A Hindu family has sued a restaurant in California for an unspecified amount enough for it to travel to India for a cleansing ritual in river Ganges, after allegedly finding chunks of beef in the food they ordered, despite their repeated reminders that they are strict vegetarians and ordering the food from a vegetarian menu.
Keshav Pabbi was quoted by an ethnic newspaper as saying that he and his family were horrified to find beef in the vegetarian burrito they had ordered. "It tasted different," he said.
For months, the management of the restaurant did not respond to their complaints, he said. So they filed the suit against the chain.
The suit, filed by attorney Ashwin Ladva of San Francisco on January 28, asks for an unspecified amount of damages enough to fly the family to Haridwar to perform a cleansing ritual in the holy river Ganges, plus punitive and compensatory damages.
"I took the case because restaurants and the food industry in general don't pay enough attention to the needs of cultural groups," Ladva told India-West daily last week.
"If a person told their server that their kid was deathly allergic to peanuts, the server would take it seriously. The same premise should apply to a devoutly religious vegetarian."
Keshav and Reenu Pabbi (the wife of a relative) and his son, Prince, and Reenu's son, Kartik, went to the restaurant for a meal September 28, 2002