The Wave - Disney’s Contemporary Resort

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

From the Disney Food Blog. When The Wave first opened, most of the reviews I read were so-so, but I'm seeing more and more good ones, especially lately.

Anyone been there recently with some experiences to share?

Review: The Wave at Disney’s Contemporary Resort

Jun 18th, 2012 by AJ.

We hadn’t been back to The Wave for a couple of years, so we knew it was time to head back for dinner!

The Wave is a unique table-service spot at Disney, because their menu focuses on local and sustainable ingredients. Because of the ever-changing and seasonal local offerings, they are one of the few moderate table service restaurants I’ve encountered that changes up the menu four times per year. (Usually that’s only allowed for signature restaurants!)

Available for breakfast (which also features a buffet), lunch, and dinner, you won’t necessarily find the same dish here that you had six months ago. That can be good and bad, but it’s always an adventure to stop in and see what’s new!

Atmosphere

Located in the back left corner of the Contemporary Resort’s lobby (just past the concierge desks), you might miss The Wave altogether — except that they’ve dreamed up this groovy light tunnel for the entrance.

This gives you the feeling of heading below the waves for a culinary adventure. (Or it could also remind you of the dearly departed rainbow tunnel from the original Journey Into Your Imagination. Either way, it’s still cool.)

Wave Entry

The atmosphere is modern and contemporary, and the check-in and bar areas look a little “night-clubby,” actually! But never fear — this restaurant is very family-friendly.

Wave Check-In

You make your way around the beautiful and expansive bar as you walk to the dining area. Here, you’ll see more waves in the decor, like the backs of the comfortable bar chairs.

The bar features screw-top wines (more about that later) and fun organic local beers.

Wave Bar

As you enter the sleek dining room, the color palette changes from blue to harvest gold. Waves (amber waves of grain, perhaps?) continue to surround you, even from above.

Wave Dining Room

Although the look is decidedly modern, it maintains a comfortable feel, with padded seats and booths throughout. The finish also cleverly disguises the fact that you are actually dining in a windowless environment, with touches like the multicolored curtains. Suddenly, the “undersea” feeling makes more sense.

Wave Tables

My favorite places to sit when dining at The Wave, hands down, are these high-backed booths. Perfect for quiet conversation and very comfortable, they are my preference over the tables in the middle of the area, which can sometimes get rather loud during more crowded times.

Table at The Wave

Eats

As I mentioned above, The Wave menu focuses on American flavors, and strives to incorporate seasonal, sustainable, and local ingredients whenever possible.

It’s pretty fun, since you get to hear more about what the local farms are producing! (I always like feeling as though I “live” in Disney World, so knowing the local food production schedule is kind of fun. I know. I’m weird.)

Wave Menu - Click to Enlarge

While I didn’t sample any of the wines on this visit, a fun piece of trivia is that The Wave features a fantastic (and almost exclusive) selection of wines with screw caps. (You can read all about it in my review here!!)

As this type of closure continues to gain popularity around the world everyday, it’s fun to see such an array of quality wineries that use it gathered in one place.

Wave Drink Menu - Click to Enlarge

We were visiting for dinner, so my friend opted to start with the Organic Beer Flight. This featured three samplings of Orlando Brewing Certified Organic Ales — a blonde, pale, and brown ale. He pronounced all of them very good.

I also love the presentation here, with the etched, stemless glasses. Nice detail.

Organic Beer Flight

The complimentary bread service is anything but ordinary. It features the Wave’s signature — and delicious — multi-grain bread accompanied by butter, sprinkled with pink sea salt.

Bread and Salted Butter

When it came time to order, we decided to take a somewhat light approach for our appetizers. My dinner companion opted for The Wave Spring Salad.

The dressed-up dinner salad included locally-grown greens, mango, fennel, and shelled soybeans, and featured wonton strips and a sesame-ginger vinaigrette. It was very good, but the color was the real wow factor.

The Wave Spring Salad

As soon as I saw a soup featuring corn on the menu, I knew what I’d be having for a starter. (I think I need to do a “Corn Soup” round-up here one of these days…I love that stuff!) The Zellwood, Florida Corn Soup with Applewood-smoked Bacon was outstanding! Savory-sweet with that punch from the bacon — awesome!

