{"id":147062,"date":"2026-01-24T00:18:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T00:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/147062\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T00:18:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T00:18:21","slug":"san-jose-doctor-suing-los-gatos-restaurant-over-spicy-dragon-balls-cites-overseas-wedding-gets-trial-delayed-east-bay-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/147062\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose doctor suing Los Gatos restaurant over spicy Dragon Balls cites overseas wedding, gets trial delayed \u2013 East Bay Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A San Jose doctor suing a Thai restaurant in Los Gatos over claims its Dragon Balls appetizer was so spicy it burned her internally<\/a> has received a delay in the trial, citing her need to attend a wedding in Vietnam.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be difficult and distracting for me to have a trial starting the day after I return from overseas,\u201d neurologist Harjasleen Walia wrote in a January 14 declaration to Santa Clara County Superior Court.<\/p>\n

This week, Judge Evette Pennypacker, who is overseeing the case, agreed to reschedule the trial to Nov. 9, from March 23.<\/p>\n

Walia in 2023 sued Coup de Thai \u2014 a fixture on the main drag of wealthy Los Gatos since 2014 \u2014 and alleged that during a 2021 meal, the restaurant\u2019s Dragon Balls caused chemical burns to her vocal cords, esophagus and the inside of her right nostril, leaving her with \u201cpermanent injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The restaurant in a 2023 court filing denied Walia\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n

Walia\u2019s lawsuit accuses Coup de Thai of gross negligence. Also targeted in the lawsuit were the restaurant\u2019s owner, the chef who cooked the appetizer, the waitress who took Walia\u2019s order, and unspecified others who \u201cin any way influenced, designed, prepared, or participated in creating the Dragon Ball dish,\u201d according to the lawsuit. Walia is seeking unspecified damages, plus compensation for medical expenses and alleged lost income.<\/p>\n

In her declaration, Walia said she was a member of the wedding party for a close relative who is \u201clike a daughter to me.\u201d Walia said her 83-year-old father and 80-year-old mother would not be able to travel to Viet Nam without her escorting them. \u201cThey are the last of the oldest generation in my family and it is very important in my culture that they be present at the wedding,\u201d Walia said.<\/p>\n

Walia aded that the airline tickets are \u201cprepaid, non-refundable and very expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pennypacker did not provide a detailed explanation of her decision to grant the delay<\/a>, but noted both sides had sought it.<\/p>\n

Walia\u2019s lawyer David Shane, who took on the case last June after her previous attorney stopped representing her<\/a>, said in a court filing that he was a sole practitioner and had a different trial starting March 23 in San Francisco. The previous lawyer told this news organization he could not comment on why he left the case.<\/p>\n

A lawyer for Coup de Thai, Sheryl Traum, said in a filing last week that the restaurant\u2019s previous lawyer had also withdrawn from the case, after being promoted to management at her firm. Traum said she needed more time to obtain additional information to give to dozens of witnesses she plans to call during the trial, including ear, nose and throat specialists, and food-safety experts.<\/p>\n

Traum said she hired a medical expert to review medical records Walia provided that purport to document the damage from the $11 chicken-meatballs dish. The expert \u2014 an ear, nose and throat specialist \u2014 will examine Walia and analyze her \u201calleged injuries and health condition,\u201d Traum said.<\/p>\n

Walia, who works at HeadacheAwayMD Brain & Spine Center in west San Jose, claimed in her lawsuit that because the Dragon Balls were advertised as spicy, she asked her server to have them made with less spice because \u201cshe does not tolerate spicy foods.\u201d The server said the cook would make the dish less spicy, the lawsuit alleged.<\/p>\n

But almost immediately after she tucked into the Dragon Balls, Walia \u201cfelt her entire mouth, the roof of her mouth, her tongue, her throat and her nose burn like fire,\u201d and her \u201ceyes and nose watered, and she began coughing,\u201d the lawsuit claimed.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit blamed Thai \u201cbird\u2019s eye\u201d chilis for making Walia\u2019s Dragon Balls allegedly \u201cunfit for human consumption.\u201d The restaurant\u2019s owner, chef, server and others involved with the appetizer \u201cfailed to take precautions by consulting with health officials or emergency service personnel regarding the risks associated with serving too much Thai chili in an appetizer like Dragon Balls,\u201d the lawsuit claimed.<\/p>\n

A supervisor at Coup de Thai, contacted by this news organization soon after the lawsuit was filed, said Walia was the first patron to say they had been burned by a dish and required medical treatment. Dragon Balls, the supervisor said, can\u2019t be made \u201cmild\u201d because the chili is inside the balls. Patrons wanting Dragon Balls but saying they can\u2019t handle spicy foods are typically encouraged to order a different dish, the supervisor said.<\/p>\n

In a November 2023 court filing, Walia claimed that a later admission \u2014 the filing does not specify when or by whom \u2014 made clear how she was allegedly injured. \u201cA new employee who prepared the dish made an error and added additional peppers, rather than reducing them as requested,\u201d the filing said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Kelly Johnson-Arbor, a doctor at the Washington, D.C.-based National Capital Poison Center, told this news organization earlier that eating Thai chilis \u2014 spicier than cayenne peppers but not as spicy as habaneros \u2014 can cause mouth and throat irritation but \u201care not associated with permanent tissue damage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A San Jose doctor suing a Thai restaurant in Los Gatos over claims its Dragon Balls appetizer was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,7,1312,421,1533,181,23,190,100,182,385,412,88,90,89,198,200,420],"class_list":{"0":"post-147062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-courts","11":"tag-food-and-drink","12":"tag-keywee","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-los-gatos","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-pm-report","18":"tag-regional","19":"tag-restaurants","20":"tag-san-jose","21":"tag-san-jose-headlines","22":"tag-san-jose-news","23":"tag-santa-clara-county","24":"tag-south-bay","25":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}