A dearth of sauce is an unfortunate yet easily solved problem, which is why we’re not sure how an employee of a Chinese restaurant would get angry enough to throw a customer through a glass door over such a simple item. That’s what one woman claims happened when she “politely requested more sauce packets” for her takeout order.
According to Courthouse News Service, the woman is suing, claiming the worker became enraged over her request. She says it was her first time at the restaurant.
“Plaintiff’s request for more sauce packets caused [the employee] to become enraged and he came from behind the pick-up counter and attacked plaintiff,” the complaint states.
She says as the man continued to attack her, he pushed her outside through the glass front door and also somehow threw her through it, causing her to “severely injure her leg.”
The woman is seeking damages for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
*Thanks for the tip, Larry!
‘You Want Sweet and Sour With That?’ [Courthouse News Service]
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The employee stood triumphantly over the glass-riddled body of his fallen foe. Her aggression was unexpected but it took more than the element of surprise to dissuade him from his duty. The Sauce was safe.
“Consider yourself…defenestrated,” he said. The sun rose majestically over the horizon.
Except that it was a door, not a window, so the customer was ‘deportated’. (not deported)
Wonder if there is a name for throwing a person thru the window in a door?
Definitely not drive-through.
No sauce for you!!!
…and to add insult to injury she was hungry again in an hour.
“…and to add insult to injury she was hungry again in an hour.”
That’s true only in a real Chinese restaurant like in NYC. Across the Styx, “Chinese” food is a greasy amalgam of god knows what.
Yeah, but remember some people don’t consider throwing food at people working the drive thru window to be rude either so her saying she was polite doesn’t really carry much weight.
I had the same thought. Of course the woman would claim to have been polite in her request, but it’s very likely that she asked and he declined and she proceeded to become loud and insulting. Now that still doesn’t warrant throwing the woman out of a window, but it makes it very slightly more understandable than if she was nice to him
Snds lk thr ws svr chnk n th mply’s tttd.
Please cease and desist from any further punning.
Inappropriate and tacky.
LOL
Ask Anthony Federico if that’s funny.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Anthony+Federico
It was even funnier when Saturday Night Live spoofed it.
Maybe he needs some coolie.
Wait, the slur against the Chinese gets disemvoweled, but the slur against the general Asian manual laborer is peachy-keen? What the what?
I guess her restaurant experience was…
(puts on sunglasses)
sweet and sour.
Well done, Mr Caruso.. well done.
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Every time I order Chinese take-out, it comes with handfuls of sauce packets.
But NEVER any mustard. Always tons of that nasty duck sauce as if there were any use for the slop.
Dumpling sauce is what it’s all about.
If I have hot mustard, I’m a happy camper.
Bleh, the mustard in the packets sucks, buy a jar of hot mustard and use that instead, much better.
I was thinking of just that … carrying a jar of mustard around with me just in case I might want to eat chinese for lunch that day.
I’m guessing there is a LOT more to this story.
Just out of curiosity, let’s assume that there is NOT more to the story, and that everything happened exactly as stated. Now, what are your feelings on the matter?
If there is, I imagine it went like this:
Clerk: Here’s your order.
Customer: Could I have some more sauce packets, please?
Customer: Could I have more than that, please?
Customer: That’s not enough, I would like more sauce packets, please.
Customer: But I would like even more sauce packets, please!
Clerk: I lika more dolla!
No kidding!!
I’ve had varying experiences depending on the establishment, but Chinese restaurants seem to be a bit more…thrifty…when it comes to cost-cutting measures than most other restaurant I’ve frequented, including, but not limited to:
- charging a fee at an all-you-can-eat buffet if a person does not finish all the food on his or her plate
- selling soda by the can, precluding the possibility of refills
- keeping packaged chopsticks behind the counter and only giving them to customers on request
I think it’s a cultural thing, and maybe my observation is a byproduct of preexisting bias – I don’t know – but given how that kind of thing seems to happen a lot, I honestly wasn’t surprised about who got irate about the customer requesting more sauce.
“thrifty” would be the nicest way to spin it.
I can see them charging her extra for the sauce…but I can’t see how asking for it would cause this to happen.
hopefully they got video cameras.
Maybe it’s regional? I have three different Chinese places I frequent in my town (one has great fried rice, one has amazing crab rangoon, and one has fantastic eggrolls – I make my decision based on what I’m most in the mood for) and all of them are overly generous with the sauce packets. I always try to fish the excess packets out of my bag and hand them back, but to no avail. One restaurant actually sends an extra bag full of sauce when I’m super lazy and get it delivered.
That’s completely possible, and like I said, it could be confirmation bias on my part. I lived in Berkeley for a long time and had a lot of Asian friends there, and they always cracked at how frugal Asians are when it comes to free swag and stuff like that. I’ve seen all the examples I mentioned at Chinese restaurants, but it’s possible that I noticed because I was unconsciously looking for it.
I was just trying to think of a reason why sauce packets could become such a point of contention, and I could imagine the scenario unfolding and quickly escalating when a rude customer meets an employee who will not give more than X packets.
Perhaps she refused to deactivate her cellular telenetwork machine when she asked for the extra packets of sauce.
