Oh Martine

Speciality coffee and great tartines

The house sums itself up in a line: speciality coffee, good people and great tartines. That is also the order of business at Oh Martine, a Geneva breakfast and brunch café where the food carries as much weight as the cup. The coffee is espresso-led and poured with dairy or plant milk, without a single-origin list or a brew bar to work through first.

The tartine is the savoury signature, an open-faced sandwich treated as the house format rather than a side dish, and the menu labels its vegan options clearly enough that nobody has to interrogate the staff. Sweets are made in house: cakes, cookies, and a peanut butter banana bread that has become the thing to add to a second coffee.

Martine books and an eclectic room

The name is a French childhood reference, borrowed from the Martine picture books, and it is not a throwaway. The books are on the shelves as part of the decor, alongside a deliberately mismatched collection of furniture and objects. The room is bright and built for mornings rather than evenings, which is exactly how it gets used.

Eaux-Vives is the original address and still the heart of the operation. A second Geneva café opened near Cornavin in late September 2023, in Montbrillant, running the same menu and the same look, so both sides of the city get the same breakfast rather than two experiments. The audience follows the clock: commuters and early workers first, then locals, then a slower weekend brunch crowd. Oh Martine was placed 54th in the World's 100 Best Coffee Shops for 2025.

Order a tartine with your coffee

Start with a coffee and a tartine. That pairing is the clearest version of what this café does, and it is the reason to come at breakfast rather than treating the place as an afternoon stop. Plant milk is there for anyone who wants it, and the vegan labelling makes the rest of the menu easy to read at a glance.

For something sweet, stay with what is made in house. The banana bread with peanut butter is the most specific order, cakes and cookies the more everyday one, and either works better alongside a second coffee than a technical tasting flight would. This is a café to eat in, not a bar to study at.