Woman Sues Olive Garden After Reportedly Burning Her Throat On Stuffed Mushrooms

Gotta say, I can relate to this story. Once my friend and I were watching Mad Men on Sunday night with our usual order of Thai takeout. I bit into a crab rangoon and the filling was, to date, the hottest (temperature, not spice) thing I have ever tasted. I got an immediate blister on the roof of my mouth. I had to walk around with an ice cube in my mouth for days, it hurt so much. I couldn't eat anything else at all. And because the hotness was in the filling, there was no way to tell on the outside. Plus, it was takeout: How hot could it be? Pretty hot, apparently.

So I feel for this Texas woman who apparently also got singed by an appetizer: in this case, the stuffed mushrooms at Olive Garden. As The Fort Worth Star-Telegram relays this hellscape of a story: "When it was served to her, there was no warning that would indicate that the 'mushrooms were particularly hot or (carried) the risk to cause severe burns,' according to the lawsuit." Unfortunately, a stuffed mushroom got lodged in her throat, and the woman "frantically shuffled through the restaurant in need of help," finally vomiting in a kitchen station.

When she got home, the woman felt like her throat was closing up (possibly due to the burns), so she called 911 and went to the Burn Unit of Parkland Hospital in Dallas, according to the lawsuit. She is now seeking $200,000 to $1 million in damages; both her lawyer and Olive Garden declined to comment. Not sure how this case is going to turn out, but people: Assume all stuffed mushrooms are hot. And watch those appetizers: You are not about to starve, so please make extra sure everything you taste is at a reasonable temperature. Pizza burns are no fun, even if they're not from pizza.