In the competition for London's best restaurant location, Madison has got to be right up there. It's a stylish, ultra cool, rooftop restaurant and bar with wrap around terrace, right within a wink's distance of St Pauls. I've always loved coming here for the views of the beautiful St Paul's cathedral over a few drinks, but until a couple of weekends ago hadn't tried their food offering. With appetite in tow, I headed over to try their 'Soul Sunday' lunch menu.
When I say over, I should say 'up'. Madison is accessible by elevator only (of course there are stairs, but who wants to tackle 6 floors in their stilettos) from the One New Change centre. You emerge into a glorious outdoor terrace, which is the most fabulous sun trap on summer days and always packed to the rafters. There's a DJ on Saturday days and Sunday is their 'Soul' day (hence the menu name!) with live music from around 3pm. The decor is super chic and modern – think glass, white and floor to ceiling windows, with more views of the cathedral everywhere you turn!
We headed over to the table and laid into the menu. It's a set menu and is £38pp for three courses, including 1/2 bottle of good wine – not bad for such a location. Oh and yes, there's now a bottomless bubbles option! But what about the quality? Let's see….
I kicked things off with their tuna tartare with pickled lotus root, sesame, yuzu and mirin. With these flavour combinations you'd be hard pressed to go wrong, and indeed they didn't. The tuna was fatty and cool, rich as silk, and the Asian flavours paired well, bringing salt and citrus.
We moved onto mains. They had various different roast options on, including USDA sirloin, corn-fed chicken and pork belly, with all the various trimmings and a veggie option. It was too hot for that for me though, so I opted for a roasted fillet of stone bass (one of my favourite fishes!) with a ragout of squid and aubergine, and green olive tapanade. Sounds great, right? Right. Everything worked; the fish was cooked perfectly and the olive tapanade brought a smacking briny punch to the rich, squid stew. So far so good.
We were too full at this point for desserts really, but got strong armed into trying their creme caramel with poached rhubarb and oat and ginger crumble. It would have been rude not to after all. Again, this was a winner. The pudding was super light and not overset, and the rhubarb held its shape without turning to mush as mine sometimes do when I poach them! I imagine they were sous vide.
Alongside all this food jollyness, the service was good. Definitely not over fussy, but on the right side of casual. Our waiter spoke knowledgeably about the wines and offered good recommendations on the menu which turned out to be delicious! The live music is a great touch too, and brings a fun party vibe to Madison. I hear it gets quite raucous some saturday afternoons especially!
In short, Madison was right bang up my street! It's a good deal, at the right price, in a gorgeous location, served properly and with the option to stay on and party afterwards. For summer, it's a no brainer.
Rooftop Terrace One, New Change, London EC4M 9AF
