Swift Shoreditch

The Irish coffee here is the one Bobby Hiddleston made his name on at the Dead Rabbit in New York, and Swift keeps it ready in vats so it reaches the table in seconds (The Nudge).

Why go

This is the second Swift, opened on Great Eastern Street in late July 2020, four years after the Old Compton Street original (BigHospitality). It seats 45 in marble, wood and bronze, with high chairs along the counter, and it opens at 4pm early in the week and 3pm from Thursday, which almost nothing else of this standard in east London does. Cocktails run from GBP 7 before six every day (venue). The whisky is the deeper half of the offer: the group puts its selection at over 400 bottlings including independent bottlers and one-off releases, and runs a free club with tastings every two months. In July 2024 the founding bartenders sold their shares and moved to Stockholm; Coral Anderson, who had been with Swift since the first site opened in 2016, became managing director and co-owner alongside the Nightjar and Oriole owners (CLASS).

Order this / avoid

• Order: the Irish coffee first. Then the Jaquard, which The Nudge describes as blending "rye whisky with pomegranate, hibiscus, and absinthe" (ref), or a Sgroppino if it is still warm out. Ask what is open off the whisky list rather than reading the menu top to bottom, since the club bottlings turn over.
• Avoid: arriving before 4pm early in the week, when the door is still shut, and arriving with a group and no reservation, since the venue holds back only some tables for walk-ins.

What locals & experts say

• CLASS (1 July 2024), Hamish Smith, breaking the ownership change: "The pair have sold back their shares in the three Swift bars - in Soho, Shoreditch and Borough - to embark on a new chapter of their lives in Stockholm, Sweden." Coral Anderson on what happens next: "Our intention is to honour and stay true to the Swift DNA which has made it the much-loved group of bars it is today." ref
• The Nudge (30 July 2020), Talisa Dean, on the room and the staff: "It wears a black and white uniform of marble and wood, with dashes of bronze rounding it all out, and snappily dressed barkeeps who might as well be walking cocktail encyclopaedias." ref
• BigHospitality (2 July 2020), Stefan Chomka, on the original: Swift "launched in November 2016 by husband and wife team Mia Johansson and Bobby Hiddleston in partnership with another husband and wife team, Roisin Stimpson and Edmund Weil, owners of Nightjar and Oriole." ref
• The World's 50 Best placing is Soho's. The Nudge cites Swift at 41 on that list in 2020, describing the Old Compton Street bar. It is the sibling's standing and is not claimed for this address.
• No industry pick. All 621 rows of London's chef-vote file were checked on 30 July 2026 and no chef or bartender names any Swift site.

Good to know

• Where: 91-93 Great Eastern Street EC2A 3HZ, a couple of minutes from Old Street. The same address now also carries The Little Neon Door, a five-room Little Door & Co party bar that opened on 6 July 2026 and holds the only food-hygiene registration at the postcode. Check the door you are walking through.
• Timing: Sunday to Wednesday 4pm to 11pm, Thursday to Saturday 3pm to midnight, per the group's locations page. This is not a 2am room. Happy hour runs every day until 6pm.
• Booking: recommended in the venue's own words, with some tables held back for walk-ins.
• Price: cocktails from GBP 7 before six, higher after. Seated capacity 45, and private hire is sold on that number.
• Food: the 2020 launch promised an 8am all-day menu of Neal's Yard toasties and waffles on St John sourdough. The venue now opens at 3pm, so treat that menu as history and ask what the kitchen is doing.
• Sites: three. Swift Soho, 12 Old Compton Street, opened November 2016 across two floors, is the original and the one on the World's 50 Best list. Swift Borough is the third. This row is Shoreditch, and a review of Soho is evidence about the group's style, not about this room.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: none. His saved-places export carries an empty Note for this row, so nothing here is in his voice. The master list's "East outpost of the Swift bar family" was written by an earlier enrichment pass.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

could-visit — The Irish coffee is the reason. Bobby Hiddleston built his at the Dead Rabbit in New York before co-founding Swift, and the bar keeps it in vats so it lands in front of you fast rather than after five minutes of theater. Around it sits a 45-seat art deco room on Great Eastern Street that opens mid-afternoon, pours cocktails from GBP 7 until six, and carries a whisky list the group puts at over 400 bottlings with independent and one-off releases, backed by a free club running tastings every two months. That is depth rather than movement, and it is the right axis for this bar. It sits at could-visit and not higher because the Soho original holds the World's 50 Best placing, no critic has written about this address, and the founders sold up in 2024, so the room is trading on a DNA its new owner says she intends to keep rather than on anything she has yet been judged on.