PORTLAND , Ore., Feb. 19 (UPI) -- An Oregon man is suing Outback Steakhouse for $48,000 after he says he busted two of his teeth on pieces of broken porcelain that were in his mashed potatoes.

The lawsuit was filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court and it names Evergreen Restaurant Group, OSI Restaurant Partners and Bloomin' Brands.


According to Roger Branstetter’s suit, he was at an Outback in Portland in Feb. 2012, when he broke two of his molars on bits of cracked plates that were in his potatoes. Branstetter’s teeth needed to be pulled and replaced with implants.

The location’s managers "admitted to plaintiff that a plate had broken in the kitchen and that pieces had fallen into the mashed potatoes," the suit states.

The suit claims that Evergreen Restaurant Group was negligent for not warning customers about the broken dish and not letting them "make their own informed decision regarding whether to eat food that might contain sharp, hard, dangerous and potentially deadly pieces of a broken plate."

A broken plate piece had the potential to be “fatal, if it punctured internal organs such as the (customer's) esophagus, stomach or intestines," according to the suit.

"It's really disappointing when someone gets hurt inside the restaurant," Jason Bender, a managing partner at Evergreen Restaurant Group, told the Oregonian.

[The Oregonian]