Surrey Hills · Silent Pool
Newlands Corner gives you the view. The bit afterwards, the sitting down with something hot, happens just down the hill.
Newlands Corner is one of the great Surrey Hills viewpoints, 250 acres of grass and ancient woodland on the North Downs, some trees a thousand years old. The walk down towards Silent Pool brings you almost to our door.
Mandira's Kitchen is a 400-year-old converted cowshed on the track above Silent Pool, a short way from Newlands Corner. Masala chai, Indian lunch, cake and Afternoon Tea, seven days a week, with a patio over the hills. Dogs on leads very welcome, muddy boots assumed.
What you actually eat here
Lunch, seven days a week
Lunch is Indian street food, the kind Mandira grew up eating, not a curry-house menu. Samosa chaat with tamarind drizzle, papri chaat, biryani, kathi rolls, keema pav, the forbidden chilli cheese toast, all handmade with our own chutneys. Chai ice cream and lychee martini sorbet if you have room. Gluten-free options. Eat in the barn or out on the patio over the pool. Booking a table is wise, especially at weekends.
The weekend thali
At weekends we make a limited number of thalis: a round platter of small dishes that changes every week, and comes with a Bollywood playlist, a film recommendation and a quiz, because a thali should be an afternoon, not a plate. They must be pre-booked and are picked up Friday or Saturday. If you are further afield or on the monthly subscription, we can post one (it arrives the Tuesday after).
Freezer meals to take home
The same food, cooked by hand in small batches in the barn and frozen the same day, never cooked from frozen in a factory. Take a stack home from the cafe after lunch, or have them delivered anywhere in the UK in insulated boxes, free over £100. Larger trays for four or ten when people are coming over and you would rather they thought you cooked.
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. There is a legend about a girl called Emma and a king on a horse, which may be Victorian invention but is told anyway, usually in a lowered voice. 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
Is there a cafe near Newlands Corner?
Yes. Mandira's Kitchen is a short way down towards Silent Pool, a 400-year-old barn serving Indian lunch, masala chai, cake and Afternoon Tea seven days a week.
How far is Mandira's Kitchen from Newlands Corner?
A short drive or a walk down the North Downs path towards Silent Pool. Both sit just off the A25 between Guildford and Dorking.
Is it dog friendly after the Newlands Corner walk?
Yes. Dogs on leads are very welcome on the patio, with water bowls provided, and muddy boots after the walk are entirely normal.
Where exactly is it?
Silent Pool, Shere Road, Albury, Guildford, Surrey GU5 9BW, with free parking when you register at the cafe.
Book a table after Newlands Corner
Open seven days a week, on the track above Silent Pool.
Book a table after Newlands Corner →