NYC Michelin-Star Restaurant Criticised For Giving Women "Smaller Portions"

Michelin-star restaurants are normally known for their high standards, masterful cooking techniques, and exceptional service. However, this Michelin-star restaurant in New York is getting backlash after TikTok user Luis Carlos Zara shared his fine dining experience on social media which had everybody fuming.

Zara documented his experience at Sushi Noz in a video that got more than seven million views since it was uploaded on February 2, 2024. In the video, Zara says that while he has been to the restaurant many times before this was the first time they were visiting the restaurant since it received its second star. However, he soon told his viewers that this was his first "negative experience" at the restaurant even after paying $700 per person.

Firstly, he talks about how the wine pairings were off, saying that they didn't match each course, with no explanation on why they were being paired with the specific dishes.

"With $200 for the dish, you expect to get a sense of why each one was chosen for the specific dish, but this didn't happen."

However, that wasn't the reason why everybody jumped to criticize the restaurant. It was when he said that the woman in his group was specifically told she would be getting “smaller portions” than her male counterparts, that shook everybody. 

"We know that this was a common practice in some places for omakase, but she didn't ask for it."

The TikTok creator also added that the price of the meal was not even adjusted which means that the price of the woman's meal which had lesser quality was priced the same as the other dishes which had more quantity.

People took to the video to criticize the restaurant, one user wrote, "Smaller portions for women when there is no food anyway," while another added "I've been to Michelin-starred omakase and I've never been served a smaller portion as a woman. What a bizarre thing to do to your female customers!"

Zara also talked about how one of his friends was getting full by the end of the meal, so before the last piece of food "chute nigiri" was placed in front of him, he told the chef that he wasn't going to eat it. Then when his friend reached out for the piece so that Zara could eat it, the chef snatched it away from him and threw it in the trash.

When Zara confronted the chef about this, the chef said that the nigiri couldn't sit up for more than two seconds or it would go bad. However, as per Zara that was a bad excuse as he knows that no food will go bad within seconds. 

"The mindfulness of how we consume food and what we waste is important, and to see food being snatched up like this and thrown in the trash was pretty shocking," Zara said.

"So unfortunately Sushi Noz is not worth the special trip it once was," he concluded. One user took to the post to talk about the chef throwing the food "Sheesh yeah no excuses, but it is seen as extremely rude in Japanese culture to leave omakase piece on the counter for too long. Crazy to throw it away tho."

For more Food Reviews, Follow @luiscarloszara on TikTok.