Malabar at Riverhill - Sevenoaks

Lyubomir G. (.

Nice coffee with nice atmosphere, good view's and lovely seating area outside. It very piece full place to stay and enjoy breakfast. It's is very pricey even more pricey than a London place. Ordinary sandwich is 5£, scones over 5£, no choice of hot food like breakfast only sandwiches and ready made food. Staff are unexperienced and slow.
I recommend due to view and nice place to enjoy cup of coffee.

Camilla ?.

I'm a firm believer in supporting local businesses and malabar is just that. Fantastic spot, great coffee and beautiful views.

Cassie

Went for lunch and they don't accept cash. No excuse for this as we are a cash society. To use the excuse that tge gardens to not take cash either is unacceptable, the garden and Malabar are operated separately and cafe is open to non-garden visitors.

**UPDATE**

Julia, you are wrong. You’ve said that I “made my feelings clear” and “refused to listen to your lovely staff” – this is a complete lie. Your member of staff told us that you don’t accept cash and that the whole Himalayan gardens business is cashless. There was a queue behind me and only one person at the till. I considered it inappropriate to make a scene, so I simply went elsewhere instead. Not sure where the ‘refusing’ to listen comes from as there was nothing else said. If you insist on not taking cash, it would be helpful to mention this on your website so that people are aware before they arrive.

Luke P.

Prices for food are absolutely ridiculous.
Food was ok and the coffee was nice but literally couldn’t get over £4.95 for half a sausage roll.

Michael G.

We visited Riverhill and had a great time. The only thing that spoiled the experience was the cafe. Having queued upfor over 15minutes I placed my order and offered to pay. I was told by the rather abrupt young man behind the till. That they did not accept cash. When I asked where the signs were stating this he became very snotty and stated he had the right to refuse anyone service. I did not see how this could be relevent to what I asked unless he was refusing to serve me (I had a card with me fortunately). He then referred me to the owner. I declined the offer as the young man behind the till was getting more agitated and there were other customers waiting. I closed the conversation saying I would have my say on Google. Following the fairly average lunch I went all round the premisis looking for a sign saying that cash was not accepted there was nothing. I took some pictures to back this up. I am not disputing any businesses right to refuse cash. What I have a problem with is lack of clear, unambiguous signs before the point of sale. A business that invites the public onto their premisis should have any significant conditions they impose on the public using their services clearly displayed at point of entry. Will visit Riverhill again but most certainly will not be using the cafe.

Nick J.

Lovely Cafe in a beautiful spot. Contrary to some of the comments about the prices my family thought they were perfectly reasonable compared to where we live in Folkestone. The food was good and the coffee excellent. The staff were attentive especially when we had the wasp from Hell trying to nibble my apple cake especially as he hadn't even paid for it! Will definitely come back and thank you.

Apoorv K.

Beautiful gardens, good selection of food, good coffee! What more could one want. Very courteous staff too.

chris D.

I will start with the positives, there was a wide selection of savoury (pasties, paninis, quiche etc) and sweet food and what we had was nice and he coffee was good too. I would recommend it - 4-5 stars.
The negatives, I went on Sunday of Mayday Bank holiday and it was busy, a combination of bluebell fair, bank holiday and Gardner's World 2 for 1 with nice weather. The issue was the queue took so long to process and that needs fixing, it took me about 45 minutes from joining the queue to get served and someone needs to look at methods of speeding it up or making it more efficient to cope with busy times. (IMHO, there is no difference in coffee quality between automatic bean to cup machines and baristas, one takes less time than the other). There seemed to be enough staff (I counted about 6-8 people behind the counter but only one till and 1 or 2 baristas. And the majority of the food menu needed to be heated up which again added time.
I am certain if I came back at a less busy time my experience would be better.