walking . is . overrated

It’s the kind of place you drive past thinking “Gosh that looks cosy, I must try it out sometime”, a sort of incessantly busy hubbub of italiano tucked away on Symonds St. And if you’re looking for busy, Gina’s doesn’t disappoint, teeming with people even on the Monday night my family and I went.

We rang earlier in the day to book, and also let them know about my wheelchair, they reassured us that it’d be “no problem”. No problem except for the sizeable step up to the counter area, then another into the main dining room, that is. This might be fine for a manual chair user but for me, it made for one hell of an entrance. Luckily we’d advised them I was coming, as a table had been set aside with a little more room around it, most of the others were packed quite closely together, as is common with small boutique restaurants like this. Don’t even mention a toilet, even if there was one I doubt I’d be able to get anywhere near it without asking half of the people to move their tables to one side.

So while the entrance wasn’t ideal, and I was a little flustered once I finally got to our table, the staff were, to their credit, incredibly helpful and eager to please.. there’s something about a well-groomed man asking if I need assistance in a thick italian accent that appeals to my effeminate side..

Moving right along, the food was lovely and well-portioned, consisting of your usual italian pizza and pasta fare (full menu here), and the obligatory wine was even better. However it was the desserts that capped the night off, the traditional tiramisu being a favourite, while I shared some sort of profiterole thing; in any case, it was fantastic. Would I recommend it to another wheelchair user? Probably, but just so long as you have some sort of entourage and don’t drink too much. Definitely not first date material.

THE LOWDOWN:

• Beautiful italian food, good drink selection, amazing desserts!
• Reasonably priced (see menu)
• Quite crowded and noisy
• One step to get up off Symonds St, then another into the main dining area
• No accessible toilet. And if there was one, it wasn’t, well, accessible
• Overall accessibility rating: 1 / 5