Dive in to Delicious Eats at The Wave... of American Flavors

As a family we like to try to things – try new foods, visit new places, and on our trips to Disney World we even combine the two by attempting to try new restaurants on every trip. On our last trip we were able to try three new places! One of those places was The Wave… of American Flavors at the Contemporary Resort.

The Wave is located on the first floor of the Contemporary Resort. As the name implies it has a bit of an ocean feel to it. The entrance to the restaurant, located to the right of the resort check-in desks, gives you the feel of going under the water. The waiting area and the lounge are full of dark blue seating and are dimly lit – adding to the ocean feel. Inside the dining room the sculpture-like metal near the ceiling and the backs of the chair also carry on the wave and ocean theme.

We’ve covered the Wave portion, now let’s talk about the American flavors. The menu features a great selection of appetizers, entrees and desserts all based on the great flavors of America.

We sampled three different appetizers at our table.

The Seasonal Soup during January was Tukey Pot Pie Soup. Imagine turkey pot pie, lots of turkey, veggies and creamy gravy. Now imagine that as a soup! The soup was creamy, full of great turkey flavor and lots of veggies. It was delicious.

Bacon and Eggs – sounds weird on a dinner menu, right? This dish is amazing. Cheesy Tillamook Smoked Cheddar Grits topped with a perfect poached egg and served with maple-lacquered pork belly. The flavors are all perfect together – all of your favorite breakfast items with the volume turned up and served at dinner.

We also ordered the Caesar Salad. Crispy fresh lettuce topped with rich brown butter croutons, shaved Pecorino Romano and buttermilk Caesar dressing. If you’re a Caesar fan, you’ll enjoy this salad.

Our party branched out slightly more when it came to the entrees by ordering four different once.

The Seared Potato Gnocchi is warm, light, fluffy pillows of potato-y goodness. It is served with sweet butternut squash, mushrooms, rainbow Swiss Chard and a nutty, buttery and creamy Brown Butter-Parmesan-Sage Cream. This dish is decadent and delicious.

Tender Grilled Beef Tenderloin – yum. The beef is served with, and placed on top of creamy, buttery, cheesy Cheddar Mash. Glazed root vegetables, which on this occasion were Brussel sprouts, onions and parsnips are served on the side and provide a nice slight freshness, but also have a nice char to them. The dish is accompanied by a rich red wine reduction.

Steak, what’s more American than that? The Grilled Rib-Eye has great grill marks and grilled flavor that pairs well with the Port reduction that comes with it. Creamy, smoky Smoked Tillamook Mac and Cheese and seasonal vegetables are served alongside the steak.  

We also tried the Seared Sea Scallops. Scallops so incredibly easy to mess up, but these were perfect. Light seared scallops served on top of creamy butternut squash risotto, roasted Salsify and an Autumn vegetable nage.

No meal, at least at Disney, is complete without dessert. The desserts at the Wave are layered and served in glasses and only take a few bites to eat. We tried four different ones.

Firs was the German Chocolate Cake. Chocolate cake, topped with a coconut cream, chocolate mousse, chocolate ganache and shaved coconut.

The Apple Cobbler is served warm, as every great apple dessert is. Sweet, soft apples topped with a crumble topping and creamy, sweet caramel ice cream.

The Bananas Foster is layers of cake, banana cream and bruleed, sugary, saucy bananas. Yum!

Chocolate and peanut butter are the perfect combination, aren’t they? Chocolate, chocolate, whipped cream and peanut butter cake may just make the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake the perfect dessert.

Everyone at the table, all eight of us, enjoyed every bit of our meal. The Wave is a great little place with great service and great food. It was the perfect place to have dinner on the first night of our trip. We highly recommend, that if you have the chance, that you check out The Wave… of American Flavors on your next trip to the Walt Disney World Resort.

Ready to start planning your next trip? I’d be happy to help! Contact me at miriyawhitaker@worldofmagictravel.com to get started and for more Disney and travel information feel free to follow me on Facebook.