Hamilton restaurants claiming wheelchair accessibility have a questionable understanding of what that means, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

According to a free guide for visitors, the `Key to Restaurants', 19 of 34 establishments in the City of Hamilton say they can accommodate diners in a wheelchair.

However, in light of Access Awareness Week, The Royal Gazette took to the streets of Hamilton and found that getting served in some of restaurants could prove complicated for people in wheelchairs.

Hog Penny & Pub Restaurant on Burnaby Hill and Spot Restaurant on Burnaby Street each advertise wheelchair access in the pamphlet.

However, at each establishment, customers in a wheelchair must be assisted in some way.

Once inside Spot, patrons can use a gentle ramp to reach the tables but must first step up into the building from the curb.

One staff member explained that customers are generally helped into the restaurant.

"I know of a man that comes here every morning and someone usually drops him off and helps him inside and back out again," she said.

At the Hog Penny, the bartender also said that people are helped up or down the steps in the entrance to the restaurant.

Other Hamilton restaurants claiming they can accommodate people in wheelchairs but with stairs blocking the entrance include Monte Carlo on Victoria Street, Port O' Call on Front Street and Lobster Pot on Bermudiana Road.

While these restaurants appear to have only one or two steps to overcome, restaurants such as La Trattoria have a similar number of steps and do not claim wheelchair access.

The restaurant which seemed most difficult to reach in a wheelchair but advertises to the contrary was Waterloo House on Pitts Bay Road.

A number of steps leading down to it and the alternative, a steep ramp also with stairs at the bottom, seemed difficult to navigate.

An office staff person said that a wheelchair-bound diner would have to be carried into the restaurant.

Nearby Monty's also advertises wheelchair access but admits that it has no wash room for persons confined to a wheelchair.

Then there are some establishments people in wheelchairs can access but only through certain entrances.

At Hickory Stick customers can enter from either the Church Street side or the entrance nearest the Bank of Bermuda to avoid stairs. Frescos Express also only has access through the Reid Street entrance.

But dining choices in Hamilton for the wheelchair-bound seem limited, with fifteen restaurants simply saying they cannot accommodate them.

Included was La Trattoria, Chopsticks, Mr. Onions, Pickled Onion, Rosa's Cantina, several restaurants in Chancery Lane and the new Barracuda Grill on Burnaby Hill.

Flanagan's Irish Pub/Restaurant and Sports Bar, Ristorante Primavera, Hamilton Ice Queen, The Red Carpet, Caffe Latte 1 and Portofino are all equipped with ramps on which people in wheelchairs can enter.

However, without being in a wheelchair, it is impossible to tell whether some of the doorways and walkways are wide enough for a wheelchair to pass through.