Zellwood, Florida Corn Soup with Applewood-smoked Bacon

This is not your standard corn chowder, with its less-yellow-more-orange hue. But the flavors were a perfect balance of creamy, smoky, and rich, without being heavy. I also LOVED the zippy jalapeño cornbread that accompanied the soup. And as you know, anytime I can have corn soup and cornbread, I will be in heaven!

Soon, it was time to turn our attention to our entrees. I was in the mood for steak, so I chose the Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Shallot Butter, Potatoes, and Spring Ratatouille. Something to note here: the portion wasn’t as HUGE as I am accustom to getting in Disney, but I found it to be just perfect.

Everything on the plate was well-prepared, thoughtful, and delicious. My steak was cooked to perfection, and that shallot butter was fantastic!

The ratatouille was surprisingly flavorful, and the mashed potatoes were a nice textural addition. One of my favorite weird food habits: mixing the ratatouille with the mashed potatoes. I do this at the Cheesecake Factory, too, with the corn succotash and mashed taters. Again…weird.

Grilled Beef Tenderloin

By the way, it looks like the steak may be served with a potato gateau now based on the menu. You can probably swap out mash if you’d prefer.

My friend chose the Locally-sourced Thompson Farms Pork Tenderloin, a selection he made based upon our wonderful server’s suggestion. She just loves the bread salad, and she was sure we would love it as well. The dish also featured Bourbon-grilled Florida peaches. (Sounds yum, right?)

While cooking pork well isn’t always an easy thing to do, the kitchen staff at The Wave did a great job. It might be a testament to the superiority of the meat, but it was perfectly prepared and not in the least bit dry.

The bread salad was an unusual and delicious side dish…and I totally could have eaten a million more of those grilled peaches. More grilled peaches, please, WAVE! (Yes…I stole them from my friend’s plate.)

Locally-sourced Thompson Farms Pork Tenderloin

After our delicious entrees, we had a peek at the dessert menu. They do something really fun here at The Wave: although there are only four dessert offerings, they all feature trios, so you get to try multiple flavors with every selection.

I also love the fact that they offer pots of loose leaf tea, generous enough for two to share. There are also organic coffee selections. Both are really lovely touches that, once again, set this spot apart.

Wave Dessert Menu - Click to Enlarge

I chose the American Flavors trio, which featured, from right to left, a Coconut Raspberry Bar with Roasted Pineapples; S’mores with a Housemade Vanilla Bean Marshmallow; and the Key Lime Cube with Citrus Cream. They were all incredibly good. The key lime was my favorite (you’re not surprised). With a pucker worthy of its name, it was delightfully sour.

The s’more was fantastic as well. It may look a little burnt, but it was exactly right, and the vanilla bean flavor definitely came through…these were not grocery-store marshmallows to be sure!

Of the three, I liked the coconut-raspberry bar the least, but even so, the sticky coconut was very good. It just paled in comparison with the other two.

American Flavors Trio

Our other choice was the Creamy Indulgence, a trio which featured Vanilla Cheesecake with Florida Strawberries (although they were substituting raspberries during our visit); White Chocolate Crème Brûlée; and Olive Oil-Infused Chocolate Truffle Mousse with Salted Caramel Sauce. Wow!

There are so many things to mention here that are just delightful. For starters, this is one of the few places at Disney World that you will find the hotter-than-hot trend of macarons, which garnish the tasty crème brûlée (chefs tell us the humidity makes a mess of them in Florida, but these were great).

Also, the chocolate mousse is a favorite that has been around for a while, and is certainly unique with the addition of olive oil. It’s a great example of where The Wave has been ahead of the trend: salted caramel is popping up all over the place these days, but this was one of the first places that we sampled the delightful sweet-salty combo a year or two ago.

Creamy Indulgence Trio

Overall

The Wave is a solid contender for a mid-priced Disney World restaurant. While it’s not themed to the hilt and doesn’t offer characters, it does provide a consistently good meal and decent service for any time of day. And when my mantra is “The only consistent thing about Disney Restaurants is that they’re inconsistent,” an always-quality spot like this is golden.

