Ppp pitch up at Penguin

The people of Mayfair are thrice blessed - they live in one of the world's most des res neighbourhoods, they have the Royal Academy Of Arts (currently showing an exhibition devoted to the cultural riches of Mexico's Aztec past) on their doorstep, and they now have the new Penguin Bar beneath Scott's restaurant where they can while away the odd idle hour.

Now before anyone writes in to tell me that Scott's - and the bar it also houses - has been beavering away nourishing and libating the chattering classes for more than 150 years, let me point out that it has undergone some changes of late. Most significantly, it was recently sold by the Chez Gérard group to the owners of the exclusive members' club, Home House. Great expectations, then, for the Penguin Bar.

To reach it you dodge the greeting party at the door to the restaurant and take the staircase to the left that delivers you into the basement. The place is very red, very red - red faux-flock wallpaper (though why people do 'faux' in these days of retro obsession is beyond me), red drapes, and a deep red carpet with tiny speckles of white that look to a man of failing eyesight as though they might be crests of some description. Forte crests, by the look of it.

An art deco frieze behind the bar depicts characters from the Twenties socialising - men in long-tailed suits, ladies with cigarette holders, sporting evening gowns and bouffon hair-dos. This place is very posh. So posh that packets of Marlboro Lights are kept in the humidor, alongside their collection of Cohiba and Montecristo cigars. Now that is what I call classy.

But if I were to be really stylish, I might snuggle into one of three booths with a lady I shouldn't be seen with and draw the curtains. I don't know what goes on behind these curtains, nor what the four hidden-away people were getting up to on my visit. But this is Mayfair, so I'll just have to imagine.

The bar serves just nine wines (from £4.50 a glass, £18.50 a bottle) and nine champagnes (from a Laurent Perrier non-vintage at £32 to a 1988 Krug at £195).

But cocktails are what this place is all about and, although most I tried were slightly on the sweet side, the L'Orange Cosmopolitan (£8.50), Negroni (£8.50) and a Citrus Martini are all worth a try.

On each of my visits, the place seemed woefully understaffed, resulting in a severe delay in service. 'I'm so sorry for the delay,' said a waiter, 'everyone's ordering cocktails tonight'. What a shocker. People ordering cocktails in a cocktail bar, whatever next?

Food comes on the form of substantial bar snacks and includes six rock oysters (£10), fish cakes with tartare sauce (£9.50) and an intriguing pear, rocket and stilton salad at £7.75. Despite the fact that I felt I was drinking in a rather stuffy hotel bar, the atmosphere was very relaxed. And I'd be happy to go back again on a day when I was feeling a bit posher.

The Penguin Bar
20 Mount Street, W1Y 6HE