses of his 100-acre Virginia Park Lodge in County Cavan for the season's finest ingredients. Each drink features a beautiful illustration with an ongoing bestiary of the produce: ‘The fearsome peach is the ultimate predator.’

The names of each of the cocktails recall the history of Virginia Lodge, paying homage to the Lodge's scandalous previous owner: Geoffrey Thomas Taylour, the fourth Marquess of Headfort. A particular standout was The Syd 782, which was named after a tractor. The Syd, which involves sparkling wine, vermouth, strawberry, rosehip, grapefruit, lime, bitters, and armagnac, is known (unofficially) by the staff, as 'the party starter'.

The idea behind Dickie’s is that if someone arrives claiming that they ‘don’t like tequila’, they will be proven wrong. Despite the seemingly complex ingredient list, Gregory Buda's encyclopedic knowledge of alcohol is what's really on display here. The Irish Whiskey & Strawberry uses a rare kind of peated Connemara whiskey with an earthy taste, creating a smooth highball that's a fun twist on a whiskey sour. Everything has been thought out: accompanying sodas are made in-house and specifically designed to be paired with liquor.

With fancy finger snacks like crispy olives stuffed with goat’s cheese, smoked ham and black pudding croquets, and ‘true to your roots roots down vegetable chips’, Dickie's brings the best of the Irish countryside – from 'fearsome peaches' to whiskey – down to central London.