Low Tea at the Stage's Lime Lounge

I love to relax with afternoon tea.  There’s just something so charming about enjoying sweets and savories while sipping on fragrant tea.  Stage Restaurant in the Honolulu Design Center now serves Low Tea in their Lime Lounge.  Low Tea is typically served on low-sitting tables, offered during the afternoon to satiate your appetite before dinner.  While I think having tea on low sitting tables, like at the Kahala Veranda is very lady like and intimate, I rather enjoy tea seated at a dining table.  I think it’s more spacious and comfortable and I don’t have to worry about keeping my legs crossed the entire time.  But I digress.   

Stage currently offers their Low Tea service on Wednesdays with seating at 2:30pm and 3:00pm and beginning October 11, 2014 will offer Low Tea on Saturdays with seating beginning at 11:30am.  The cost for the Low Tea service is $38.95 per person and you can upgrade to the Tea Royale which includes champagne for $54.95 per person. 

The Low Tea offers 6 selections of tea which includes offerings of black tea, oolong tea, green tea and white tea.  If you would like a truly decaffeinated tea, ask for the Lemon-Mamaki which is an herbal tea they serve at the restaurant.  I selected a white tea named White Mischief, a blend of pomegranate and guava.  The aroma was subtle, but sweet and I enjoyed the fruity notes in the hot tea. 

We started with the assorted tea sandwiches which included wasabi crab with bacon and avocado, black truffle egg salad, madras curry chicken with apples and currants, prosciutto & brie pâte à choux, cucumber "namasu" sandwich with dill cream, and a cured salmon pastry puff.  My favorites were the curry chicken and the truffle egg salad, but all the bite sized sandwiches were delightful.  

The petite sweets that were offered were a chocolate decadence cake, Greek yogurt panna cotta with oatmeal crumble & mixed berry coulis, vanilla bean cookie butter macaron, and honey lavender crème brulée.  I really enjoyed the crème brulee and the macaron.  

The sweets were accompanied by very delicious cranberry scones served with devonshire cream, lilikoi-yuzu Curd, and orange apricot marmalade.  It’s a good thing they are generous with the scones because I ate more than my share. 

Although the late afternoon time slot makes attending the tea a little difficult, the menu and the girl talk were well worth taking a couple hours of vacation time.  Glad to see they will be serving the tea on the weekends later this month.  I think they should also consider adding a non-caffeinated tea to the menu as well as offering an iced tea variation.