Cocktail Heaven At Sway Bar (Plus Giveaway!)
Finding cracking cocktail bars in London is not as easy as one might think. I've been to many a dud, places with great decor or fun gimmicks, and when you get to the actual drinks they've been sub-par. Sway in Holborn ticks all the boxes - beautiful, gimmicky (in a good way) and some of the best cocktails I've ever had. And there's the added bonus of pizza too, good pizza.
One thing you should know about Sway is that it's really dimly lit, and I can only apologise for the bad quality of my photos. I've lightened them up as much as possible. I loved the pink neon accents, and the fun wall art (see above, you're looking gorgeous!). A group of bloggers were invited to try out Sway's cocktails, pizzas and sharing plates, and we sat on our own island table with our own Romeo the Bartender in the middle. God knows what he was saying as the music drowned him out, but he had mad skillz with all the boozes, all of them. First he whipped us up an insanely good mojito, and then made everyone shout noooo as he announced drink number two would be an Old Fashioned. I think one person liked the idea of this, but this is a boy's drink through and through. When I politely declined Romeo asked me what I liked to drink, and threw his head back and laughed when I said margaritas. Several moments of mixology later and I am handed the best margarita I've ever tasted. It was so smooth, I never knew tequila could be this good.
Romeo also made us fantastic Mai Tai's (above) on the request of Hannah, and like some kind of DJ for booze he started taking other requests and made an amazing array of gin this and Negroni that. If you go to Sway I hope you find Romeo on a shift; he is a straight up alcohol magician.
We also sampled some of the sharing plates, including an beautiful goats cheese and watermelon salad, and a few pizzas were brought out. I really liked the plain cheese and tomato, very thin and tasty. We all agreed we needed more, especially as there had been prosecco 'courses' in bewteen the cocktails. Everyone was planning a pancake assault, it being Shrove Tuesday and all.
We were shown around Sway's downstairs nightclub, which is deceptively big. I tried to get a stairs shot but was already quite tipsy at this stage, and couldn't organise the simplest of things, much less a group shot. Props to Charley for posing, but also to the other Charlie for double-fisting a prosecco and cocktail, we all did that at one point or another during the evening.
The largest room has a DJ, bar and dance floor, and then there's this large bar (below) with cosy VIP booths you can hire. They have light boxes on the wall behind each one where they'll put your chosen reservation name or phrase.
There's a couple of other spaces for sitting and drinking, and the 'selfie room' with striking white walls emblazoned with hashtags.
Everyone loved the selfie mirror too, Elle was working her magic.
I hadn't seen Lauren since our jaunt to celebrity-ville at the Diet Coke party last summer, and I celebrated our reunion with possibly the worst backlit photo ever. Lauren looks lovely, I just don't know what I was thinking with that framing - I told you I was a bit drunk...
After a fantastic introduction to Sway and all it's splendour I headed over to The Diner with Elle and Hannah for some pancakes. Hannah and I made the mistake of ordering fries too, and then couldn't finish all our Shrove Tuesday treats, but what can I say - we were really hungry, quite full of cocktails, and they had goddam Reece's Pieces pancakes! Apologies, it was also quite dark in The Diner. I think lighting is just terribly un-fashionable in London right now.
Side note: on the way to our feast, Elle was asking Hannah and I if we'd ever tried chicken, gravy and waffles. I thought she must surely mean potato waffles, or had invented this, but turns out - it's a thing, and she ordered it!
At The Diner we talked about how great Sway was, the perfect place for a catchup with friends upstairs, having a pizza and a drink or two after work. It would also be a brilliant place to party downstairs, with lots of spaces to explore, dance and mingle. I really recommend Sway, not least for the insane margaritas! Sway are giving you and some friends the chance to experience these delicious drinks for yourself. They'll give you a £100 bar tab, and even reserve a table upstairs. The perfect start to a night out maybe, or even a mid-afternoon cocktail stop whilst weekend shopping in Covent Garden. Sway is open 12pm-midnight Mon-Weds, 11am-2am Thursday, and 11am-3am Friday and Saturday. All pizzas are £9, and during Happy Hour (5pm-7pm everyday) you can get two pizzas for £14, plus some great deals on drinks - two cocktails for £10? Hello!
To enter all you need to do is be age 18+ and use the Rafflecopter below. The winner will be selected at random on Friday 19th February by email, and must use their prize within a month. Good luck!