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Diabetic's discrimination lawsuit against restaurant is hard to swallow
The Los Angeles Times (via Drudge) ^ | February 17, 2011 | David Lazarus

Posted on 02/24/2011 6:42:38 PM PST by Ronin

David Martin was in the mood for raw fish, and he liked the deal offered by a Studio City sushi restaurant: all you can eat for $28.

He took a seat at the counter and started ordering. But it turned out that Martin didn't really want sushi, which includes rice; he wanted all-you-can-eat sashimi, which is just fish. He began picking the seafood off the top and leaving the rice.

Restaurant owner Jay Oh told Martin that if he wanted the all-you-can-eat price, he'd have to eat the rice too and not just fill up on fish. Martin replied that he has diabetes and that he can't eat rice.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Japan; US: California
KEYWORDS: diabetes; discrimination; extortion; sushi
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To: Ronin
As a Diabetic i have to watch what I eat, when i go to a buffet I pick and choose carefully, because i know for a fact that rice will send my glucose numbers right through the roof.

Perhaps you would rather that people like me don't eat out at all, or perhaps we should wear a 'D" on an armband so that we can be identified and restaurants can decide if they want to serve my kind.

Are you willing to do the same for Epileptics or people with Tourettes syndrome?

21 posted on 02/24/2011 7:30:42 PM PST by verga (I am not an apologist, I just play one on Television)
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To: verga

“Perhaps you would rather that people like me don’t eat out at all, or perhaps we should wear a ‘D” on an armband so that we can be identified and restaurants can decide if they want to serve my kind.”

A ‘V’ might be better than a D.


22 posted on 02/24/2011 7:35:59 PM PST by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: beezdotcom

You’re using a loophole and you know it.

It’s recognizable on the face of it that an “all you can eat” sushi restaurant is balancing off the high value of the expensive fish against the inexpensive nature of the rice. Everyone recognizes that, which is why they understand they have to eat the rice as well.

No “all you can eat” sashimi restaurant could stay in business for more than a day unless they charged a $100, and maybe not even then.

I strongly suspect that this jerk has played the same sneaky game at similar places and has gotten away with it by whipping out the “diabetic” card. I think Mr. Oh deserves support for calling him on it.


23 posted on 02/24/2011 7:36:36 PM PST by Ronin ("Dismantle the TSA and send the screeners back to Wal-Mart.")
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He is not asking for special privileges.

Sorry. You're wrong. This guy had a good number of options before deciding to sue the restaurant. Not the least of which is reasonable, adult discussion of the issue with the owner. At worst, all he had to do is settle up for his $28 (which he was going to have to pay anyway) and simply leave. Give the owner an earful if he likes but no one was holding a gun to his head to eat at this place.

If he had such a face for fish, why not buy some swordfish at the market and cook it up any one of a dozen ways?
Because he was looking for a way to make a score against a well meaning but ignorant restaurateur.

$28 buys a lot of swordfish at my market.

I have diabetes too and would NEVER in a million years consider reacting the way he did.

24 posted on 02/24/2011 7:42:45 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Tyrants flourish only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace.)
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To: verga

As a diabetic who can’t eat rice why would you or this man go to an ‘all you can eat’ sushi bar ?


25 posted on 02/24/2011 7:44:29 PM PST by EDINVA
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To: Ronin
Lionel Hutz! Paging Lionel Hutz....
26 posted on 02/24/2011 7:46:23 PM PST by Forgotten Amendments (I'd rather be Plaxico Burress than Sean Taylor)
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To: Ronin

I have type 2 diabetes and know what I can and can’t eat. Picking the fish off of sushi is certainly something I have done in the past, but one would also have to recognize the business owner’s right to choose who an who not to serve.

The situation was probably poorly handled on both sides, but is a payout warranted? I think not.

My prior experience with sushi buffets is that the fish is poor quality with a extra portion of rice to make the restaurant money. Sushi buffets are usually pretty crappy and the fish of the day is worse than catfish.

Diabetes is something you deal with yourself - not the responsibility of someone else - unless you live in California apparently


27 posted on 02/24/2011 7:47:21 PM PST by BradyBug (Holy Rolling Redneck)
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To: Lucius Cornelius Sulla
Brazzaz A sit down meal, all you can eat- and they don't make you eat anything you don't want. And they actually let you eat all you can.
28 posted on 02/24/2011 7:53:26 PM PST by Krankor (And he's oh, so good, And he's oh, so fine, And he's oh, so healthy, In his body and his mind)
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To: Ronin

About 45 years ago I was a poor student at Appalachian State (NC). Once a week a local restaurant had “all you can” fish for $1 for anyone with a student ID. I really was poor and hardly ever had any money for anything except a bare minimum of food, and made my whole week on that one night. I was 6’2”, 150# and ate the fries, hush puppies, slaw and everything else and was still threatened with a body search because they didn’t believe I could eat that much food. Sometimes those special promotions don’t work the way they’re designed.


29 posted on 02/24/2011 8:14:17 PM PST by jstaff
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To: Krankor

Got a Brazilian Restaurant in Ocala, last I heard it was $35, second most expensive restaurant in the county.


30 posted on 02/24/2011 8:20:29 PM PST by Lucius Cornelius Sulla (No Better Friend, No worse Enemy!)
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To: Ronin
You’re using a loophole and you know it.

Uh, "no".
31 posted on 02/24/2011 8:33:06 PM PST by beezdotcom
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To: bmwcyle

>>>I am on the side of the diabetic since I react the same way to rice. You have to be strong and not eat it.

I’m diabetic - and this guy is an ass.


