Where: Calabash, North Carolina Style: Forest Cottage Tea Selection: 60+ loose leaf teas Teatimes: Wednesday to Saturday 11:30 or 1:30 Reservations: 24-hour notice Contact: 910-579-9500 Cost:$25.20 Ultimate Tea; $21.95 Light Tea; $12.95 Children’s Tea (ages 4 to 9); Cream Tea Destination Tea Tip: This popular tearoom has three cozy dining rooms, which can be reserved in their entirety for a group affair, so we recommend reserving your teatime here well in advance.
Destination Tea Notes: Your attention please, afternoon tea lovers, for it is time for us to gush! If you are remotely close to Calabash Garden Tea Room at any point in your foreseeable future, do not miss afternoon tea here. It is not often we issue imperatives like this, but hostess Kathy Cody is in a class all her own, applying her background in catering to craft one of the top afternoon tea menus we have ever had. She says that she puts “a lot of detail and a lot of love” into her made-fresh-daily and seasonally changing scones, savories and sweets, and we can confirm, we felt the love! It is very rare to be enamored of every morsel served on the curate (three-tier tray), but here, in this fairytale cottage, afternoon tea dreams become reality.
Floral patterns, hearts and frills abound inside the tearoom. We loved having a dining room to ourselves.
Fresh flowers make a beautiful centerpiece.
Tea Service
Mix-n-match china with tea napkin and a teapot warmer are arranged at each setting.
Endless combinations create a unique place setting for each guest.
Our server was an expert in Calabash’s extensive tea list, helping us each pick a favorite.
While our teas are brewing, we are invited to choose our tea hats from this generous display.
Every guest selects her own pot of tea or a glass of refreshing iced tea.
Scones & Spreads, Savories and Sweets
The first course is a light and flavorful summer salad with mandarins, tomatoes and vinaigrette.
Our curate’s arrival puts smiles on our faces. As our server presents one scrumptious item after the next, we prepare to feast!
Our first plate of savories includes marbled rounds with smoked salmon and capers, horseradish roast beef on whole wheat and phyllo cups with pecan chicken salad, all fabulous.
A second plate of sandwiches includes cucumber radish with dill and cracked black pepper, Kahlua maple walnut cream on blueberry swirl triangles (wow), ham salad with honey mustard hearts (yum), deconstructed summer BLT and satin ribbon-tied apricot pecan sandwiches.
Generously sized scones are the perfect consistency, served with cream and homemade lemon curd – so good!
Dessert includes black and blue fruit skewers with olive oil and thyme, dark chocolate cupcakes with raspberry buttercream frosting, chocolate dipped strawberries and the standout: fig halves dipped in white chocolate and pistachios. We appreciate that desserts here have savory elements to balance the sweetness of this course, a lovely finish to an excellent meal.
We love comments! Destination Tea's comment policy shares a guiding principle with afternoon tea etiquette: please be gracious. We welcome honest comments that are not rude or scathing.
The photos are so vivid I can actually “taste” the food and smell the roses.
Thank you! I know you would have loved it here.
This is absolutely wonderful. Tea & brunch, my favorites.