In that case, I blame the OP.
I’ve gone to a lot of “fine dining” restaurants that make you pay for each drink as well. Because as we all know, they can get away with it.
“I’ve had varying experiences depending on the establishment, but Chinese restaurants seem to be a bit more…thrifty…”
Back in the day when Chinese restaurants didn’t have prepackage sauce, they used to water the duck sauce down to stretch it out.
The problem is that by diluting the sauce, the natural preservative abilities of sugar (think osmotic pressure) was nullified and you’d get disgusting fermented sauce.
Might be a state/city thing too. None of the Chinese restaurants that I’ve been to in our area do this. (I live in North Texas.)
People are wasteful in general when eating out. They think “I’m paying good money, I should be able to waste as much as a want.” Seriously, I think that’s the mindset.
Customer: “Can I get extra, extra ranch? At least 5 sides.”
Me: “Okay.” *Brings them 5 sides*
Customer: “That’s not enough, can I have 2 more?”
Customer leaves, I clear the table and find 5 untouched sides of ranch that will be thrown in the trash. Happens more frequently than you’d expect. I don’t blame restaurants for wanting to prevent this from happening.
Actually I don’t have a problem with this as long as you charge a small fee (maybe 10 to 25 cents) per additional ranch side after the first 3 or 4. Believe it or not that will reduce some of the waste because people like that, freeloaders, don’t want to pay ANYTHING for the next side. Even 5 cents is too much money for them to get that Nth side of ranch they won’t use. It is a win for your to save on condiments and and it is a win for them since they have a choice to buy more or not.
I don’t have a problem with buffets charging a fee if a person doesn’t finish all the food on his or her plate. Some people pile up their plates and don’t even eat a quarter of it! It’s so wasteful. In my experience, if you leave a piece or two of unfinished food on a plate, the restaurant isn’t going to ding you. It’s only if you waste a ton of food – that’s when they’ll try to charge you.
Selling soda by the can is not a uniquely Chinese restaurant thing. Most of the restaurants on my university campus do not have free refills – so the fountain soda machines are either behind the counter, or behind the cash register (if it’s a cafeteria-like place). Or you get people who go to Burger King, get a water cup and fill it up with soda, and then eat their Subway sandwich. I would assume it’s more of a cost-effectiveness thing – not sure how much it costs for canned soda as opposed to renting the fountain soda dispenser (I know the actual soda is cheap), but a large percentage of patrons would drink either tea or water. Some may drink soda, but if the percentage is small, is it worth getting a fountain dispenser?
And the packaged chopsticks thing – people get greedy. Or are wasteful – rather than taking the extras and putting them back, they’ll just toss it in the trash. My coworker does this with unused/ perfectly clean napkins – rather than just leaving them on the table or taking them back to the office, she tosses them in the trash. I admit, sometimes I’ll take an extra plastic spoon or fork to use at work, but I wash them and re-use.
I tend to agree. Our neighborhood take-out place won’t give more than one or two sauce packets unless we specifically request them, and then we’ll get two more. I get plain steamed vegs, so I need a few more! And they never give chopsticks.
Also, I have noticed that the napkins at all the buffets and take-outs are ALWAYS the crappiest, thinnest, most useless ones available, requiring using many more than if they just had decent napkins.
I never had this experience, and I’ve eaten at Chinese restaurants in CA, IN and AR. I think it’s just where you live.
I’ve actually always admired Chinese restaurants for their thriftiness. I hate waste, so I like seeing places that conserve their resources. My mom & her best friend have been kicked out of buffets for wasting food, and rightly so.
Lessons learned about Consumerist commentors today:
1.) They’re very serious about cell phone courtesy.
2.) They’re casual racists.
“Sounds like there was a severe chink in the employee’s attitide.”
“I’ve had varying experiences depending on the establishment, but Chinese restaurants seem to be a bit more…thrifty…I think it’s a cultural thing…”
Really?
I knew when I wrote my post that I would get accused of racism. I’m really, really glad you’re the one who levied the accusation.
Psst – I was talking on my cell phone the whole time I called you out on your thoughtless, racist comments.
That’s fine. Could you please stop talking to me, though? They’re asking you if you want pickles on that sandwich that you bought for all those orphans because you’re a good person.
+1
*slow clap*
Bravo.
Hey Princess…G+? I ask not for myself, but for the sake of posterity.
yer not afraid of that toothless ole dog???
shame on you…
The notorious Scottish cheap skate finally decided to have a party.
Explaining to a friend how to find his apartment, he said,
“Come up to 8C and ring the doorbell with your elbow. When the door open, push with your foot.”
“Why use my elbow and foot?”
“Well, gosh,” was the reply, “You are not coming empty-handed, are you?”
The entire premise of your joke is spurious. Scottish people don’t have friends. I should know.
I say, do you know why that gentleman is encountering some difficulty while operating his bi-cycle apparatus?
It’s because he’s a Scot!
He’s a tie?
No, I believe the gentleman in the story is Chinese.
XD
I believe you can’t get into heaven without a covered dish or a gallon of tea, right?
As an Asian American I don’t really care. But whatever keeps White-Guilt flowing is fine by me.
