This September, North London welcomes Oui Madame, a modern European pop-up restaurant inside Sawyer & Grey in Highbury, Islington. The restaurant opened for evening on the 2 September.
Spearheaded by experienced restaurateur Martin Lange (Salut!), with a kitchen led by Matthaios Kollias (ex-Dosa, Café Royal, Pied à Terre), Oui Madame will deliver an ingredient-led menu built on classical technique and seasonality.
The pop-up will run for a limited period, with plans to evolve into a permanent space in the local area following its initial phase.
Martin Lange, whose Islington restaurant Salut! earned critical acclaim and a place in Time Out’s Top 100 London Restaurants, brings more than three decades of European hospitality experience to this new project. Raised in a family-run restaurant in Germany, Lange’s approach is rooted in craft, precision, and personal service.
“With Oui Madame, the goal is simple: to create a space where guests return not for one signature dish, but for the evolving conversation between kitchen and season,” says Lange. “There’s a looseness in the format; sharing plates, no hierarchy of courses but underneath, the technique is precise.”
Heading the kitchen is Matthaios Kollias, a Greek-born chef with a decade of experience across Europe’s top kitchens. Kollias has refined his culinary voice under chefs at Mandarin Oriental Mayfair’s Michelin-starred Dosa by Akira Back, Café Royal Hotel, and Pied à Terre.
At Oui Madame, he presents a menu of small and large plates that balances modern European foundations with flashes of Mediterranean warmth and East Asian acidity, always anchored by well-sourced produce.
“This isn’t about fusion,” says Kollias, “but about how flavour can travel, how a Korean gochujang can bring clarity to British beef tartare, or how a burnt carrot can become a focal point when treated with care.”
Guests can expect a regularly rotating selection of both meat and plant-forward offerings, shaped by Kollias’ agile kitchen and seasonal availability.
Notable dishes include:
Beef Tartare with gochujang, nashi pear, sesame oil, pine nuts, and sushi rice.
Red Prawn Carpaccio with orange-mint dressing, umami mayo, and cucumber.
Chicken Heart Skewer with a gochujang glaze and red pepper cheese sauce.
Vegan Potato Gnocchi with sage-fennel sauce and grilled fennel.
Larger format plates include a John Dory (500g) with brown butter and samphire, and a 12-hour Ox Cheek with burnt kale, pomme purée, and jus.
Sides are equally deliberate, including Écrasé Potatoes with gremolata and umami mayo, and Grilled Asparagus with black garlic and crispy rice.
The pop-up will operate inside Sawyer & Grey, allowing for a soft launch ahead of plans for a permanent location. While the format is temporary, the intent is serious: to build a long-term presence in the community, shaped by dialogue between guests, producers, and the kitchen.
“We want this to feel like a creative residency,” says Lange. “Yes, it’s a pop-up, but the food, the training, the sourcing, it’s all treated with the same rigor as a bricks-and-mortar restaurant.”
