4.5 stars · around 1,300 Google reviews · 9 am–7 pm, closed Wednesdays · Bir Colony Road, Suja · about ₹200–400 for one. Ratings and hours checked August 2026. Tripadvisor rates it 4.4 from around 34 reviews.
There is a particular kind of café you only recognise after a few days somewhere: the one you keep ending up at without deciding to. In Bir that is Silver Linings. Read enough of its reviews and a pattern jumps out — people do not say they visited, they say they visited twice, or three times, or every morning.
It is on the Bir Colony road in Suja, walking distance from the paragliding landing site, and it is one of the older cafés in the village — a rustic mud house sitting on farmland with a cottage garden around it, which the newer glass-and-steel places on the landing road cannot fake. It is a bakery before it is a café, and that is the key to ordering here.
The pie situation
The banoffee pie is the house signature and comes up in dozens of reviews. Somewhere along the way someone started calling the mango version a mangofee, the name stuck, and it now has its own small following. There is usually a blueberry cream cheese cake in the counter, a banana walnut loaf, carrot cake, brownies and assorted tarts. Nothing is elaborately plated. It is just properly made — and the banoffee genuinely does sell out, so if that is the plan, do not leave it until late afternoon.
Pancakes are the most-ordered item on the whole menu and the standard breakfast for anyone staying nearby. Where Silver Linings surprises people is the savoury side, which is quietly better than the bakery counter suggests. The paneer, mushroom and cheese sandwich comes with a mustard kasundi that should not work on a mountain sandwich and completely does. There is good hummus and falafel, an arrabbiata that gets named repeatedly, an avocado salad, French toast, and a lentil burger for anyone who has had enough cheese for one week. The menu is short. Almost nothing on it is an afterthought.
The best place in Bir to lose an afternoon
If you work remotely, this is the café to know. It has open-air seating with mountains on one side, nobody hovers over you, and multiple reviewers describe it as the best place in Bir to sit with a laptop. Prices are moderate — ₹200–400 a head — which matters when you are there for four hours.
The owners reply to almost every review, usually with a two-word thank you, which tells you how the place is run. It is small, family-scale and unhurried, and the flip side is that service slows noticeably when the room fills. Several reviewers say the same thing: come off-peak, and nobody rushes you.
Two things to plan around
It closes on Wednesdays. This catches people out constantly, because it is not the sort of detail that makes it into listicles. One large aggregator does list the café as open every day, but the listings that carry day-by-day hours agree on the Wednesday closure, and so do the local guides — so plan around it and treat an open Wednesday as a bonus.
It also closes at 7 pm, early even by Bir standards. This is a breakfast, brunch and afternoon café, not a dinner one. If you want the pie, do not leave it until after your evening flight.
If it's closed, or full
Wednesday is the problem, and the fix is June 16 on the landing road — the other proper brunch kitchen in Bir, open every day except Tuesday. For baking specifically, Bhoomi Cafe over in Chaugan is the better counter of the two, though it is a longer walk and shuts at 5 pm. If you just need somewhere to sit with a laptop for four hours, AVVAs keeps longer hours and has a garden.
Silver Linings is the one to build a slow morning around. The full roundup: the best cafés in Bir. Basing yourself here for a while? Our Bir Billing workation guide covers where to work, eat and wander, and Bir beyond paragliding covers the monasteries, the tea factory and the Rajgundha trail. Flying while you are here? See paragliding in Bir Billing. Staying a month? The 30-day workation puts a room, a desk and a working connection in one booking.
← All blog postsQuestions, answered
What is Silver Linings Cafe known for?+
Baking. The banoffee pie and the mango mangofee pie are the signatures, followed by the pancakes and the paneer, mushroom and cheese sandwich with mustard kasundi. It is also the most comfortable café in Bir to sit and work in.
Which day is Silver Linings closed?+
Wednesday, according to the listings that publish day-by-day hours and to local guides — though one large aggregator shows it open daily, so it is worth a check on the day. It otherwise runs 9 am to 7 pm.
Is Silver Linings good for working remotely?+
It is the most comfortable long-stay café in Bir — open-air seating, mountain views, moderate prices and nobody rushing you along. Just note the 7 pm close and the Wednesday closure.