Restaurant claimed to be wheelchair accessible

[MobilityCat]

Last night I went out for a meal with friends. I first called the restaurant and asked if it was wheelchair friendly and they said it was.
When I arrived I found that there was a step at the entrance so I waited until someone came to the door.
They asked me if I had a reservation and I said yes.
They took me along the pavement and around the corner, then down a dark lane then asked me to wait while they cleared four large metal bins away from a path lead to the restaurant back entrance.
I then entered the door into the kitchen and navigated through it into the restaurant.
Considering that it was a single step at the front of of the restaurant the could have provided a little portable ramp. After my meal I had to go out the same way and It didn't feel at all wheelchair friendly.

Leave them some factually accurate reviews. Everywhere.

Disgusting. Name and Shame.

Definitely not accessible. Complain, and loudly.

Warn people about it on Trustpilot and similar

I posted this on their website review page

For it to be accessible, in my mind, you'd need to be able to access it independently, which being taken down an alley and through the kitchen is very much not. Good on you for posting a review.

If they had to move the bins, it probably won't be safe in an evacuation.

Good point, I had to wait a couple of minutes both coming and going as they appeared to be quite heavy to move.

Its not accessible, but its also important to realise most people dont understand accessibility. If they've seen one person in a manual chair be helped up the step they will think thats fine and wont realise another type of wheelchair cannot do that.

So for your own peace of mind i would ask more specific questions next time- is the main entrance a step free access, is there a ramp etc

I'd love to know which idiots think you are being unreasonable.

Probably the able-bodied ones who never have to think about it.

Well I'm able bodied and it took me precisely 0 seconds post reading the OP to know it was outrageous.

YANBU. I was staying at a hotel a few years back, where one of the guests was being carried up and down the entrance steps by her family. With her wheelchair being taken up by another family member.

I got chatting to her one evening, and she said that her family booked a break as a surprise and had called before booking to see if the hotel was wheelchair accessible. Only to find when they got there that it wasn't, because the chair lift at the front was out of order and apparently had been prior to their booking. So her son was carrying her up the stairs as it was the only way she could get inside.

She was quite sanguine, and her son was very nice and joking about getting his weightlifting done, but I thought it was very poor of the hotel not to check their access was actually working when someone booked on the strength of it.

I failed to mention that I emailed them asking that as well as whether there was an accessible toilet but they failed to answer hence the phone call. They offered no apology for the inconvenience and embarrassment caused.

Very poor.

I voted that you are being unreasonable. I'm soon to be a wheel chair user too, but now I still have to find out if somewhere I'm going is accessible (for info I cannot manage steps without a great deal of help, and I'm getting worse, a wheel chair it is in the new year).

But I live in a place where many buildings are listed and so cannot make them easily accessible, though they try to make them somewhat accessible.

The restaurant tried, and succeed, in making their building accessible. The way they did it clearly didn't suit you, but they did it. Sorry.

When I was working in catering the kitchen was strictly out of bounds for hygiene reasons, wheeling you through the kitchen wouldn’t have been a hygenic thing to do from a food hygiene point of view, it also would have been a fire safety issue as well.

the op (or anyone) shouldn’t have to do that.

It is not accessible. Accessible means unaided a wheelchair user can get in. I get that might mean using a different exit but it shouldn't involve someone else having to move fucking bins out the way.

The building wasn’t wheelchair accessible. Accessible means independently accessed which isn’t what happened.

The restaurant tried, and succeed, in making their building accessible disagree. They didn't try they madly panicked and thought ah right we can fit a wheelchair in if they go through the KITCHEN where food is being prepared. If they had a support dog that dog would go through the kitchen too would it???

If OP had got injured in the kitchen their insurance company wouldn't help them

I'm sorry that you will soon become a wheelchair user. You will find that you are actually disabled by the environment and people can be unfeeling and even hostile towards you. Welcome to my world.

I'm pretty sure restaurants aren't allowed to let customers pass through the kitchen in the UK. I only say this because I'm always amazed at how common it is in New York (or at least was when I last visited) for customer toilets to be accessible through the kitchen. In any event this restaurant does not sound like it should have described itself as accessible to wheelchair users.

@MobilityCat thanks, but I've been in "your world" for a while. I use a rolator at the the moment, they don't actually take you up and down steps.

Disability doesn't have to be a competition. I'm disabled, in my way. You're disabled in your way.

I happen to live in a City that was heavily destroyed in the second world war, as a result, those buildings that survived have been protected by giving them a listed building order. I'm happy with that, I love those buildings that survived.

Again, it's not a competition. I'm sorry if I've offended you. It wasn't my intention. I just wanted to present another point of view from a disabled perspective. Clearly, I wasnt articulate enough to do so without causing you offense.