WOC Dinner at Ariel's Grotto or Trattoria?

[jessredrabbit]

Hello everyone, I need your help. My boyfriend and I are going to Disneyland this July. I haven't been for a little over a year and he hasn't been for almost 20 years. haha. Anyway, we are planning to see the WOC and want to do one of the dinner options. I know the picnic lunches are more reasonable but we figure we have to eat dinner anyway so why not.

My dilemma is this. I've been to Ariel's several times. I like it, granted you are eating in a theme park so you can't expect "Napa Rose" quality food but it's pretty good. However, my boyfriend is a major foodie and I want him to enjoy his meal too. The Trattoria seems to have a menu that better suits his tastes, but the last time I was there (before they remodeled) it was horrible. Has anyone been to the Trattoria lately and if so, has it improved? Which resturant should I choose to make reservations for?

Please note, I haven't been to Ariel's in about two years so I haven't tried the dishes that are currently on the menu.

Thanks!

 

[skiingfast]

I would look at the menus for each restaurant. The WoC dinners are prix fixe and not the same as the regular menus. Opinions are so different on these dinners that it would be really hard to qualify one as better.

AG WoC menu

WCT WoC menu

 

[nunzia]

We did WCT and really enjoyed it.

 

[PinkBudgie]

We did Ariel's and my whole family loved it. I picked it and even my teen boys really enjoyed it. (They weren't expecting to) I suppose it depends on what kind of food you like. I like Italian but it isn't my favorite and often seems over priced to me. I liked the choices at Ariels better so that's where we went. We sat outside on the deck overlooking the lake and it was so pretty and relaxing.

 

[lwilkison]

Hello everyone, I need your help. My boyfriend and I are going to Disneyland this July. I haven't been for a little over a year and he hasn't been for almost 20 years. haha. Anyway, we are planning to see the WOC and want to do one of the dinner options. I know the picnic lunches are more reasonable but we figure we have to eat dinner anyway so why not.

My dilemma is this. I've been to Ariel's several times. I like it, granted you are eating in a theme park so you can't expect "Napa Rose" quality food but it's pretty good. However, my boyfriend is a major foodie and I want him to enjoy his meal too. The Trattoria seems to have a menu that better suits his tastes, but the last time I was there (before they remodeled) it was horrible. Has anyone been to the Trattoria lately and if so, has it improved? Which resturant should I choose to make reservations for?

Please note, I haven't been to Ariel's in about two years so I haven't tried the dishes that are currently on the menu.

Thanks!

We did both Ariel's and "Napa Rose" and both were nice I found the quality of the food from the Trattoria way better...we did the picnic. It was delicious.

I think I would only recommend Ariel's for character meals...we did the breakfast and they charged my daughter when they weren't suppose to so I was kind of upset...another $20 that I wasn't expecting when I called I was told there was no charge for her. Oh well, c'est la vie!

With the lunch you can pick it up anytime after 11am I think it is and there is seating right at the Trattoria...or dinner there I am sure would be super nice!

Hmm, sorry about "wishy-washy" review...it is Disney and everything is touched by their "magic"

Have a great trip

 

[DlandAmanda]

I didn't know they changed the food at WCT, might give it another shot.

We just did Ariel's Grotto on 4/7 for the WOC. We had eaten at WCT about 2 years ago and it was bad, so that's why we chose Ariel's. Food was great, service was great, desserts were AMAZING. I had the Tri-tip, my husband the Cioppino, and my Mom had the Redfish, we all enjoyed our food very much (not Napa Rose, hehehe, but still very delicious.)

 

[jessredrabbit]

Thank you to everyone. I think I'm going to stick with Ariel's. Got to love the view and the desserts!

 

[jacs1234]

We ate at the Wine country Tratoria at Christmas time and I really enjoyed my meal there. We had the princess meal at Ariels (before WOC) and I really didn't enjoy that meal.

So for me, I'd choose WCT.

 

[starry_solo]

Just came back from 5 nights at VGC and the last night we were there, we did Wine Country Trattoria.

As the first reply said, it depends on the menu and what you like to eat. There were 3 of us so we each had something different.

I had the Roasted Beef Tenderloins (melt in your mouth!). DS had the fish of the day (which was halibut) and DF had the herb crusted chicken. Then we each had a bit of each other's

If I can figure out how to post pictures...

 

[jessredrabbit]

So it was good? Awesome, because the menu looked really yummy. Posting pictures would be appreciated as well.. did you do the WOC dinner package? And if so, how was the preferred viewing and how early do you really need to get there? Thanks

 

[pixiewings71]

You know....I would go with AG, I've eaten off the newer menu quite a few times and OMG it's soooooooooooooooo good!!!! I highly recommend AG! That said, I have not eaten at the WCT with the new menu, when we did eat there we did not enjoy it much at all.

 

[starry_solo]

So it was good? Awesome, because the menu looked really yummy. Posting pictures would be appreciated as well.. did you do the WOC dinner package? And if so, how was the preferred viewing and how early do you really need to get there? Thanks

It was yummy! I'm downloading the pictures onto the hard drive now and just have to figure out how to upload them here (is it photobucket?).

We got to the waiting area at about 9:30 p.m. (it said to be there no later than 10 p.m. for the 10:15 p.m. show). I think we waited maybe 10-15 minutes before the energetic cast member with her waving flag escorted us to the WOC viewing area. We were off to the left/middle area (I didn't take a picture of that, sorry!)

 

[oc_tony]

We've done AG and WCT, and while we enjoyed both, we liked the food at AG better. I wrote a DIS blog on our experience with the WoC package for WCT, so click here if you are interested in reading about it. It includes food pictures.

 

[starry_solo]

Wow, your beef tenderloins look different than mine did. I still can't figure out how to upload pics here so I will be using winkflash. User name there is starjedi.

so its starjedi dot winkflash dot com.