Another great part of the Wave: the staff here knows their stuff. Chefs and servers are incredibly knowledgeable about the menu and the local produce, so you can usually rely on their recommendations.

While it remains a terrific choice for a fall back meal — it’s normally pretty easy to get a last-minute ADR here — I think The Wave should be moved up to a first-choice option for many folks. I always enjoy myself when dining at The Wave. This time was no exception.

Have you had the chance to dine at The Wave? Is this a spot that you would like to try on your next visit? Share with us your thoughts below!

http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2012/06/18/review-the-wave-at-disneys-contemporary-resort/

[DisneyMaMaLizabeth 2]

We went to the Wave first of the month and we were really impressed. I had heard alot of mixed reviews, but I'm willing to try any restaurant at Disney at least once. I had the lamb shank, DH had the tenderloin and DD's each had the Penne Pasta. All were excellent. My oldest did say that the sauce on the pasta was really spicy to her but had great flavor, the younger ordered hers without sauce. The lamb and tenderloin were cooked perfect. Both meats were very tender. The service was really good as well. Our server was very knowledgable of the offerings and made suggestions to us in selecting our meals. Really overall, I made a point to observe the staff and they all seemed to be friendly and attentive. Finally the dessert sampler was great. We all ended up getting the creamy indulgence and it was very good as well.It wasn't one of the more "crazy" Disney restaurants so it was more laid back. We will definitely make it a point to come here again, especially with its close proximity to the fort. That really made it nice.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

I like the Wave, but Rick doesn't, (the steak isn't big enough)

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Thanks DisneyMaMaLizabeth! I really am leaning towards trying this place next trip.

Laid back and close to the Fort are two big pluses in my book!

[DisneyMaMaLizabeth 2]

I'm picky about my steaks too !

[CKCK 45]

DW is wanting to try this place.

Interesting also that they only serve screw top wines.

[Family of Bears 98]

Yes!! The bison burger is insanely good!! There is a three cheese sauce on it and I had the couscous on the side which was great. Rick got the potato wedges which were huge and good too.

***The bison burger is served at lunch with the toppings. At dinner, it is not on the menu but they will serve it, however it comes out plain. Don't bother. Go for lunch to get it ****

The other MUST do is the key lime martini. The glass is rimmed in graham cracker crumbs. So good. I wrote about all this in my real time dining recommendations from my last trip. Can't wait to go back during our 4th trip.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Anyone been here for the breakfast buffet? It looks good.

[Family of Bears 98]

Gwen, we did breakfast. Rick did the buffet, he enjoyed it very much. I got the egg white frittata. It was great. After the key lime martini success, I think im gonna have to go back b/c the eggs benedict has key lime sauce on it. Yum! Oh, and the feta and egg scramble. The wave may very well be one of my favs :)

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Thanks, Brandy. We're gonna have to try it.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I like the Wave, but Rick doesn't, (the steak isn't big enough)

Is that the $29 steak listed on the menu?

And then (like everyplace else at WDW) they charge six bucks for a beer?

I'll pass.

TCD

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Is that the $29 steak listed on the menu?

And then (like everyplace else at WDW) they charge six bucks for a beer?

I'll pass.

TCD

Yep, and it's only like 4 oz!!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Yep, and it's only like 4 oz!!

Classic.

Brandy, If you are still reading along, how much is one of those Bison Burgers at lunch time?

TCD

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Hey there mister, dontcha know we have that information already posted?

http://www.fortfiends.net/_/dining/restaurants-and-menus/menu-the-wave-disneys-contemporary-resort-r44

Bison Burger on the lunch menu is $14.49

"with Salsa Verde and Three Cheese Spread served with choice of Bulger Wheat Salad or roasted Potato Wedges"

fwiw, they recommend Orlando Brewing Company Blonde Ale to go with it

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Thanks, Monique.

I should have looked- good job on having that menu posted.

I guess I am not going to eat a Bison Burger.

I'm sorry, but $15 for a burger makes me loose my appetite.

TCD

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

And actually the price of bison has jumped a lot lately. I buy it at home and recently the price per pound has gone from about $5.99 to close to $10.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

And actually the price of bison has jumped a lot lately. I buy it at home and recently the price per pound has gone from about $5.99 to close to $10.

