Overview

Several difficulties for wheelchair users at this branch of Carluccio's, it's always frustrating and difficult trying to get into the restaurant and there are difficulties once you're inside.

Transport & Parking

Tottenham Court Road station is fully step-free street-to-train (Northern Line) and street-to-platform (Central Line - for this line wheelchair users should make sure you inform staff before you travel, as they will need to deploy manual boarding ramps). Always check the lift status at Tottenham Court Road Station before you travel - the lifts there, although brand new, are notoriously unreliable. This station is referred to by TfL as one of its group of twenty stations with 'rogue lifts', as if somehow it's the lifts that are at fault, not TfL for keeping them in a shoddy state of maintenance. Absurd to even dream about parking in Covent Garden. Plenty of bus routes will drop you off a few blocks away in Charing Cross Road or Strand.

Access

At the main entrance, which has several steep steps, there is a doorbell for wheelchair users to alert staff to their presence and to summon assistance. On my most recent visit, I pressed the doorbell numerous times over the course of several minutes. It was raining heavily and I was getting wet. Nobody came to the door. Eventually my dining partner arrived, went inside and summoned staff. Turned out the doorbell was broken, the manager knew it was broken, it had been broken for a week, he knew it had been broken for a week. Shocking negligence. Staff will open the side entrance for wheelchair users. This entrance is difficult to use. It has a step, it's hard to get over the step using a powerchair, and the vestibule is often rammed full of boxes and other paraphernalia, so there isn't enough room to manoeuvre and turn. One part of the restaurant is a raised area, which will not be accessible for wheelchair users, but there's room elsewhere. Tables are crammed together, it's very difficult to manoeuvre and park at a table. It can be very difficult to get to the accessible toilet because chairs and tables are so close together and there is a big pillar blocking the way to the toilet from many tables. So you may find yourself inconveniencing and irritating many other customers on your way to and from the toilet. Wheelchair users who book should mention that they're wheelchair users, so as not to be booked into a table in the raised area.

Toilets

There is a wheelchair-accessible toilet, but the red emergency cord has been tucked away behind a bin, inaccessible if you need to summon help after falling over, and there was a big bin in the wheelchair transfer area. Tall stacks of baby chairs often obstruct the way to the toilet. All this is thoughtless and annoying. See my photos. The red cord must hang freely all the way to the floor - not hidden or tucked away! - so that it can be pulled by anyone who has fallen over during the often precarious transfer from wheelchair to toilet and back. The wheelchair transfer area, next to the toilet, is emphatically NOT spare space in which to keep bins or other paraphernalia. It is where a wheelchair user parks.

Staff

Staff are generally friendly. But they get only two stars because of the broken doorbell which they haven't bothered to fix, because of the stack of baby chairs outside the toilet obstructing access, and because of the obstructions placed within the toilet. All of these things are signs of negligence and apathy.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

Although the food is excellent and staff are friendly, I don't recommend this branch of Carluccio for wheelchair users.

Photos