These dual fish tales aren’t letting either party off the hook.
The owners of a Canadian sushi restaurant say they’ve been subjected to “racially motivated harassment” after a woman went viral by accusing the establishment of degrading her for ordering “too much food.”
Cassandra Mauro, 25, dined at Paper Crane Sushi Bar & Bistro in King City, Ontario, with a gal pal named Katherine last week, where the pair ordered chicken fried rice, shrimp tempura, noodles and two sushi rolls.
In her viral video, which has clocked up more than 1.4 million views, Mauro said that she and Katherine were “starving” when they arrived at the restaurant and even planned to order additional food before being shamed by a rude employee.
“The lady goes, ‘No, no. Too much food!’” Mauro alleged in her viral video, saying she was left “confused” by the reaction.
The TikToker then claimed that she and Katherine were “shook to the core” when Paper Crane’s manager approached the table to check whether the order was correct.
“The manager walks over … and goes ‘Hungry? … Yeah, you ordered too much food,’” an incredulous Mauro recalled.
“Hungry? Like no, we came to your restaurant full,” the sassy content creator quipped sarcastically to the camera — although she remained polite during her exchanges with the restaurant’s staff.
Mauro further alleged that she and her friend were asked to move to a bigger table so that there was space for all of their plates of food to fit.
She also claimed that she had a direct line of view into the kitchen and that the chef kept looking over at her and Katherine while laughing.
“At a restaurant where you come to order food, you get mocked for ordering food,” Mauro told her TikTok followers in an exasperated manner.
The Canadian added that she and Katherine finished everything that they ordered and described the employees’ behavior as “offensive.”
After Mauro’s video went viral, dozens of viewers flooded Paper Crane’s Google and Yelp pages with bad reviews, enraged on behalf of the Canadian content creator.
“We don’t tolerate body shaming anymore,” one critic blasted. “Your business deserves to suffer losses for this.”
The restaurant was forced to issue a statement to its Instagram page apologizing to Mauro for the bad encounter.
“We sincerely apologize for an y comments that may have caused a negative experience,” the owners stated. “Many of our staff speak English as a second language, but we hope you know that it was never the intention of our staff to make you (or anyone) feel judged at our restaurant and we are embarrassed any comments may have come across in this way.”
They added that they would be turning off comments on their social media accounts, saying they have been “receiving threats and racially motivated harassment.”
“We are not intending to hide from our customer service obligations, but our focus will be protecting our family through this difficult time,” Paper Crane said. “We hope you all understand.”
It appears Mauro was unprepared for her TikTok to go viral, posting a second video pleading with followers to stop leaving negative reviews.
“Yes, what the restaurant did was not OK, yes they really treated me horribly,” she declared. “Although I don’t want to be the reason why someone goes hungry or a restaurant goes out of business, I won’t be able to sleep at night knowing this business might go down because of a bad experience that I had.”
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
