Lawsuit: Indian Restaurant Forces Indians To Tip, Or Else They'll Get Beaten Up

No tip for you! (Brian A Jackson / Shutterstock)

Since the recession we've heard more and more about restaurants adding automatic gratuity for parties much smaller than six but an automatic gratuity for brown people? At an Indian restaurant? That's new to us. But that is exactly what a new lawsuit is claiming the Forest Hills outpost of the chain Baluchi's does. In papers filed in Brooklyn yesterday [PDF] Abe Shah and Hemang Virani, who are of Pakistani and Indian descent respectively, claim that on May 12 they were charged an 18 percent gratuity without their permission. When they complained to a manager they were told that the restaurant routinely adds on the extra money to "Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi customers" bills because "they never tip." And then things got violent!

Shah and Virani were so upset by this "blatant discrimination" on behalf of management that they paid their bill, minus the gratuity, and left the restaurant...only to be followed outside by the manager and another employee. Once outside three more employees appeared from behind the restaurant and the quintet began to harass the pair over their lack of tipping, becoming "increasingly loud and aggressive" and using racial slurs, according to the complaint. Finally the "verbal assault escalated to physical violence" when one of the men spat on Shah and punched him the face. After some more scuffling knocked her to the ground, Virani dialed 911 and filed police reports. The pair were later taken to a nearby hospital where Shah was diagnosed with a facial contusion and extremely high blood pressure.

The duo are seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorney's costs. Nobody is currently answering the phone at the Forest Hills Baluchi's and our calls to the company's corporate offices have yet to be returned. Now, we know lots of waiters who would like to force their customers to tip (especially those with EU passports) but this, if true, is ridiculous!

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Garth Johnston in Food on September 13, 2011 12:00 PM

Comments [rss]

ForestHillsNative

THIS Baluchi's is a dump. When they offer "50% off specials" on meals they give substantially less food. The service is crap and they haven't changed the PENDING GRADE sign in their window since it was issued in AUGUST 2011, in spite of the fact that they had been issued a B. Want the details?Violation issued at the reinspection conducted on 08/10/2011. Violation points: 20Sanitary Violations1) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.2) Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan.3) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility's food and/or non-food areas.Mice OR live mice. MMMMMM. Is it some part of India where the mice are sacred? It goes well with the pidgeon feces literally dripping from their overhead signs!Forest Hills has a new Indian restaurant a few blocks away. I'll try Haveli, even though the manager there WAS a manager at this horrid Baluchi's.

ForestHillsNative

THIS Baluchi's is a dump. When they offer "50% off specials" on meals they give substantially less food. The service is crap and they haven't changed the PENDING GRADE sign in their window since it was issued in AUGUST 2011, in spite of the fact that they had been issued a B. Want the details?
Violation issued at the reinspection conducted on 08/10/2011. Violation points: 20Sanitary Violations1) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.2) Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan.3) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility's food and/or non-food areas.Mice OR live mice. MMMMMM. Is it some part of India where the mice are sacred? It goes well with the bird crap literally dripping off the lighted signs for this health hazard.Forest Hills has a new Indian restaurant a few blocks away. I'll try Haveli, even though the manager there WAS a manager at this horrid Baluchi's

Emi Shinozaki

Want to know the validity of this case? Check out LASIS here:

http://www.lasisblog.com/2011/...

dollarmenu

The "extremely high blood pressure" is probably a result of the meal, not the fight.

Varun Kalsi

You can't force gratuity coz the meaning of the word itself denotes a voluntary contribution nonetheless even if a restaurant has a compulsory tipping policy, it should be mentioned clearly within the restaurant premises. In any case, no SOB has the right to chase and hit their customers just because they did not tip em. Secondly, Baluchi's food sucks in any case as its actually run by a Bangladeshi who can't even make simple vegan Indian stuff...so not really worth it Shah and Virmani. Try Lexington Ave or Little India at journal square if you really want decent Indian food.

inwoodresident23

What's with all the Baluchi's hate on this site? I mean, food-wise. Baluchi's may not be the very best Indian food, but it's not bad at all.

bigb

The restaurant should add gratuity for all people regardless of race. problem solved.

Pashri Diaz

This is sad. Profiling their own people...

Miles Bader

(comment deleted ... c'mon disqus, let us really delete them...)

Jimbo853okg

Normally I have no issues with attached gratuities as most service is worth 15-18%. One time I was charged an automatic 15% gratuity in a South Beach restaurant on dinner for two. The place clearly got a lot of Europeans, who aren't conditioned to tip. Thing is, the service was lousy. Incredibly lousy. We complained to the manager, no one threatened us (I'd like to have seen them try) and we didn't tip.

Mediocre food aside, reading this is one more reason I'll never eat at a Baluchi's again.

AzzTech

Isn't there some rule against running out on the check? I know that didn't happen here, but they paid less than the amount on the check.... something like a merchant's privilege?

soothsayer

they DID paid the check, the tip/gratuity is not considered a part of the check.

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nyt...

AzzTech

Somewhere... in the story I read, the gratuity or service charge (or whatever) was added to the check. The bill (which included the gratutity) was paid less the "gratuity". I'm not trying to get into a semantical argument about what constitutes the check. Apparently the restaurant workers and the customers already did that for us with their fists.

Zachary Uram

No, they have absolutely NO legal right to impose ANY sort of automatic gratuity. The bill is the price of the food plus any applicable taxes. By your logic the management can add an automatic 2000% gratuity and the customer is legally obligated to pay? There is precedence in case law if you care to research the matter. To say they didn't pay for their food is ludicrous. I refuse to dine anywhere that is so arrogant they add an automatic gratuity. In such restaurants the servers are almost always rude and give poor service since they know they can slack off and STILL get their automatic tip! Rubbish.

kimpossibble

Even if Baluchis does have such a practice (which it very well might), do you really think the server/management would freely confess to it? Highly unlikely.