Some people with mobility issues can’t walk. Others can’t walk up and down stairs. Even walking a short distance is really scary and time consuming. Let alone with a full bladder.

A accessible restaurant?!🤨

Last night I was at a restaurant. We had rung through before booking to make sure it was accessible. I just assumed that it was on arriving so I came on my mobility scooter and parked a few blocks away.

We jovially ate pizza and drank wine.

Then I went to go to the toilet on my mobility scooter. I was gobsmacked to find they were down a flight of stairs. “I thought you said that it was an accessible restaurant” . “It is” says the manager “I gave you an outside space”.

Oh hell I’m busting!  

I asked the restaurant about accessible toilets.  “Oh just go across the road”, they say. Mmm no driveways for as far as the eyes can see. No ramps. My eyes roll. People just don’t join the dots. One persons ‘just across the road’ is a disabled persons ‘go down the block til you can cross at the lights. After you have crossed come back up the other side the road til you are opposite the restaurant. 

Still busting to go! On my mobility scooter I make the journey. Thankfully I was with family and friends that night. My husband just crossed the road as I made my journey down the road and back up the other side. I made it into a disabled toilet at The Coogee Bay Hotel in the nick of time.

As you read my stories you may be sitting there going ‘oh yeah that’s exactly what it’s like!’ Sure I could get my nickers in a twist but life’s too short. It is such a fun adventure to find accessible spaces and actually gives me a great excuse to find new and interesting places to go.

This story is an update of The Disabled Foody story I posted a few years ago on the website, Dezzies Place. Over the last few years I have learnt a lot about how to know if you can get around after this fiasco. It has really helped me to fine tune being a foodie in restaurants around Australia.

Dezzie 2025