A New York man regretted changing his side order from chips to vegetables after finding a snake's head in his broccoli.
Jack Pendleton first thought the thumb-sized object was a mushroom, until he turned it over, reports the Albany Times Union.
"I see this gray-green patch," he said. "I could see these black, rotted eye sockets on the top. I stopped eating. I told my girlfriend, 'I think this is a head'."
Mr Pendleton, 28, an art director, took a photo with his phone camera, then summoned the waiter. He covered the dish with his hand and described his find.
"He thought I was joking until I took my hand away," he said. "The manager came over white as a sheet. He explained in five years he'd never run into anything like this."
Mr Pendleton says he has no plans to sue the restaurant, a TGI Friday in Clifton Park, which said it “regretted” the mistake. The couple were given their meals without charge.
Amy Freshwater, a spokeswoman for the chain, said: "We are taking this situation very seriously.
"We immediately pulled the broccoli from this restaurant and began an extensive investigation. As a precautionary measure, we pulled broccoli from all restaurants that received product from this supplier."
"We are sending the object to an independent laboratory for testing. We have very strict and thorough safety and sanitation procedures and regret that this situation occurred in one of our restaurants."
