Review: Prego Restaurant, Ponsonby
Ahh, Prego. How you slumped from a potentially spectacular rating to one of disappointment. Why, you ask? Well, to cut a long story short, a waitress spilt a dish all over my back. That’s right, a waitress decided she could squeeze through the gap between my wheelchair and the wall carrying two dishes. She couldn’t. So the risotto went all over my back, inside my bag, and all over my wheelchair! Now I have rice-sodden clothes, a risotto-smelling man-bag, and bits of rice in every crack of my chair. Not much fun, I assure you. Now that I’ve got that out of my system, I’ll continue with the rest of the (largely positive) review.
Firstly, Prego (224 Ponsonby Road) is a fairly swish place on Auckland’s affluent suburb of Ponsonby. The menu is available online here, but expect to pay between $23-35 for a main. That said, boy is it worth it. I had a fairly simple-sounding Fettucine Alfredo, and gosh it was delicious. The service is prompt, polite, and when they’re not spilling food all over you, fairly competent. The wine selection is impressive, and the desserts are all beautiful too.
How is it in terms of accessibility, I hear you ask? Well, firstly it’s probably worth mentioning I couldn’t fit through the single french door they had open, so they had to unlatch the next one along, which was done – to their credit – without fuss or hesitation. There was plenty of room inside, and while I probably wouldn’t call it ‘spacious’, it certainly was no Gina’s.
They do have an accessible toilet, and it is complete with a well-positioned handrail and accessible washbasin, however it comes with a few snags. Firstly, it’s not signposted, so I had to ask the maitre’d if they had one. Secondly, it involves a trip through the kitchen, and while that was interesting, I felt like by doing so I was going to contaminate something! Thirdly, it also doubles as a staff changing room, and while that’s fine in the name of practicality, it does mean you have to be a little careful when manoeuvring a wheelchair to make sure you don’t run over a staff member’s bag!
THE LOWDOWN:
- I’ll be straight up, clumsy waitress + burnt back + rice all over my wheelchair kinda killed it for me
- Fantastic (but on the expensive side) Italian food
- Nice atmosphere. Sophisticated, but not pretentious
- Good wheelchair-friendly bathroom, but you have to ask about it and be led through the kitchen
- As much as the rice incident put a dampener on things, and to the staff’s credit they cleaned up well and offered to pay for drycleaning, Prego is very wheelchair friendly and is definitely worth stopping in for dinner or lunch. Dress nice
- Overall accessibility rating: 4 / 5
