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A viral Facebook post began the accusations, which have been denied by the restaurant
The King’s Lodge Chinese Buffet on Union Street has come under fire for allegedly asking two wheelchair-using diners to leave the restaurant.
Scott Anderson, who raised the allegations in a now-viral Facebook post, claimed that the manager of the restaurant said that they “don’t allow wheelchair [users] in as they bang tables and disturb guests,” and that “they cause mess as [they] can’t reach the buffet by themselves.”
Speaking to The Glasgow Guardian, Mr Anderson claimed that multiple diners challenged the decision, but that the manager responded to their concerns by stating that wheelchair-using customers “cause a lot of mess.” According to Mr Anderson, the two men asked to leave left half way through their meal, paid, and then vowed never to return to the restaurant.
The Glasgow Guardian has contacted the King’s Lodge Buffet, who say that the allegations are false: the employee stated that staff did raise concerns about the safety of the wheelchair users being able to serve themselves because of the layout of the buffet. They said that they would have expected the men to have a care assistant with them, but that they did not ask the men to leave. The restaurant claim that they are being harassed off the back of these allegations, and they have spoken to their lawyers.
As well as Mr Anderson’s allegations, another wheelchair user who dined at the King’s Lodge Buffet on Sunday 8 July has come forward to The Glasgow Guardian. Sharin Stephen, who was visiting Glasgow for the weekend with her husband, went to the buffet at around 8pm: “The place was not busy [when we arrived], we got shown to a table at the door, but it was a bit of a tight squeeze to get into.
“We were asked if we wanted to move, so we said yes and requested the back, which we were told was full even though no one was sitting there.”
Mrs Stephen then claims that while she and her husband were at the buffet, a female employee whom she believed to be the manager asked her if she could get her food for her, stating that Mrs Stephen was blocking the way. They were then moved to another table, and Mrs Stephens’ husband got her starters for her. After this, Mrs Stephen claims that the manager told her that her husband should get her main course for her, as it was “not safe” for her to go to the buffet herself.
On how this experience made her feel, Mrs Stephen told The Glasgow Guardian: “As in like some wheelchair users, I can walk a wee bit and stand up, but I felt really uncomfortable in the place. This is definitely a one-off as normally we check for access, but we were only in Glasgow for the weekend.”