Surrey Hills · Silent Pool
People come to Silent Pool for the myths, the gin, the walking. And then, somewhere around the halfway point, they start thinking about lunch.
Mandira's Kitchen sits just above Silent Pool, in a 400-year-old converted cowshed on the Albury Estate. Some people find us after Newlands Corner. Some after the North Downs Way. Some because they followed the smell of samosas off the path, which is a perfectly good reason.
We do Indian lunches, masala chai, cakes, Indian Afternoon Tea, and freezer meals to take home for the days when cooking feels like a lot. Dogs are welcome. Muddy boots are expected. Long lunches are quietly encouraged.
It is open seven days a week, on the track above one of England's most mythical bodies of water. Come and sit for a while.
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 good walk near Silent Pool that ends with food?
Yes. Mandira's Kitchen is on the Surrey Hills walking route directly above Silent Pool, near Newlands Corner, the Pilgrims Way and the North Downs Way. Walk first, then come in for Indian lunch, masala chai, cake or Afternoon Tea.
Is Mandira's Kitchen dog friendly?
Very. Dogs on leads are welcome on the patio overlooking the pool, and muddy paws after a walk are entirely normal here.
Do I need to book?
Walk-ins are fine for chai and the patio. For lunch or Afternoon Tea, especially at weekends, booking a table is wise.
Where exactly is it?
Silent Pool, Shere Road, Albury, Guildford, Surrey GU5 9BW. Just off the A25 between Guildford and Dorking, following signs for Silent Pool. Free parking when you register at the cafe.
Book lunch or Afternoon Tea overlooking Silent Pool
Open seven days a week, on the track above Silent Pool.
Book lunch or Afternoon Tea overlooking Silent Pool →