The parents of a Thunder Bay girl with cerebral palsy are upset with the operators of a local restaurant.

Patrick Rybar said the nine-year-old's wheelchair was not allowed in a section of the lunch bar at McKellar Confectionary.

Nine-year-old Amy Rybar's parents say a Thunder Bay eatery wouldn't allow her wheelchair in a raised section of the dining area. (Supplied)

Rybar said when he took his two daughters to lunch last Friday, he was lifting the wheelchair up the stairs to a raised section of the dining area, when staff told him to stop.

"I just kinda looked in disbelief," he said. "It was just disbelief that they'd actually turn somebody down in a wheelchair."

George Kelos, the manager of the restaurant located on Arthur Street, said staff were concerned it was unsafe to take the wheelchair up the steps, and offered to serve the family on the lower level.

George Kelos, manager of McKellar Confectionary in Thunder Bay, says staff had safety concerns about bringing the wheelchair up the steps. (Jeff Walters/CBC)

But Rybar said his daughter couldn't sit properly there, so he took his children and left.

"I was quite angry with [the restaurant] for upsetting my daughter."

Rybar said the family is notifying the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

"We're not looking for monetary [compensation] or anything like that," he said. "We just want ... to see more acceptance for people in her situation as well as herself."

Kelos told CBC News he does not want people to think they cannot enter his business in a wheelchair.