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Popular chain restaurant fails latest health inspection

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — UPDATE: The restaurant received a 100 upon reinspection.

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A popular chain restaurant in DeKalb County has failed a health inspection, in part because of food temperature violations.

The news came as a surprise to customers of the Olive Garden on Turner Hill Road in Lithonia.

A spokesperson for Olive Garden said the team at the Lithonia restaurant has been retrained since getting a health inspection score of 66 on Wednesday.

Channel 2's Carol Sbarge asked customer Tammy McRae if she would expect a higher score for a chain restaurant.

McRae said she would, but knows things happen.

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Violations included interior of ice bin with pink and black substance, food on the cook line held at too high a temperature and food containers stored as clean but were actually still dirty.

Olive Garden started in Orlando 35 years ago. It now has more than 850 locations.

We talked to customer Jennifer Harvey, who had just eaten at the Lithonia restaurant after moving from Mississippi.

Harvey said the Olive Gardens she ate at in Mississippi were always perfect.

Sbarge went to the Lithonia Olive Garden to ask about the violations.

No one could speak on camera, but in an e-mail statement, the corporate communications manager wrote, “The results of the latest health inspection did not meet our usually high standards. We quickly corrected the issues identified and are taking extra steps to prevent this from happening again.”

McRae says she’s not that worried about the score of 66 because just last summer that Olive Garden got a score of 97.

McRae says she loves the Lithonia restaurant and believes they’ll fix the violations.