Afternoon Tea at Moana Surfrider (Oahu)

Moana Surfrider is an ideal venue to experience a proper Hawaii afternoon tea. From the oceanfront Waikiki beach location, to the excellent service, and lilikoi curd and scones, afternoon tea here is a must. Here are all the details to know before you go.

Jump to:

• Afternoon Tea in Hawaii
• Afternoon Tea at Moana Surfrider
• How Afternoon Tea Works
• Afternoon Tea Menu (as of January 2025)
• Tea Selection
• Savories / Tea Sandwiches
• Scones
• Sweets, Round 1
• Sweets, Round 2
• Afternoon Tea at Moana Surfrider: Insider Tips
• Afternoon Tea at Moana Surfrider: Info
• Afternoon Tea at Moana Surfrider in 2022
• Afternoon Tea at Moana Surfrider in 2020

Afternoon Tea in Hawaii

Afternoon tea is one of my favorite pastimes and is a definite must-do when in Hawaii. There are many things that make afternoon tea in Hawaii special:

• Locations: Usually beachfront (or at least an ocean view!) and on a veranda (so you get that whole indoor/outdoor setting).
• Local influences on the food. The backbone of Hawaii afternoon tea is European, but you can see local/Asian influences throughout (eg. types of tea offered, lots of local flavors like haupia, lilikoi, and POG featured in the sweets).
• Always service with a smile. I've had afternoon tea in many places, and the hospitality and graciousness offered at the Hawaii venues can't be beat. 

See our full post covering all the afternoon tea venues in Honolulu (including Halekulani Hotel and The Kahala Hotel).

Afternoon Tea at Moana Surfrider

Out of all the afternoon tea spots in Honolulu, Moana Surfrider is the one I visit most often. Why?

Gorgeous venue.
The venue itself is beautiful. Tea is served on the open air veranda (if you're going as a party of two, ask for one of the tables fronting the beach). Moana Surfrider is one of the oldest hotels in Hawaii, and the architecture is well maintained. I love that vibe that mixes new/modern Hawaii with old/classic Hawaii. 

Great food.
The food is good. Afternoon tea food in general can be a hit or miss (many restaurants treat afternoon tea as an afterthought), but Moana Surfrider makes it a priority. They also do many themed and seasonal afternoon tea events (like the Keiki Afternoon Tea and the Timeless Afternoon Tea).

Good energy.
You don't want an afternoon tea that's too crowded or too empty. Moana Surfrider always seems to hit that sweet spot where you get the good bustling energy without feeling crowded/noisy (unless you go prime time on a weekend).

Served during lunch hours.
Tea is served during normal lunch hours! They offer afternoon tea between 11:30am-2:30pm on Saturday and Sundays which means that you can have afternoon tea for lunch which is what I like to do. At other places, you need to wait till actual afternoon (around 3 or 4pm) to have afternoon tea.

How Afternoon Tea Works

Did you make your reservation in advance? Good! Reservations are highly recommended (they might take walk-ins, but it's doubtful).

Valet your car at the Moana Surfrider - let the valet know that you're here for afternoon tea and make sure to get a parking ticket. Check in at the front of the restaurant. If you arrive early, enjoy one of the many rocking chairs located throughout the hotel. 

Once you get seated at the table, the server will ask which afternoon tea set you would like. Here are your options:

Afternoon Tea Menu (as of January 2025)

Moana Classic Tea ($73)
The standard/classic afternoon tea set. It includes all the three tiers of food (savories, scones, and sweets) and choice of tea. This is the afternoon tea option that we ordered.

First Lady Tea ($96)
This includes everything in the Moana Classic Tea, plus a glass of sparkling rose, berries with yogurt and whipped cream, and a souvenir fan.

Royal Tea ($137)
This includes everything in the Moana Classic Tea, plus a glass of sparkling rose, berries with yogurt and whipped cream, tea-infused mimosa flight, soup du jour or salad, and a Moana Surfrider omiyage gift bag.

Keiki Tea ($37, ages 12 and under only)
Nutella and banana, turkey and swiss cheese sandwich, egg salad sandwich, and sweets.

Menehune Keiki Tea ($65, ages 12 and under only)
This includes everything in the Keiki Tea, plus a milkshake, goodie bag, and Moana stuffed animal.

After deciding your afternoon tea set, the server will ask which tea you'd like to drink (more on this below).

