Surrey Hills · Silent Pool
The proper British afternoon tea ran away to India. It came back more interesting.
At Mandira's Kitchen, Afternoon Tea is served in a 400-year-old converted cowshed above Silent Pool, about an hour from London. There are still scones. There is also bhel puri, masala chai, Bengali sweets, chilli cheese scones, mango lassi, and the sort of long afternoon that starts with "just tea" and somehow finishes at sunset.
Every dish is something Mandira grew up eating, made by hand in small batches. It is the food, and the view, that keeps people in their seats longer than they planned.
A barn above one of England's strangest pools
Silent Pool is a spring-fed former chalk quarry on the Albury Estate, so still and so clear it looks lit from below. Tennyson came here to think. Agatha Christie's car was found just up the hill at Newlands Corner in 1926. Our barn sits on the track just above all of it, where pilgrims once walked the old North Downs way and the smell of ground cardamom now drifts across the hills by mid-morning. Four hundred years a cowshed. These days, something rather better fed.
Good questions, briefly answered
What makes this Afternoon Tea different?
A British afternoon tea reworked with Indian flavours: scones alongside bhel puri, chilli cheese scones, Bengali sweets, masala chai and mango lassi, served the traditional way, on stands, with proper pots of tea.
Where is it served?
In the barn at Mandira's Kitchen, a 400-year-old converted cowshed overlooking Silent Pool in the Surrey Hills, at Silent Pool, Shere Road, Albury, Surrey GU5 9BW.
Is it award-winning?
Mandira's Kitchen holds 11 Great Taste Awards and has been endorsed by Nigella Lawson, with features on BBC, Channel 4, The Times and The Telegraph.
Do I need to book Afternoon Tea?
Yes. Afternoon Tea is best booked in advance, particularly at weekends, as the barn is small by design.
Can I take food home as well?
Yes. The shop by the cafe sells our handmade freezer meals, chutneys and spice kits. Take a stack of meals home after tea, or have them delivered anywhere in the UK, free over £100.
Reserve your Afternoon Tea
Open seven days a week, on the track above Silent Pool.
Reserve your Afternoon Tea →