HOUSTON – A local woman bit off more than expected while she tried to enjoy a Caesar salad at a popular Houston-based restaurant chain, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Harris County.
Toneisha Medina, a mother of three, said she ordered a side Caesar salad with extra croutons from Becks Prime on Augusta Drive near the Galleria on Aug. 13 and has not been the same since.
“I thought, ‘Wow, these are really hard croutons’,” she told only KPRC 2, calling the bites crunchy and indescribable. “My next bite stopped me in my tracks and I couldn’t eat anymore.”
She’s had trouble eating ever since, after finding what she says were pieces of glass in the salad from a restaurant she has always loved.
“I chew my food about 200 times,” Medina said. “When you go there and you order food, you hold those who handle your food with a sense of accountability.”
She still has some of the pieces she found saved in a baggie at home and is still dealing with what her attorney called “extensive damages.”
“She’s still not out of the woods. She still has biopsies coming back. She’s had testing. She’s had shards of glass taken out of her esophagus. She still has a broken tooth that needs to be fixed,” personal injury attorney Ralph Manginello said.
Manginello filed the lawsuit against Becks Prime, alleging the Houston-based restaurant chain served “defective and dangerous food” and “failed to maintain quality control.”
“As a restaurant that serves the public, they have a duty to make sure the public is safe while they’re eating their food. And again, someone didn’t do what they were supposed to do. Now there’s protocols in place at every restaurant. I don’t know specifically what Beck’s protocols are, but we’re going to find out,” Manginello said.
Medina said doctors told her there’s a scrape in her intestine. Thinking about the experience still makes her throw up, she’s been nauseous every day and is afraid to eat, she said.
“You don’t walk into a restaurant and order a salad and think that is going to change your life,” Medina said.
She doesn’t plan to return to the restaurant and has since been contacted by an adjuster from the restaurant chain’s insurance company.
Reached by phone, managers at two Becks Prime locations told KPRC 2 they were aware of the incident. Multiple attempts to reach company leaders were ignored at the time of this writing.