Lighter Options from The Wave for Lunch

When it comes to meals at Disney, there’s often a tendency to over-indulge. Who can blame people for wanting to do that? The food is delicious! Sometimes you may just want a lighter meal, however. The Wave, over at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, offers food with fresh and healthy twists.

Generally, if I’m looking to eat healthy, I quickly skim by the appetizer section, but there are some stand-out items on the appetizer for The Wave that actually make a solid meal choice that isn’t all fried foods. For my “meal”, I chose the Cauliflower Taco plant-based option and the Pozole Soup. My husband went with the plant-based Tikka Masala with tofu. We ordered our food for carry-out and had no trouble driving to the Contemporary, parking, and getting our meal to take home. The item was checked, bagged up, and sealed ready for us when we arrived.

As someone with a soy allergy, it is rare that I get to enjoy a plant-based option at most restaurants that isn’t a salad, so I was excited about the cauliflower tacos. What really struck me about the dish is how colorful it was, with the use of purple cauliflower contrasting nicely with the flour tortilla. The avocado (not mentioned in the menu description) also added some color, plus some necessary creaminess that you’d normally get with sour cream and cheese. The salsa verde added a very subtle bit of heat — these were not spicy by any stretch of the imagination, but they were flavorful.

The serving was two tacos, but since they were vegetable-based, I found that they weren’t as filling as a meat-based taco would have been. I was thankful to get the pozole soup to go with because of that, and also because it was delicious. As someone who tolerates, but isn’t a fan, of avocado, it took me several minutes of waffling about whether or not to get an “avocado-based” soup. But since it had come highly recommended by Len, I gave it a shot. Simply put, I will order this every time I go if it is on the menu, and I’ll order a second one for lunch the next day. The soup had such a great flavor — tangy, not spicy — with chicken outnumbering the hominy by 2:1. Forget your grandma’s chicken soup, this is the soup that I’d want if I’m feeling under the weather!  My only gripe is that the portion size is really small for the price. As you can see from the picture below, the container itself was only about 3/4 full.

My husband ordered the plant-based tikka masala, which came with tofu. The sauce was rich and well-flavored, and the carrots and purple cauliflower added some interesting color. Even packaged to go, the dish was beautifully presented and a decent portion size. Because of the texture, the tofu in the dish was similar to paneer, especially if you are lucky enough to have your favorite Indian place sear the paneer before mixing it in the sauce.

Without a doubt, we’d order these foods again — they made a pleasant lunch and something out of the ordinary from our typical theme park dining.

Have you eaten at The Wave for lunch? Do these foods look good, whether you’re a plant-based dining fan or a dedicated omnivore? Let us know what you think in the comments.