A German tourist sued a NYC taco shop over spicy salsa

One trip sparked three federal lawsuits

A German engineer named Faycal Manz visited New York City in August 2024 and came home with more than souvenirs.

His trip led to three separate lawsuits against a taco restaurant, a Walmart, and the New York City Police Department. Manz filed all three cases on his own, without a lawyer.

Two have already been decided against him. The third is still working its way through court.

He tried tacos for the first time

Manz found Los Tacos No. 1, a popular taco chain in Times Square, through a Google search. He said he had never eaten tacos before.

He ordered three: carne asada, chicken, and adobada pork. Then he loaded them up with salsa, putting red on two and green salsa verde on the third.

By his own account, he used a large amount. What happened next set the whole saga in motion.

The salsa verde hit him hard

Manz said his tongue and mouth started burning after the first bite of the green salsa. His face turned red, and he claims his Apple Watch showed his heart rate spiking.

He reported mouth sores and digestive problems that lasted for days. But here’s the thing: he never saw a doctor, not in New York and not back in Germany.

He kept right on with his trip, even attending the U.S. Open.

He took the restaurant to federal court

Manz filed his lawsuit on Oct. 2, 2024, in federal court in Manhattan. He claimed the salsa caused severe physical and emotional harm.

His argument? The salsa containers had no labels identifying what was inside or warning about spice levels.

He also noted he has a sensitive digestive system and a spice intolerance.

The restaurant fired back, saying no customer had ever complained about their salsa’s spice level before Manz.

A judge said salsa is obviously spicy

U.S. District Judge Dale Ho closed the case on Feb. 15, 2026, ruling in the restaurant’s favor. In a 12-page opinion, Ho found that restaurants have no legal duty to warn customers about spice levels in salsa.

He also wrote that any reasonable person could have figured out that salsa at a taco restaurant might be spicy. Manz has said he won’t appeal but still hopes the restaurant will add labels to its salsa bar.

Walmart’s Wi-Fi became his next target

During the same trip, Manz stopped at a Walmart Supercenter in Secaucus, N.J. He tried to connect to the store’s free Wi-Fi but couldn’t because the login required a U.S. phone number.

Manz argued this violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination based on national origin in public places. He also filed state-level claims, including unfair trade practices and emotional distress.

The case landed in federal court in New Jersey.

Two courts rejected the Walmart claims

A federal judge in New Jersey threw out the civil rights claim for good, meaning Manz can’t refile it. The court sent the state-level claims back without a final ruling.

Manz appealed, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit sided with the lower court on Feb. 27, 2026.

The appeals court found Manz hadn’t shown that Walmart’s Wi-Fi policy treated people differently based on where they came from.

He also called 911 and sued over that

Manz says he saw two people attack a homeless man near Times Square and called 911. According to his lawsuit, the dispatcher insisted on a specific street address and wouldn’t accept a nearby landmark.

He also claims the dispatcher said the NYPD doesn’t use Google to look up locations and that police couldn’t call him back because their system couldn’t reach foreign phone numbers.

The NYPD case asks for $10 million

Manz filed this lawsuit on Nov. 3, 2024, in the New York Supreme Court.

He wants $10 million in damages and policy changes that would require the NYPD to handle international calls.

He’s also pushing for mandatory training so dispatchers and officers can communicate better with foreign visitors and non-English speakers. The city filed a response denying every one of his claims.

Manz says he just wants to fix things

Manz told Gothamist his main goal is to correct things he believes are wrong. He chalks up his drive to his upbringing and says it’s about safety and following rules.

He filed all three lawsuits without hiring a lawyer. The salsa and Walmart cases are both fully resolved against him.

Only the NYPD lawsuit remains, and as of March 2026, no trial date has been publicly reported.

Two down, one lawsuit still standing

The salsa case ended when Judge Ho granted summary judgment for the restaurant in February 2026. The Walmart case met the same fate, dismissed by a district court and upheld by the Third Circuit that same month.

The NYPD lawsuit is the only one still active. All claims Manz made about the 911 call are allegations that haven’t been proven in court.

Whether his last case goes anywhere remains an open question.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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