The top line: Located within Islington-based restaurant and coffee shop Sawyer and Gray, Oui Madame is a modern European restaurant from Martin Lange who, with his brother Christoph, is behind modern European restaurant Salut!, also in Islington. Lange grew up in the countryside of North East Germany and helped out in his parents’ restaurant from a very early age before going to catering school to train in front of house. After completing his training, he went on to manage fine dining restaurants in St. Moritz, Switzerland and German Baltic Sea resorts before coming to London in 2005, where her worked at The May Fair Bar and at The National Theatre where he opened its first restaurant outside the main building.
On the menu: The kitchen is led by Canadian-born Jacob Buckley, who ran the stoves at Salut! from 2022 to 2025 and who has penned a French-forward menu with an Asian element at times. Divided into snacks, small plates, large plates and sides, the menu features dishes that include savoury choux with comté cream filling and wakame aroma; sardine bruschetta; beef tartare with gochujang, nashi pear, sesame oil, pine nuts and sushi rice; chicken heart skewer glazed with a gochujang glaze served with a red pepper cheese sauce; and tuna tataki with crispy onion, shimeji mushroom, yuzu-soy, and chilli oil. Larger plates comprise green potato gnocchi with corn espuma, toasted hazelnuts and crispy sage; ox cheek with burnt Kale, pomme pureé, and breadcrumbs; a seafood orzotto made with octopus, mussels, clams, and smoked yoghurt; and a rack of lamb with a herb marinade. For dessert there are just two options available - chocolate crémeux with a strawberry chilli-chocolate tuile and passion fruit granita; and a raspberry mille-feuille. Created by Halo Wines and True Terroir, the majority of bottles on the European-led wine list sit between £30 and £60.
The vibe: The restaurant has a rustic aesthetic and lively neighbourhood feel that befits its cafe location.
And another thing: Oui Madame has launched as a one-year pop-up within Sawyer and Gray but Lange has plans to make the site permanent. “We want this to feel like a creative residency. Yes, it’s a pop-up, but everything, from the sourcing to the training, is delivered with the rigour of a flagship,” he says.
290 St Paul’s Road, London, N1 2LH // www.ouimadame-restaurant.co.uk