32 posted on 02/24/2011 8:36:17 PM PST by Keith in Iowa (FR Class of 1998 | TV News is an oxymoron. | MSNBC = Moonbats Spouting Nothing But Crap.)
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To: Ronin

Mr. Oh should post a “We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to Anyone” sign.


33 posted on 02/24/2011 8:47:25 PM PST by TChad
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To: verga
I guess since you are diabetic you consider yourself above simple public etiquette?

I managed to teach my child that “all you can eat buffets” have a few simple rules of expected conduct:
1.If you don't know you will eat it, don't put more than a small spoon full to taste on your plate.
2.You can always go back for more, but it is rude and unacceptable to waste food by taking more from a buffet than you will eat.
3.You are a thief if you attempt to take any food you did not consume at the restaurant home with you, from a buffet.

I know many people who are diabetics.
They are just as capable of polite consumption at “all you can eat buffets” as everyone else.
Your particular critical need to pay very strict attention to your food intake does not exempt you from any of the above rules of polite consumption.
Sushi served at restaurant buffets invariably consist of minute portions of fish, wrapped in large portions of rice.
Perhaps you should refrain from buffets altogether, or simply select those items on the buffet line that completely conform to your special diet needs. Most restaurants that offer buffets also offer menu selections for people who, for whatever reason, choose not to partake of the buffet. Your special dietal needs do not exempt you from ordinary polite public conduct.

34 posted on 02/24/2011 9:21:54 PM PST by sarasmom
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To: Ronin

What if I like blueberries and think they are good for me? Am I allowed to go to a buffet and take 100 blueberry muffins and pick out the blueberries and eat only those and throw out the majority of 100 muffins? No — that’s essentially vandalism. The deal was to take only the prepared foods you reasonably will eat, and eat what you take.

Sushi is a prepared dish that includes rice. It is not fish, it is sushi. If you are not going to eat sushi then do not take and vandalize multiple portions by picking and then eat a little bit and throw out all the rest. You are not allowed to vandalize food before you eat small select portions of it.

Anyone who defends this total creep or criticizes the restaurant is simply WRONG and your illogical thinking is contributing to America’s troubles.

I hope the jury, representing the fourth branch of government, uses its common sense and resists any pathetic instructions it might receive from the vested legal ruling class about how to rule on this (eg, based on anything like the pathetic ADA); and that it throws this right out of court.


35 posted on 02/24/2011 10:54:48 PM PST by Weirdad (Don't put up with ANY voter fraud...)
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To: verga
As a Diabetic i have to watch what I eat, when i go to a buffet I pick and choose carefully, because i know for a fact that rice will send my glucose numbers right through the roof.

Perhaps you would rather that people like me don't eat out at all, or perhaps we should wear a 'D" on an armband so that we can be identified and restaurants can decide if they want to serve my kind.

I have a dietetic restriction, too. No wheat gluten. No barley. No malt. No rye. No kamut. That's why I'd never go to an all-you-can-eat bread place and complain about the fact that bread has wheat in it. Bread is made from wheat.

Sushi, by definition, is rice with vinegar in it. That's all sushi means. Not fish, not the little dodads on top. Not the nori (seaweed). Just rice. Sushi is rice with vinegar.

What, exactly, do you think would be fair, in light of the fact that sushi is just rice? Should they change the definition just for you?

I don't expect them to change anything for me. If I can't eat in a restaurant, tough to be me. The world owes me nothing insofar as special accommodations to make me somehow feel better about the fact that I have a disease that keeps me from eating things everyone else eats.

36 posted on 02/24/2011 11:14:22 PM PST by mountainbunny
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To: verga

As should be perfectly obvious, others having made the point, sushi is a prepared food consisting of rice, vinegar and other ingredients. There are numerous types of sushi that do not even have fish on them.

To think that you can go to an all you can eat sushi restaurant and eat the goodie-goodie stuff and ignore the rice is ludicrous.


37 posted on 02/25/2011 12:37:51 AM PST by Ronin ("Dismantle the TSA and send the screeners back to Wal-Mart.")
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To: ez

The guy who came up with all you can Lobster night at Red Lobster lost his job after they lost their a$$ on that special.


38 posted on 02/25/2011 12:40:11 AM PST by Kickass Conservative (They bring a Bible to a Memorial, we bring a T Shirt - Long Legged Mac Daddy)
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To: EDINVA
As a diabetic who can’t eat rice why would you or this man go to an ‘all you can eat’ sushi bar ?

Well, well for one i happen to like to eat raw fish, second I enjoy eating in restaurants from time to time, and third legally i can go into any restaurant that I like.

More important why do you think I shouldn't be allowed to? Are you one of those anti-diabetic types?

39 posted on 02/25/2011 2:26:25 AM PST by verga (I am not an apologist, I just play one on Television)
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To: sarasmom
Your particular critical need to pay very strict attention to your food intake does not exempt you from any of the above rules of polite consumption.

And I do follow them. Sushi served at restaurant buffets invariably consist of minute portions of fish, wrapped in large portions of rice.That is correct

Perhaps you should refrain from buffets altogether, or simply select those items on the buffet line that completely conform to your special diet needs.So now I should be restricted from eating where I like, did n't the civil rights act prohibit laws like you want to make?

Most restaurants that offer buffets also offer menu selections for people who, for whatever reason, choose not to partake of the buffet.But i choose to partake of the buffet. Your special dietal needs do not exempt you from ordinary polite public conduct.And your liberal views don't mean that I answer to you. I never said or implied that I or an other diabetic is exempt, but we D@MN well should not be prohibited from enjoying a good meal from time to time where and when we choose to.

40 posted on 02/25/2011 2:36:36 AM PST by verga (I am not an apologist, I just play one on Television)
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