'One Of The Most Dangerous Things You Can Eat': Houston Woman Brunches At Nobu. Then An Hour Passes

A Houston-area woman is going viral on TikTok after sharing her experience getting what she described as “violent food poisoning” following a brunch at Nobu Houston.

Nia (@niajugs), who appears to be feeling far better than she was during the ordeal, said she visited the upscale restaurant with her sister and was hit with a brutal stomach issue shortly afterward.
In the video, she walks viewers through the meal step by step, framing it as a cautionary tale.

“Everything I ate at Nobu brunch before I got violent food poisoning,” Nia wrote in the text overlay of the clip, before breaking down each dish she ordered. She said the aftermath included diarrhea and a severe stomachache.

Despite the experience, Nia leaned into humor, joking in the caption, “Count on me to always put my body on the line for content.”

As of Wednesday, the clip had racked up more than 621,500 views.

What Did She Eat?

At the start of her video, Nia makes her warning clear.

“I got food poisoning at Nobu, so you don’t have to,” she says.

She then lists off what she ordered, starting with taco yaki and salmon crispy rice. While she said both dishes tasted “fine,” neither stood out.

“None of these things blew my socks off, but they did almost blow my toilet seat off,” Nia joked.

The drinks followed. Her sister had a lychee mimosa, while Nia opted for a spicy Bloody Mary.

“Probably contributed to the liquid s--- that I got,” she said.

Next came tuna tartare topped with microgreens, followed by miso soup, which, in hindsight, she said may have helped settle her stomach. Steak rounded out the meal and earned the highest praise.

“By far the best thing [I] ate,” she said.

Nia ended the video with a final disclaimer for viewers: “Try at your own risk.”

What Got Her Sick?

While it’s unclear exactly what made her sick, viewers were convinced that Nia’s illness was tied to a culprit that keeps popping up in food safety warnings: raw sprouts.

Several of the dishes Nia mentioned, including the tuna tartare, included uncooked sprouts. These grow best in warm, damp conditions that are ideal for seed sprouting, but it, unfortunately, makes them ripe bacterial growth, which can lead to food poisoning if eaten raw.

Health officials have long linked raw sprouts to outbreaks of Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria. When people get sick from them, symptoms often appear quickly and include stomach cramps, fever, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Washing sprouts can help a little, but cooking them thoroughly is the only proven way to make them safe to eat.

That risk applies whether the sprouts are served at home or at a high-end restaurant like Nobu. Fine-dining kitchens often use microgreens for added presentation and flair, but when served raw, they pose the same food-safety risks.

Nia’s experience lines up with what experts have long warned about regarding raw sprouts. Her advice to viewers to “try at your own risk” may have landed as a joke, but when it comes to uncooked sprouts, it’s also pretty sound guidance.

Commenters Attempt To Guess

Plenty of viewers who saw Nia’s video quickly zeroed in on the tuna dish, with many saying raw sprouts were the most likely culprit behind her sickness.

“I don’t even get bean sprouts in my pho,” one woman said. “I don’t mess with uncooked sprouts at all.”

“My mom has drilled NO SPROUTS EVER into my head as a child,” another shared. “Because of the knowledge of how you can never ever get them clean… I’m going with that. No more sprouts. EVER.”

“Probably the microgreens/sprouts,” a third commenter said. “There’s a reason OBYGYNS tell expecting moms to not eat them.”

“Um was that raw sprouts???? That’s one of the most dangerous things you can eat,” another wrote.
Still, not everyone was convinced the greens were to blame. Some suggested the fish could’ve been responsible instead, depending on how quickly her symptoms kicked in.
“If you got sick within like 30 minutes, it was the fish,” one person argued. “If it was later, it was the sprouts/lettuce.”

Another commenter expanded on that idea. “Most mishandling isn’t even the sushi meat, it’s normally fecal material or anything else on the lettuce or produce,” they said.
Meanwhile, a handful of regular sprout-eaters said they were shocked by the discussion altogether, admitting they’d never realized raw sprouts carried that kind of risk.

“Damn, I always eat sprouts, and that’s never happened??? I didn’t even know,” one wrote.

“These comments are how I find out sprouts are dangerous??” another added.

Patch has reached out to Nia via direct message on TikTok and to Nobu through its online contact form.