Disneyland Dining (Day 2 Part II) -- Lunch with the princeses

We've been to countless meals with princesses that I wasn't really looking forward to another one.  However, with the limited sitdown dining at California Adventure Park we decided to enjoy another princess meal at Ariel's Grotto.  I did discover my girls are still into characters meals.  The restaurant is located on the water front over looking the Big Mickey wheel.  When I originally, made our reservations I was told that we'd be sitting outside, turns out that we had a nice table inside as it was very chilly outside.  Anyways, the restuarant is two stories.  You check-in upstairs and then when your name is called you walk down to stand in line to take a picture with Ariel.   You can purchase the photo of Ariel for a fee but I decided not to even though my picture didn't come out great.

Once at our table they immediately took our drink orders and brought out the first course.  The first course was three trays of what they called their antipasti tower.

Sorry for the bad photo but the sun was shining very brightly where we were sitting. 

The top tray had "jewels of the Sea" fruit Gelatin.  My girls thought this was weird as we really don't eat jello in my family.  There were also some watermelon trianagles.

The middle level had salami (the girls wanted more though); marinated mozzerella, string cheese, cherry tomatoes, gherkins (which prompted my husband to ask why we never have these at home), olives, red pepper bracelets and carrots, celery.  They had dipping sauces for the chilled veggies.

The dipping tray had pesto and ranch dips with butter in the middle for the cute flower shaped bread.

The bottom plate was mixed green salad served with Ariel's Grotto house vinaigrette.   This was a little bland to us so I mixed in some pesto and added the cherry tomatoes to my salad.

There were 3 princesses that came around to our table:  Aurora, Snow White and Cinderella.  We discovered our oldest still enjoys getting autographs and her picture with the princesses. 

For the main course, my husband and I ordered the Santa Maria Style Tri-tip served with cheddar cheese mashed potatoes and vegetables.

I LOVE IT when I get a big plate of vegetables with my meal.  It was very good.  I was surprised on how good the tri-tip was.   The tri-tip was served with a salsa that was VERY good.   The potatoes were equally delicious.  I almost couldn't finish my meal.

The girls both ordered the Mafalde Pasta with Italian Sausage-- Curly ribbons of pasta tossed in a Piemonte-style ragu with spicy Italian sausage, sauteed bell peppers and sweet onions. 

They seemed to enjoy this but told me later it wasn't as good as the pasta in Epcot. 

For dessert they brought out a small tray of items to share.

The tray had meringue cookies, a white chocolate conch shell, fresh fruit, smore bites (which were delicious), lava cake and chocolate chip cookie strips.   It was perfect for a great ending as it wasn't too  much food.

Would we go here again?  You bet!!!  It was a great place for a nice meal.

Coming up next:  The worst meal of the trip....  Was it worth it???