Then all the food is presented on a three tiered set. Enjoy them in this order:

• First: savories / tea sandwiches.
• Second: scones.
• Third: sweets / desserts.
• Palate cleaner comes out at the very end.

Tea Selection

Moana Surfrider offers six tea options for afternoon tea. The teas are divide into two categories:

Moana Classic (Blended Teas):

• Hawaiian Coconut - Ceylon black with coconut nibs.
• Sweet Peach - China white tea with sweet peach.
• Passion Orange Guava - Local black tea and POG.
• Mango Pineapple - Local black tea with mango and pineapple.

Traditional (Straight Teas):

• Earl Grey
• Emerald Jasmine Pearls
• Indian Darjeeling
• Herbal Rooibos

The wooden box pictured above holds samples of the Moana Classic (Blended Teas). You're welcome to open and smell each of them so that you can get a better idea of each tea.

If you're here with a friend and can't decide on just one option, order one tea from each category and share them ^_^

Savories / Tea Sandwiches

Once you select a tea and are all settled in...it is time to eat! Eat the savories/tea sandwiches first. You'll receive five different savory items: 

• Smoked Tuna - Kabayaki kewpie, cream cheese, shichimi togarashi.
• Duck Confit Blini - Lilikoi, orange zest, mustard seed, parsley.
• Lobster croissant - Tomato harissa aioli, lemon, brown butter, frisee.
• Pea and Prosciutto Tart - Mint, lemon aioli, granted parmesan reggiano.
• Egg Salad Sandwich - Egg salad with truffles and truffle oil.

With the exception of Egg Salad Sandwich, all five savories are completely different from the 2022 afternoon tea (compare 2025 afternoon tea with 2022 and 2020 at the bottom of this post).

Scones

After you finish the savories/tea sandwiches, it is time for the scones! You get two scones per person. I really enjoy the Moana Surfrider scones. They're the ideal size and baked so that it's easy to cut in half horizontally without crumbs flying everywhere. How to eat a scone?

Put a spoonful each of the Mascarpone Cream and Lilikoi (Passion Fruit) Curd on your plate. Cut the Blueberry-Orange Scone in half horizontally.

Take the bottom half and use your knife to apply a little (or in my case, a lot) of Devonshire Cream. And then apply the Lilikoi Curd over the cream.

Eat that bottom half first. Then repeat the same step for the top half of the scone. 

Sweets, Round 1

The servers go around to keep your teapot constantly filled, but if not, I usually ask for more hot water in the teapot at this point. (You can ask for a refreshed pot with a new set of tea leaves but they will charge you for a new pot.)

Ready for the sweets? The current menu offers the following sweets:

• Haupia Roll Cake - This is a classic and always served at afternoon tea here. It's my favorite of all the tea sweets.
• Red Velvet Cream Puff - Choux pastry, vanilla bean cream cheese cream.
• Kabocha Pumpkin Tart - Graham cracker tart, kabocha cream, vanilla whip.
• Blood Orange Macaron - Blood orange jam, vanilla bean swiss buttercream.

Aside from the Haupia Roll Cake, all sweets are different from the 2022 sweets.

If you come as a party of two, they put all the sweets on a single plate. So you have three tiers: savories, scones, and sweets.

If you come as party of four, they place individual savories plate in front of you. Then the three tier stand holds: sweets plate 1, scones, and sweets plate 2.

Don't feel pressed to finish all the sweets if you are full. You can ask for extras to be boxed up for takeaway. One more dessert is coming after this ^_^

Sweets, Round 2

After they clear the table settings and three tier set, you might think afternoon tea is over. But wait!

There's one more treat coming! It's the famous Lemongrass Sorbet. This housemade sorbet has been on the menu for as long as I can remember (at least 20 years) and it's one of the most lovely parts about afternoon tea at Moana Surfrider.

The sorbet is meant to be a palate cleaner, a little refresher at the end of the afternoon tea. The lemongrass flavor is clear and bright. It always puts me in a happy mood.

P.S. If you are celebrating a birthday (make sure to let them know when you make the reservation or when you are first seated), they might also bring a beautiful box of shortbread cookies for you to take home. So thoughtful ^_^

View from one of the two beachfront tables.