The price of beef has increased a lot lately too.

TCD

[Family of Bears 98]

Ya, totally worth the 15. It is really big and the salsa verde and cheese sauce are top notch. Rick is a huuuuuuge eater, and I bet we could split it for lunch. Between half the burger and the side (and the key lime martini), it would be enough for two. I pay 12$ for a bison burger here at home and that does not include sides or toppings. Bison is better for you, but it is pricey!

[PureTcrazy...rita 380]

I absolutely adored the Popcorn Gelato at the Wave!

[Starbuc71 162]

I put a post here somewhere about 8 months ago and I still believe the same thing today. being a former chef, this is not worth the price for what they give you. the mark up is insane, the portion sizes are tiny, the bread at the table is horrible and the with the desserts your paying for the presentation and definatly not the dessert. Pudding and mousses are one of the cheapest desserts but you can make a cash cow out of them. We went twice and was dissapointed both times with the food and the last time the service was horibble. never again. Spent a little less at trails end and went away full and a little richer

[PureTcrazy...rita 380]

I put a post here somewhere about 8 months ago and I still believe the same thing today. being a former chef, this is not worth the price for what they give you. the mark up is insane, the portion sizes are tiny, the bread at the table is horrible and the with the desserts your paying for the presentation and definatly not the dessert. Pudding and mousses are one of the cheapest desserts but you can make a cash cow out of them. We went twice and was dissapointed both times with the food and the last time the service was horibble. never again. Spent a little less at trails end and went away full and a little richer

I remember your former post. I imagine that no restaurant is "worth" the money we pay. We pay for the ambience, the presentation, the service and the food. I am on vacation at WDW where everything is ridiculously priced. When I am on vacation I like to eat out. I am an excellent cook and we like to prepare food at our site as well. I think Trail's End Buffet is ridiculously priced for fried chicken and ribs. It is loud and it is food that you would eat at home, but not prepared near as well as I would prepare it. We don't even have restaurants in our area, we have one local restaurant that serves WAY better fried chicken along with other meats and veggies and salad bar and tea for $6.99. Going by your guidelines ALL restaurants are overpriced and unworthy of our patronage. i loved the cheap gelato they served. I would never have that at home and I don't have any problem paying for it when I am on vacation even if it is over-priced pudding.

My Daddy used to say, "Difference in opinions is what gets poor land sold and ugly women married." I guess in this case it also gets well-prepared small portions of overpriced food beautifully arranged on my plate and brought to me by an excellent server in a beautiful restaurant!

[Starbuc71 162]

I remember your former post. I imagine that no restaurant is "worth" the money we pay. We pay for the ambience, the presentation, the service and the food. I am on vacation at WDW where everything is ridiculously priced. When I am on vacation I like to eat out. I am an excellent cook and we like to prepare food at our site as well. I think Trail's End Buffet is ridiculously priced for fried chicken and ribs. It is loud and it is food that you would eat at home, but not prepared near as well as I would prepare it. We don't even have restaurants in our area, we have one local restaurant that serves WAY better fried chicken along with other meats and veggies and salad bar and tea for $6.99. Going by your guidelines ALL restaurants are overpriced and unworthy of our patronage. i loved the cheap gelato they served. I would never have that at home and I don't have any problem paying for it when I am on vacation even if it is over-priced pudding.

My Daddy used to say, "Difference in opinions is what gets poor land sold and ugly women married." I guess in this case it also gets well-prepared small portions of overpriced food beautifully arranged on my plate and brought to me by an excellent server in a beautiful restaurant!

I will agree with you for the most part. Every once in a while, and I mean once in a while, you will find something very good and reasonably priced somewhere at Disney. Very rare but sometimes. I understand the whole vacation thing and splurging at different Disney places ( we do the same), but the wave imho is a sheep in wolves clothing. I guess if someone is not used to fine dining and and the "art of culinary" that they are trying to pawn off, the place would feel real nice. My wife hates when we go out to eat because I critique everything from the waiter, to the taste, presentation, value, ingedience, use of color, worth the money, cheap product, etc. It sucks being in the food business for so long. It never leaves your blood :)