Gymkhana is a high class, Michelin starred Indian restaurant which opened just over a year ago in Mayfair. Nine months after they opened for business the restaurant was voted No 1 in the National Restaurant awards, Restaurant magazine’s annual countdown of the top 100 restaurants in the country. This is a startlingly quick rise to the top, but we have to ask why don’t they have an adapted toilet for disabled guests?
Gymkhana is inspired by Colonial Indian gymkhana clubs, set up by the British Raj, where members of high society came to socialise, dine, drink and play sport. This results in a restaurant with the feel of an old Indian colonial club with retro ceiling fans, marble table-tops, and yesteryear photos of polo and cricket teams. Patron-chef Karam Sethi delivers what Time Out described as “a splendid spread of modern Indian dishes based on regional masalas and marinades”. In The Telegraph, Gymkhana was named “a stunning addition, not just to the posh-curry fraternity, but to the entire restaurant landscape”.
Clearly the food is stratospherically good, but Gymkhana rather lets itself down when it comes to access and facilities for less able customers. On the positive side, they do have a portable ramp which can be put down at the entrance where there are a couple of steps. However, inside they do not have an adapted toilet. They say the ladies toilet is on the ground floor if that helps, but we tend to find that for people looking for a toilet with grab rails etc it doesn’t help much at all. So reasonably easy to get inside but a let down on the facilities inside.
It’s irritating to see yet another case of a restaurant winning a top award despite not having adequate disabled facilities. We think that if restaurants aren’t made inclusive for all of the population then they should not be eligible for these accolades. Perhaps restaurants’ accessibility should be taken into account as part of these processes? This could also provide added incentive for less accessible restaurants to up their game.
Having said that, despite a heavy deduction for not having an adapted toilet, Gymkhana does still get a provisional 1.5 BBS Ticks. It is a fashionable place to go, the food is of the highest quality and they do at least provide a ramp to enter the building. We just think that accessibility should be a prerequisite at ‘the top restaurant in the country’.
I agree it takes more than a ramp. Don’t these people realise disabled people have money as well.
Don’t care how good the food is it’s a no go for me and no ticks