A California woman who found a rolled-up condom in her bowl of clam chowder has sued the upscale restaurant that served it to her -- saying she has suffered depression and anxiety from the shocking discovery.

Laila Sultan was eating clam chowder at McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant in Irvine, in February last year.

She said after spitting out something rubbery that she'd bitten into, she spent 15 minutes vomiting in a restaurant toilet.

The 48-year-old has since seen a psychiatrist and taken medication for depression and anxiety. Sultan and her three companions are suing the restaurant for negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress in a case that is expected to go to trial early next year.

But an attorney for McCormick & Schmicks Seafood Restaurant in Irvine, California, says the eatery has no idea how the condom got into Laila Sultan's food.

At the forthcoming trial in January, the restaurant chain will argue neither the restaurant nor its staff was the source of the condom.

The restaurant's lawyer Patrick Stark told, "Either it came from (the four women) or it was thrown in as a practical joke by another patron at the restaurant."

He also said the condom "was clearly unused." Sultan told the newspaper the women have tested negative for HIV.