Afternoon Tea at Moana Surfrider: Insider Tips

Afternoon Tea at Moana Surfrider: Info

• Afternoon tea is served at Veranda at the Beachhouse at Moana Surfrider Hotel | 2365 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu, Hawaii 96815 | (808) 921-4600
• Price: Afternoon tea starts at $60 per person
• Hours: Saturday-Sunday 11:30am-2:30pm (reservations high recommended) 

P.S. Looking for more afternoon tea? Check out afternoon tea details at The Kahala Hotel and Halekulani Hotel. Here's our complete post on Afternoon Tea in Hawaii.

Afternoon Tea at Moana Surfrider in 2022

Curious what tea at Moana Surfrider was like in 2022? Come take a look!

The entrance to The Veranda looked mostly the same...kind of neat to see the small changes over the years!

These were the afternoon tea menu options and prices:

Moana Classic Tea ($60)
The standard/classic afternoon tea set. It includes all the three tiers of food (savories, scones, and sweets) and choice of tea.

First Lady Tea ($75)
Includes everything in the Moana Classic Tea, plus a glass of sparkling rose, berries and yogurt, and a souvenir fan. This is the afternoon tea option we ordered.

Royal Tea ($120)
Includes everything in the Moana Classic Tea, plus a tea-infused mimosa flight, soup du jour or ½ salad, souvenir fan, and Moana Surfrider omiyage gift bag.

The tea options:

Moana Classic (Blended Teas):

• Hawaiian Coconut (Ceylon black with coconut nibs)
• Sweet Peach (China white tea with sweet peach)
• Passion Orange Guava (Local black tea and POG)
• Mango Pineapple (Local black tea with mango and pineapple)

Traditional (Straight Teas):

• Earl Grey
• Emerald Jasmine Pearls
• Indian Darjeeling
• Herbal Rooibos

Five different savory items:

• BMT Sandwich - Salami, turkey, ham, cheddar cheese, lettuce, truffle aioli, and cornichon on rye bread.
• Cured Salmon Rillette - Cured salmon mousse, lemon, chives, and smoked trout roe.
• Curry Kabocha Sandwich with Almonds - Curry roasted kabocha with cucumbers and toasted almonds.
• Shrimp Remoulade Croissant - Bay shrimp, lemon tarragon aioli, frisee.
• Egg Salad Sandwich - Egg salad with truffles and truffle oil.

And the scones! Two Lemon-Blueberry scones per person with Devonshire Cream and Lilikoi (Passion Fruit) Curd.

Afternoon tea sweets included:

• Haupia Roll Cake
• Panna Cotta - with strawberry coulis and fresh fruit
• Mango Mousse Cake
• Salted Caramel Macaron

And then the famous Lemongrass Sorbet palate cleanser ^_^

So that's how the afternoon tea at the Moana Surfrider looked like in 2022! Curious about what it was like in 2020? See below for a visit with my grandma (took her for her birthday!)...

Afternoon Tea at Moana Surfrider in 2020

Curious how afternoon tea at Moana Surfrider has evolved over the years? Here's what it looked like at the start of 2020:

Afternoon tea menu

Afternoon tea was priced a little less, starting at $46.

Same entrance ^_^

Seating was only on the elevated veranda deck area.

They offered six tea options presented in wooden box with tea samples and descriptions. You could sniff them all and read the descriptions. Featured teas, clockwise from top-left:

• Hawaiian Coconut (Ceylon black with coconut nibs)
• Rooibos
• White Tea Serenade (Chinese white tea)
• Jasmine Pearls
• Mangoes at the Moana (black tea scented with mango and pineapple)
• Moana Sunset (black tea scented with passion-orange-guava...also known as POG!)

Here are the savories. Aside from the egg salad in 2022, all the sandwiches were different:

• Smoked Salmon Mousse Encroute
• Surfing Goat Chevre and Fig Tart
• Lobster Salad Croissant
• Basil Pesto Almond Chicken Salad
• Truffle Egg Sandwich

Here are the scones.

All the sweets were different from the 2022 offerings. They had 6 sweets in in 2020. Clockwise from top:

• Strawberry-Guava-Yuzu Panna Cotta
• Coconut Haupia Cream Puff
• Black Sesame Macaron
• Green Tea Opera Cake
• Pistachio Apricot Tart

Lemongrass sorbet has always been on the menu.

Bonus treat for birthdays

The complimentary birthday treat was an excellent carrot cake and vanilla ice cream. I took my grandma out for her birthday on this occasion. They also gave grandma a fresh flower lei when we were first seated. ^_^

Here's a look at the full afternoon tea stand in early 2020.

It's evolved over the years, but always a beautiful and happy experience. ^_^