If you visit a Mexican restaurant, expect some spice. One German tourist to New York, Faycal Manz, apparently didn’t get the memo on that. In August 2024, he stopped into Los Tacos No. 1 in Times Square, Manhattan, where he ordered three tacos.
Court documents say that Manz revealed, “as a German, he had never eaten tacos before”. After receiving his tray of delicious tacos, Manz made a beeline for the self-service salsa bar where he “proceeded to put hefty portions of also on top of all three tacos: two receiving a “red” salsa and the third a “green” salsa”.
A judge has tossed a tourist’s $100,000 lawsuit against a taco shop after he put too much salsa on his tacos and experienced diarrhea for days pic.twitter.com/I71glSHhrZ
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) March 31, 2026
The two red-salsa’d tacos provided him with the culinary experience he was craving. But the third green-salsa’d one? I’ll let United States District Judge Dale take over:
“After a single bite of the third taco, he immediately began suffering severe physical symptoms. He alleges his tongue burned, his mouth hurt, his face turned red, and his heart rate soared. He also alleges that he suffered severe GI distress and mouth sores that lasted for days. He tried to wash down the spice with a Coke and later some ice cream, to no avail.”
“Severe GI distress”
After returning to Germany, he filed a $100,000 lawsuit against the taco spot, submitting as evidence pictures of his tongue and images from Yelp, apparently showing that the green salsa was marked as “medium” heat.
A German tourist in NYC tried some green salsa from a taco shop.
— Rob Freund (@RobertFreundLaw) March 30, 2026
The salsa was too spicy for him. So he sued.
He alleges that he is extra sensitive to spicy foods, and he got diarrhea and mouth sores that lasted for days.
Court says it's not on the business "to… pic.twitter.com/cDeXItCyyV
Judge Dale clearly didn’t think much of Manz’ plight and dismissed the case entirely. He ruled that, as Manz failed to enquire about how spicy the salsa was, didn’t try a small sample before going nuts with it, and that as someone who knew he was sensitive to spice it was on him to check what he was eating wasn’t going to blow his butt out (okay, the judge didn’t use those exact words, but you get the picture.)
“A quick Google search for “Mexican food”, “salsa” or even Los Tacos reviews likely would have revealed that salsa can be quite spicy. For example, the online reviews that Mr. Manz seeks to admit to the record indicate that several users commented on the spice level at Los Tacos.”
In summary:
“A reasonable person with Mr Manz’s physical characteristics could have easily discovered that salsa at Los Tacos was spicy.”
Case closed! Perhaps in the future Mr. Manz should stick to bratwurst, saeurkraut and schnitzel?
But, in a way, we suppose Manz did get the full American experience on his trip to New York. Not only did he get to enjoy some tacos, but he also got to make some Mexican-Americans miserable, and file a truly frivolous lawsuit. Why, if only he’d also have accidentally discharged a firearm into his own foot and picked up an oxy addiction, he’d have the entire United States package!
Naturally, this is all an excellent ad for Los Tacos in Times Square, who are apparently producing some truly excellent salsa. And now… I’m hungry. Time to load up on salsa.
