Review Detail

This restaurant is located next to Sears. Good for foot traffic. Not so good for parking.

When we arrived for a late Friday lunch, all of the disabled parking spots were taken. For that matter, most all of the spots were taken. Remember, it's close to Sears. Clearly, the only way you can be sure of a disabled spot is to have Uncle Bart park his pickup in one the night before your trip.

To be fair, there is a turn in at this entrance so I could have been dropped off. That's ok this trip because my son was with me. But if my wife and I were out together, this would have been a problem since she has mobility issues too. As it was, we had to park far, far away and my son pushed me. (I'm in a wheelchair not a power chair.)

No problem getting in, however. The mall entrance had automatic doors and the restaurant was right inside the door with its own large door. At first the table placement bothered me. From my perspective in a chair it looked like all of the tables were too close together. But it was ok. The table next to me was too close, but there were adequate aisles for moving around.

Now for the food service. This is a buffet type food line. You have to go up to several food stations to load your bowl and then go through an oddly curved stir fry grill line. I was able to get to the first food station without difficulty and was able to load my plate easily. The food signs, however, were at walking man eye level not wheelchair man eye level. A strain to look up, but they were readable. The problem is that the three food stations are separated. You can scoot your bowl down the side of each station, but you have to have a way to get that bowl to the next station. Not a problem if you have one hand free with a power chair or a cane. But in a wheelchair, somebody has to move the bowl for you.

Then you take the loaded and sauced up bowl to the grill. Somebody needs to explain to me why the aisle snakes around the grills, but there was space enough for my chair. And you can see the stir fry friers in action. When it's all done, they put it on a plate and give the plate to you. Back to that old "you-need-one-hand-free" thing.

And now the bathroom. The men's door seemed excessively heavy and maneuvering in was a bit of a struggle. Inside there was a one size fits all stall. Remember, space in a mall is pricey. So instead of a regular stall and a wheelchair accessible stall, there's just one. There was also a changing station in the stall. (Do we really need to be THAT politically correct?) And that took up some shoulder room. Like most stall doors, this one was hard to get closed and locked. I had to reach under the door with my right hand and pull it in while trying to catch the latch with my left hand. Awkward. But that's been my experience with most stall doors. Which is why I don't drink much tea while I dine.

I really hate to downgrade a good restaurant because of the "before" and "after" experiences. But if you can't easily get into the restaurant it sort of dampens the excitement.

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For a review of food and dining experience not focused on accessibility, click below for a review from Urbanspoon.