5.1 Disparagement Zagat Survey, LLC, publishes the entertainment. The Zagat Survey of New York City Restaurants famous Zagat series of dining, travel, and leisure guides for rated the food at Lucky Cheng's as 9 and rated the dcor and

different cities and locations. The Zagat restaurant guides list service as 15. The Zagat guide then stated: and rank each reviewed restaurant from 0 to 30 for categories such as food, dcor, and service. These ratings are calculated from surveys of customers of the restaurants, and the Lagat

guide often quotes anonymous consumer comments. Lucky Cheng's is a restaurant owned by Themed Restaurants, Inc., that is located in Manhattan, New York City. Lucky Cheng's is a theme restaurant with a drag queen cabaret where female impersonators are both waiters and

performers, and customer participation contributes to the "ross-dressing" staff who tell dirty jokes", perform impromptu floor shows" and offer lap dances for desert: obviously, it an be exhausting, and weary well-wisbers suggest they freshen up the meku- and their makeup."

Themed Restaurants sued Zagat for disparagement. Zagat defended, arguing that the ratings and comments about Lucky Cheng's restaurant that appeared in the Zagat guide

were opinions and not statements of fact, and were, there-fore, not actionable as disparagement. Were the statements

made in Zagat's restaurant guide statements of fact or state-ments of opinion? Is Zagat liable for disparagement? Themed Restaurants, Inc., Doing Business as Lucky Cheng's v. Zagat

Survey, LIC, 801 N.Y.S.2d 38, Web 2005 N.Y. App. Div.

Lexis 9275 (Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division)