Yes, It’s More Expensive, But It’s A Small Price To Pay For The Comfort In Not Knowing That The Other Menu Features Squirrel

It’s not news that Chinese restaurants everywhere have reserve suckier menus for gweilo. So it’s gratifying to learn that some are also charging such diners accordingly:

The price you pay for your beef with string beans depends entirely on whether or not you are Chinese — at least according to the menus at one restaurant in Chinatown, city officials say.

The city Human Rights Commission has filed a discrimination complaint against the Canal Seafood Restaurant for allegedly giving a different menu with lower prices to customers who are Chinese.

David Lopez, a visitor from Wisconsin, contacted the commission after eating at the restaurant with several friends last October.

He and his girlfriend knew something was wrong when a waiter told them that a serving of rice would cost them extra. They had noticed Asian customers munching on similar dishes served over a bed of rice.

“Being Hispanic, we both like rice,” said 46-year-old Lopez. “We saw other customers getting a different menu. We were told we could order from it if we spoke Chinese.”

The prices on that menu, written in Chinese, were an average of $1 cheaper per dish.

“It was very distressful to go to a place in one of the most diverse cities in the world and be discriminated against,” Lopez said.

Representatives for the restaurant have denied the existence of two different in-store menus.

But Lopez, who has worked as a discrimination investigator in Wisconsin, took both menus with him. He took the menus and his concerns to the Human Rights Commission.

After an investigation, the commission determined there was probable cause that discrimination had taken place, and referred the case to the office of Administrative Trials and Hearings for a trial.