Here, have another scholarship. You deserve it!
““I’ve had varying experiences depending on the establishment, but Chinese restaurants seem to be a bit more…thrifty…I think it’s a cultural thing…”
Absolutely yes, really. Having grown up very close to a Vietnamese family and hearing all the shit they tell me about Asian people in general, plus working at a Thai restaurant for a few years…yes this is accurate. I don’t think it’s limited to Chinese places.
Well guys, we clearly have all of the facts. Let’s discuss!
Yeah, there’s a big piece of this story missing.
Yep, I believe this scenario happened just as she said it did.
It’s obvious that someone hypnotized Mr. Wu so that when he heard the word “packet” he would become violent and kung fu a woman through a glass door.
Chicago.
Fiendish Dr Wu’s knowledge of scientific biological transmogrifications is only outmatched by his zest for Kung Fu treachery!
The Manchurian Candidate?
She’s suing because an employee behaved badly at a place that provides sauce *in packets*? That’s like suing Walmart because the cashiers are slow.
Well, c’mon, shoving a customer through a glass door is more than “behaving badly.”
Unless you’re in a bar fight. Does the restaurant have a bar?
Well, for bar fights I really prefer to throw people through plate glass windows, not doors. Just more of an effect. Bonus points if they fly against the lid of an open dumpster, then fall into it with the lid slamming shut behind them.
HAT TRICK!!!
but but but you missing the most important part, you have to slide them along the bar top, off the end, out the window….
…and into the dumpster! 3 Points!
Ah, a fellow enthusiast of the Black Dynamite school of fisticuffs, I see.
It is exactly like that. Only instead of the cashier being slow, he hit you over the head with your shopping basket, throw you into a shopping cart and shoved it towards the exist.
Other then that, the similarity is striking.
There was a lady (I believe she was the manager) at a Chick-fil-a in Lake Mary Florida. She would get enraged if you asked for more sauces. She held to the strict rule that you only got 1 sauce per order unless you had multiple items (they even had a chart!) 4 and 6 piece chicken bits got 1 sauce, larger got 2. I think 2 was the maximum per meal or something. She got really indignant even though her customers wanted more sauce.
Remind me not to go there. I don;t mind paying a small fee for extra sauce but acting like a Soup Nazi at a Chick-fil-a is beyond the pale.
The Chinese restaurants in my area have a price for more sauce packets.
Why they don’t makes no sense.
Since they cost less then 5 cents a packet, I can’t see there being a problem to charge more for them? The packets are like the soda and popcorn at movie theaters.
“Can I get more sauce?”
“You lika the sauce?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty good”
“She lika the sauce”
“I get you more sauce”
I don’t think Mario or Luigi were working that day at the Chinese restaurant.
I read that in Ms. Swan’s voice. Thanks for the laugh and for making me feel old!
Glass doors, in my experience, tend to have a metal push bar across them. Not all, but many. But more importantly, most glass doors are made from tempered glass, aren’t they? It’s pretty damn hard to throw an entire person through that kind of glass.
I don’t mean to say it’s impossible, but it makes me wonder if there were witnesses or security footage of the incident.
damn someones being sensible again. Thats a very good point about the tempered glass. I’ve seen a friend running at full speed into a closed door because he didn’t notice it was closed (he had a few drinks). He simply bounced of the door with a nice bruise on his head.
I had a college acquaintance put her leg through the glass door of one of the buildings at school. She was trying to kick the crash bar with her foot and missed. Cut the hell out of her leg. Lots of stitches. This was in the 1980′s, and the door was probably from the 1960′s.
Even having seen that, I would still think it would be very hard to both push and throw someone “through” a modern glass door.
Tempered Glass can be unpredictable. 99% of the time you will bounce off but if the glass has a very tiny crack, perhaps one you can’t see, you can go through it if you hit it with enough force to open the crack. Also, when compromised like that, tempered glass completely shatters into small rounded pieces, unlike windows and windshields on American cars which tend to shatter in hundreds of flesh cutting shards.
The restaurant that I usually go to for my Chinese food fix (when I’m not going for my Indian food fix) lists the condiment packets on the menu for 10 cents each, 12 for a dollar. Once someone came in just to get condiments and they sold them to him. I only get one hot mustard packet (included) even though 2 packets are free per meal. One is enough.
Buy yourself a bottle of Sriracha and a bottle of soy sauce and you’ll never need to ask for condiment packets again. Also, duck sauce is disgusting. Finally, asian stereotypes are hilarious. The ignorance and racism should be harnessed somehow though, like solar power.
I was with her until I noticed she sued for “emotional distress”. Now I’m with the restaurant.
If it ain’t Kikkoman, it’s probably that acid-hydrolyzed vegetable protein crap that contains carcinogens. And I’ll always remember the expose of “soy sauce” made from human hair in China.
I love Chinese food, but prefer to keep my own condiments at home for take out.
You want sauce on side! Sauce on side!
“… just taste don’t as good.” Seriously?
Luckily this didn’t happen in Beverly Hills, or else the customer might also find herself arrested…
(and then she’d go on to wreck a buffet at some private club…)