The Storehouse

Before I was in a wheelchair, the Storehouse was great. Great food, great views, a good atmosphere and I rated it 5 stars on TripAdvisor. Sadly, I feel I have to slash that rating after my most recent visit as a wheelchair user. The food is still good... pizzas, sausage and mash and fish and chips were all great, although my Dad's burger was overcooked (read burnt to a crisp). They have a queueing system in that you order your food before being allocated a table by the staff. However, it's possible to bypass it if you inform the staff of any mobility issues whereby they'll sort a table before a companion can go up to order. And therein lies the big problem with The Storehouse... it's not catered for independent wheelchair users. You need someone with you to get over door lips and slightly raised floor levels. We didn't even try to access the porch or outdoor seating but there were still several instances where I needed help. There were other issues which I'll discuss in the relevant sections of the review. In short... great food, friendly staff but unfortunately quite lacking in accessibility.

My wife and I really enjoyed the food, I had the hot smoked salmon salad and she had the pizza, both were exceptional and the view down the Cromarty Firth was lovely in the sunshine. Unfortunately I had some problems accessing both the main building and the outdoor area as I am a wheelchair user. The main entrance has a raised door sill which sits on top of a raised frame. This caught the footplate on my wheelchair and could had tipped me over. I also observed another wheelchair user having problems at this entrance. When we had ordered our food, the exit to the grassed area had a very thick layer of gravel over it and I got completely stuck. Fortunately I am able to walk short distances so was able to stand while my wife moved my wheelchair. Not all wheelchair users are this fortunate. After I had eaten, I saw one other exit from the main building but this had a step down to the grass and was beyond a closed fire exit. In order to avoid the gravel, I had to wheel across a grassed area to get back to the main entrance. There also appears to be no accessible toilets and parking for only 3 blue badge vehicles. For a building that seems to have been constructed within the last 10 years, I found this hard to understand. There are more spaces allocated to people with dogs instead of disabilities.