Dining Review: The Wave

The Wave (… of American Flavors) is a table service restaurant located on the bottom floor of Disney’s Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World. The restaurant specialized in “new American cuisine inspired by a passion for locally and regionally sourced ingredients.”

The Wave is one of the easiest reservations to score in all of WDW and we feel its a bit underrated. Of course, most of the dining hype at the Contemporary revolves around California Grill (and deservedly so… its fantastic), however for those looking for a a more budget friendly option, The Wave is a great choice!

The entrance is designed to look like a wave crashing on the shore.

Upon checking in, you will be asked to have a seat in the lounge while you wait to be called. Note: The “Highway in the Sky” monorail loop dining package begins here each night. If your reservation time lines up with that, the lounge area can get pretty crowded.

Most of the time however, you can enjoy the cool blue lighting of the lounge in peace. Straight ahead is the restaurant’s bar; a great place to hang out after a hot afternoon at the Magic Kingdom!

The restaurant itself is fairly light on theme. While the entrance and lounge seem to indicate the “wave” refers to the ocean, inside the dining room is more of an “amber waves of grain” design.

While the atmosphere is pleasant enough, there is certainly nothing spectacular about it. There are no windows which gives it a little bit of a basement vibe.

Here is a look at the current dinner menu as of June 2019:

The restaurant also serves breakfast as well, including a buffet which we’ve heard good things about.

The meal begins with one of the better bread services on property. Its a nice fresh multi-grain; served hot and with sea salted butter. This is the same yummy butter served upstairs at California Grill.

For an appetizer, I decided to try the $14 “Bacon and Eggs”.

The “bacon” here is actually pork belly and it was delicious! The “eggs” is actually one egg served over smoked cheddar grits and it was equally tasty. This is a really great appetizer all around!

Here is the $34 Beef Tenderloin Entree, served with potato gratin and grilled asparagus.

The meat was cooked perfectly and was incredibly tender. It’s smothered in a yummy red wine reduction. The sides were both quite good as well.

The $49 filet of beef served at California grill is one of the best steaks served on property. While this does not quite live up to that cut of meat, its still really good and $15 cheaper. It’s also only 1 dp credit (opposed to 2 at CG) which makes it a great option if you are on the dining plan!

Other dishes we’ve tried are equally impressive. Above is the $25 pork tenderloin. Its still hard for me to eat medium rare pork with peace of mind (I’ve never gotten sick from it but I was raised being told pink pork is bad!), but it’s worth it for the wonderful flavors. The apricot glaze here is out of this world!

Overall, we are big fans of the wave. No, its not as exciting a night out as the California Grill is upstairs, but its still a great option in it’s own right. It serves quality food at reasonable prices, and is one of the easiest restaurants to secure a table at.