There’s nothing better than Olive Garden’s bottomless soups and salads (and breadsticks), as long as there aren’t any rodent claws in any of the food items.
A 54-year-old man by the name of Thomas Howie was enjoying his bowl of minestrone soup at the popular Italian franchise restaurant near his home in Detroit when he got an unexpected surprise (and not a good one).
One of the spoonfuls that entered his mouth didn’t feel right, and when he felt something sharp scratching against his cheek, he spit out the minestrone, revealing a rather large rat’s foot that he had almost swallowed.
Howie said in his complaint:
“I felt something stab me in the mouth, and I wasn’t sure the first thought was a needle. It was so gross and disgusting I couldn’t control myself.
My stomach just heaved…I threw up right in the restaurant.”
The man was out dining with friends when the disgusting event unfolded, and when he and his table realized that the severed rat’s foot was in the bowl of soup, Howie decided to call the cops.
Officers arrived shortly after Howie made the call to investigate the incident. The man showed them the rat’s foot (claws and all) that he allegedly found in his soup and had spit back into the bowl after realizing something wasn’t right.
Thomas goes on to say in his complaint that they asked to speak to the restaurant’s manager after the gross discovery, who told them that he wasn’t sure if there was anything he could do. The manager also tried to take away the rat’s foot from the table, which Howie and his friends stopped him from doing so they had evidence of the incident.
Another Olive Garden employee allegedly tried to make light of the situation, going over to Thomas’ table and saying:
“That’s funny. We don’t even put meat in the minestrone.”
The incident was no laughing matter for Howie, who quickly went to an urgent care clinic afterwards to get a tetanus shot, and is now suing the Olive Garden chain for $25,000 in damages (not exactly a king’s ransom).
He also alleges that he longer goes out to eat unless he can see the food prepared right in front of him, and that the rat foot incident made him feel nauseous and suffer from diarrhea for several days afterwards.
Howie also says that he has had a significant increase in anxiety and depression in the months following the rat’s foot somehow finding its way into his soup back in March of this year.
I’m actually having Olive Garden for dinner tonight (100% true, not joking), so I’ll make sure I double check everything before I really start to dig in…
