Rival hot spots in food fight

BEEFING over chicken satay is on the menu. Upscale Chinese eatery Jue Lan Club is waging a new restaurant war, suing newcomer Sei Less for allegedly stealing its menu and celebrity patrons, Page Six has learned.

Jue Lan Club filed a complaint on April 15 accusing former employees Dara Mirjahangiry, Ivi Shano and others of “operating and promoting a competing restaurant . . . through theft of trade secrets, deceptive and confusing means.”

Mirjahangiry opened Sei Less this year in the Garment District, and it became a hot spot, with stars dropping by including Kanye West, Angela Simmons, Busta Rhymes, Cardi B, 50 Cent and Omari Hardwick. Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen has also been photographed hanging at the eatery.

In addition to allegedly stealing celeb customers, Jue Lan claimed in the suit that Sei Less owners distributed “false, misleading and infringing promotional materials” to appear as if the establishments are affiliated.

It also claims they “logged into OpenTable with the intent of sabotaging Jue Lan” and that Sei Less linked its account “to the Jue Lan OpenTable account as an affiliate.”

This isn’t the first time Jue Lan has been in a Chinese-food fight. Stratis Morfogen opened the joint in 2015 after he left his Philippe Chow empire due to a nasty battle with the owners of Mr. Chow, who accused him of infringing on their brand. Morfogen parted ways with Jue Lan in 2017 and has since found greener pastures with several Brooklyn Chop House locations and dumpling cookbooks.

Sources told us Mirjahangiry was a key player in developing Jue Lan after Morfogen left, but Mirjahangiry described the legal claims as “lies.” “It’s a frivolous lawsuit,” he said. “We are focused on building Sei Less into the premiere hospitality brand that it has quickly become. We’ve never claimed we are [Jue Lan]. I left. I opened a new concept. There’s nothing they do that we need. We focus on our business, not other people’s businesses.” A Jue Lan rep declined to comment.