Lotus Cuisine of India Family of Restaurants | 704 Fourth Street | San Rafael, CA 94901
March 2016
Issue: 2/16
Patch.com Damages Lotus Reputation with Poorly Researched Article on Health Violations

Lotus Cuisine of India was recently incorrectly included in a Patch.com article "6 Marin County Restaurants Receive 'Conditional Pass' Grade" posted on 2/16/2016:

http://patch.com/california/novato/6-marin-county-restaurants-receive-conditional-pass-grade-0

Lotus notified Patch of this error. Patch reporter Bea Karnes should have known how important it is to get the facts straight. She could have spoken or sent an email to County health inspectors before posting such an accusatory and damaging article but she did not. She relied entirely on a County website which contained outdated and incorrect information. Lotus was uniquely damaged because the information on the website was over a year old, compared to the other five restaurants, and no health department would permit a restaurant to operate with ongoing violations.

Lotus owner Surinder "Pal" Sroa immediately discussed this article with environmental health specialists Loni Ward and David Smail at the Marin County Environmental Health Services. Both agree that the Patch article was full of discrepancies and Lotus should not be included in such an article. Ms. Ward has kindly written a letter about this which you can read by following the link below:

Readers were led to believe that the 6 restaurants mentioned - including Lotus - are the worst offenders in Marin, when in fact they are not. Lotus received regular random health inspections like other restaurants as can be seen from the County Health website that Patch links to:

The article specifically referred to a routine health inspection at Lotus dating back to early 2015. Patch incorrectly stated that Lotus Cuisine currently has a conditional grade. All the other restaurants had inspections from 2016.

Lotus has received a PASS for every inspection since Feb 2015. For further details please see the Marin County health website the article links to and also the copies of the most recent health inspection which are attached.

Lotus has retained legal counsel and asked for a formal retraction and raised a claim for defamation.

The staff of Lotus Cuisine of India has requested an apology from Patch for the reputational damage and demanded a retraction of this defamatory article. Patch has finally removed Lotus from the article but has yet to apologize. Lotus is also seeking that Patch post a rebuttal article where Surinder Sroa has the opportunity to talk about his family of well-respected restaurants and about the issue of health inspections.

Some of you may now be asking how you can help! Please show your support for the Lotus Family of Restaurants. Let Patch know that such poor journalism is not acceptable. Please tell your friends about this by sharing this article.


Quote from Lotus Owner Surinder Sroa

The days since this Patch article appeared have been without a doubt the absolute worst of my life. This one article damaged our reputation and has bothered me in ways that I did not expect, bringing tears to my eyes.

Unlike any reputable reporter this reporter did not even bother to check with the County about the information she posted. We have received a bunch of emails and phone calls about this article from concerned customers. Our reputation has suffered and our sales have dropped significantly.

We met with health dept. inspectors the day the article appeared when the inspectors stopped in for another routine inspection. Once again Lotus passed with flying colors. The inspectors were also upset with this article. They told us that Lotus is one of their favorite restaurants.
I also met with the Marin County Supervisors office and they agreed that this article was wrong and the author does not seem to understand how health violations work.

I want to let everyone know that Lotus is extremely conscious about all health issues, such as allergies and gluten-free meals as well as providing vegan and vegetarian meals.

We are a certified Bay Area Green Business and we serve the finest organic, locally sourced produce and we maintain the highest standards.

Please continue to support us and enjoy our healthy meals.

We hope you enjoyed our newsletter and look forward to welcome you at one of our establishments again soon!

Sincerely,
Surinder "Pal" Sroa 

Lotus Cuisine of India
704 Fourth Street                                           Phone: (415) 456-5808
San Rafael, CA 94901                                  
www.lotusrestaurant.com

~~~~~*~~~~~

Lotus Chaat & Spices 
1559 Fourth Street                                         Phone: (415) 454-6887
San Rafael, CA 94901                                            

~~~~~*~~~~~  

Cafe Lotus Fairfax
1912 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard                 Phone: (415) 457-7836
Fairfax, CA 94930                                            
 
~~~~~*~~~~~


Leila By The Bay
1991 Railroad Ave                                         Phone: (510) 741-5580
Hercules, CA 94547
www.leilabythebay.com 
 
Please note:
We are not associated with any other Indian Restaurants. 
 

"In India, sharing food is the greatest way we can show appreciation for one another."

Surinder Sroa
Owner, Lotus Cuisine
 

 

March 8, 2016
Save the Bees!
Speaker:
Chris Conrad,
Bee Conscious


Free Samosas!
Free Chai!
15% off Dinner!

Exclusive FREEBIES for Facebook followers!

Simply LIKE these Facebook posts, mention them when you visit, and enjoy your exclusive gifts from Lotus.
 
 
Review Us

Lotus on Yelp

Lotus on urbanspoon

tripadvisor

Lotus is Zagat rated

Friends Don't Let Friends Miss Out

Tell your friends to sign up for our free newsletter and we'll send them a coupon for 15% off Dinner at Lotus Cuisine of India.