Surrey Hills · Silent Pool
Everyone else brought India to the city. Mandira brought it to the land. Specifically, to a barn above Silent Pool.
The food at Mandira's Kitchen is what Mandira grew up eating: samosas, papri chaat, biryani, kathi rolls, thalis, all handmade in small batches with single-estate spices.
It is served in a 400-year-old converted cowshed in the middle of the Surrey Hills, seven days a week, with a patio over the pool. Eleven Great Taste Awards, an endorsement from Nigella Lawson, and food worth driving for.
What you actually eat here
Lunch, seven days a week
Lunch is Indian street food: samosa chaat, papri chaat, biryani, kathi rolls, keema pav, all handmade with our own chutneys. Chai ice cream and lychee martini sorbet if you have room. Booking a table is wise at weekends.
The weekend thali
At weekends we make a limited number of thalis: a round platter of small dishes that changes every week. They must be pre-booked. If you are further afield, we can post one.
Freezer meals to take home
The same food, cooked by hand in small batches and frozen the same day. Take a stack home from the cafe, or have them delivered anywhere in the UK. Larger trays for four or ten also available.
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. Four hundred years a cowshed. These days, something rather better fed.
Good questions, briefly answered
Where can I get good Indian food in the Surrey Hills?
At Mandira's Kitchen, a 400-year-old barn above Silent Pool serving handmade samosas, chaats, biryani, kathi rolls and thalis seven days a week.
What kind of Indian food is it?
Home-style Indian street food and family recipes, made by hand in small batches with single-estate spices, the dishes Mandira grew up eating.
Is it a restaurant or a cafe?
An Indian street food cafe and event venue in a historic barn, open seven days a week, with indoor seating and a patio overlooking Silent Pool.
Where is it?
Silent Pool, Shere Road, Albury, Guildford, Surrey GU5 9BW, just off the A25 between Guildford and Dorking.
Book a table for Indian food in the hills
Open seven days a week, on the track above Silent Pool.
Book a table for Indian food in the hills →